Minimalism

I’ve been reading a lot recently on minimalism and living with less. I’m not at the “needs intervention from the producers of Hoarders” level of stuff, but I definitely do have more stuff than I need. There are some things that organize well, you use them when you need them, and then they go back in their little consolidated area. For example, my tools, our camping gear, and all my Army gear. But when it comes to ‘random stuff’, I will be the first to admit that I could definitely do with less. I have WAY too many clothes, and the stuff beyond the tools, camping gear, and TA-50 out in the garage has quite honestly gotten a bit ridiculous. Kelly did a good job of going through her closets before we moved in together, and then again before we moved out here, but I haven’t done the same yet.

So, this post is the start of trying to document the reduction of my stuff from redonkulous to something approaching reasonable. There are plenty of things I’ve collected that I simply don’t need, and others that are duplicate the function of something else I own. By way of a couple of examples, I had an extra lens in my camera bag. Since I bought the 18-200mm ‘street-sweeper’, the 18-55mm lens is completely irrelevant. And yet ‘I might need it’ had me keep the thing around. I have no reason to keep it around, yet I continued to hang onto it. No more. Less than 24 hours after posting it on Craigslist, it’s gone. Also gone is the tri-fold motorcycle ramp that got loaded out here with household goods (I already have an upgraded replacement, I just hadn’t gotten around to selling the old one), and the 1st-gen GoPro Wide (Hero3 Black, here I come!).

Not about to go down the ‘Project 333’ rabbit hole, but definitely going to evaluate the stuff I’ve been hanging onto and seeing if I can at least pack a bunch of it up and keep it out of the way. I have 2 drawers of T-shirts. I’d guess in excess of 100 T-shirts. Why? There’s no real reason, other than I just think ‘I like that shirt’ every time I think I should wean them down. It’s time. More to follow…