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I've embraced Science of Mind philosophy since the 80's and one thing I learned from these teachings, many more, is to get rid of stuff and clutter, create a vacuum so new stuff can enter your lives. I did that for years in my 40-50's but NOW at almost 79 I need nor want new stuff to speak of.
Give to others what you no longer need. That word NEED is big.
I really NEED nothing but good health for the years remaining. J
You'll figure it out sooner or later, maybe.
I got rid of a collection of 78's records years ago and ole Blue Eyes music was one of them....but I have good memories and can still hear him.
I think I am on a roll. We had 5 18 gallon tubs in the garage of books from when my kids were younger. I took three full tubs and threw them in the garbage probably containing 200 books. I hate doing that but I don't care. I hate these items and I am putting no energy into finding them new homes.we bought them all. Let someone buy new ones,for their children. Garbage truck comes tomorrow morning. It isn't worth selling them for 10 cents each at a garag sale. Will report back.p soon. There were some great posts on scanning. I will be doing that. One thing that is being said is wrong. You cannot rip your CDs and sell them. That is illegal. I majored in music business in college and tool copyright classes. You are allowed to make a copy of your albums for your car or whatever. It is covered under fair use. However, once you sell them. You no longer have the right to retain a copy. If the RIAA comes to your door, you better have the physical copies of your mp3s or proof from iTunes that you purchased the. It has happened to people. Same goes for DVDs. Just informing some of you.not that I am such a do Gooder.
Up til my 40s, I was obtaining mote and more thInns. When I turned 50, I suddenly realized that I don't have much time left. I certainly shouldn't be accumulating more. I realized that when I bought a house a few years earlier and once again had to move boxes and boxes of my stuff that I always keep stored away. I bought a book on clutter and it said things like if you aren't enjoying your items and they are boxed away, you should get rid of them. That made some sense to me. It really hit me a few years ago when we had to fly to California for my brother in laws wedding. We stayed at a beautiful rented house and realized I loved it, until I also realized that the reason I loved it was because it was like a show room. No clutter. Nothing out. Then I realized that if we bought a house like this, we would need to bring all of our stuff and I would be overwhelmed again.
So, I know I have an issue yet I feel somewhat justified in holding on to the things I have. I don't keep all of my pay stubs or receipts or anything crazy like that. It's all things I enjoyed but now see that it takes up a lot of space and just knowing it is there is weighing me down.
I think I should see a therapist but I cannot see how they can help. I can easily come to someone's house and say "toss that. You don't need this." Of course I have no attachment to any of their stuff.,how would a therapist be different? Tonight, I threw out a large box of VHS tapes of every MTV music awards show, AMA, Grammy, etc, from 1985 to 2005. I am a huge music fan but I will never watch these again. I guess it's a start.
Oh, I love that cArlin bit, even long before I thought I had a problem.
A good therapist wouldn't come to your house and tell you to throw things out. They would sit with you and help you understand your need to hold on to these things.
The people I know who are hoarders, *almost hoarders* or simply people who can't get rid of *stuff*, often have a loss or other traumas (or2) in their history. Working with a therapist or a "declutter expert" can help.
I'm the opposite of a collector but I remember not being able to throw away a box of my late mother's dresses. I moved that box with me from house to house. Thankfully I was finally able to let it go.
One thing that is being said is wrong. You cannot rip your CDs and sell them. That is illegal. I majored in music business in college and tool copyright classes. You are allowed to make a copy of your albums for your car or whatever. It is covered under fair use.
Then I guess I'm guilty because I have ripped CD's and sold the originals on Second Spin and but I don't distribute them and the law against keeping a copy was brought to us by a very aggressive industry lobby so I'm not terribly concerned about it. There's also a law against making a copy of your kids school pictures, you know the ones you had to pay dearly for, and I ignore that law too.
There's nothing wrong with having stuff and toys, as long as you still use and enjoy them, and your 2 car garage still has room for 2.
It sounds as if you're on the tipping point of having too much clutter. Maybe you have some nostalgic attachment to the equipment. If you think there's little or no chance of you using any of it in the next five years, might as well turn it into cash money.
If you break 'the pile" down like this every year after the first round, the idea of going through everything is less daunting.
You might find that once you rid yourself of a good chunk it might be addicting. Think about what it costs to keep all that stuff moved and housed, how much time is wasted getting to it. You might become a minimalist. (as much as you can with a family)
I don't have any useful suggestions, but know that you're not alone. Lots of people are extremely attached to physical objects. I was forced to get rid of about 90 % of my possessions for a big move 7 years ago and I still grieve my lost Christmas decorations, vinyl records, favorite mugs, my collection of vintage shoes. And no it is not possible to buy new things to replace them. My new accommodations have no room for anything. I do not feel any lighter and freer without my former possessions, just a sense of loss.
I think I am on a roll. We had 5 18 gallon tubs in the garage of books from when my kids were younger. I took three full tubs and threw them in the garbage probably containing 200 books. I hate doing that but I don't care. I hate these items and I am putting no energy into finding them new homes.we bought them all. Let someone buy new ones,for their children. Garbage truck comes tomorrow morning. It isn't worth selling them for 10 cents each at a garag sale. Will report back.p soon. There were some great posts on scanning. I will be doing that. One thing that is being said is wrong. You cannot rip your CDs and sell them. That is illegal. I majored in music business in college and tool copyright classes. You are allowed to make a copy of your albums for your car or whatever. It is covered under fair use. However, once you sell them. You no longer have the right to retain a copy. If the RIAA comes to your door, you better have the physical copies of your mp3s or proof from iTunes that you purchased the. It has happened to people. Same goes for DVDs. Just informing some of you.not that I am such a do Gooder.
If you can, try to donate books to your library. That way others people benefit. Win/win.
But I do agree with those who have suggested ripping your CDs. You can probably rip the majority of them and just save the precious boxed sets of your favorites. I ripped the majority of my CD collection, and have listened to none of them since I stored them on an external hard drive. Currently I can't even find the hard drive!
I once bought a clutter book and it said or have a conversation with each item and ask why I would want it or if it made me happy, etc. actually, I think that talking to these items might be a bigger issue than the one I already have.
I went through a few bins of magazines last night and decided that 90% or made me feel nothing. No joy. Just stacks,of paper. Similar to one of the posts above about putting items in storage, I decided to whittle,th Nicolle toon down to what o want it to be. In other words, imwill get rid of the albums i have in 5 different formats and just keep the one that orignally was issued, not the re-issues. I won't pay for storage but will move them to the garage, which is a,lot closer to the door than where it is now. I will do the same for the books, magazines, etc. that will probably cut it LOL in half, at least. It's a start. I was looking at the box of 80 or 90 VHS tapes of MTV and other videos from the 80s through a few years ago that I put on the curb. I had a chance to take it all back in but that though mad me feel sicker. I let it go and when I got home, all were gone.
As for as th compulsive,feeling of having everything, I realized 10 years ago that I would never have everything. I actually stopped buying magazines at that point because I would be spending $40 a month and need more space to store them. So many countries issued their own versions of albums that I would not be able to obtain them all if I had 5 million dollars. There are just too many.
So, I think I am on the way. When it gets to the point of not being able to let go of more, i will see a therapist. Just throwing away a couple of boxes and seeing the space makes me feel much better. It's as if I got so disgusted the other day, the loss of the item was not half as bad as my justifying keeping it. I think a lot of these posts help me realize this. And I know that my priorities are my family and I am thinking of them. My wife already told me that when it die, it all goes in the garbage.
Will return with more, if any, results.
Tony
eBay....if you bought it, someone else will, too.
It's hard though. I went through something similar when my mom died. There were pieces of furniture, jewelry, some other things that went to people. And I didn't want those things, but it was very important to keep track of where they were. And I couldn't really. Part of the grief, I guess.
I kept calling my sister and asking who got the what ever? And she'd tell me and I'd say Good good.. I just needed to know it was still here. And I had a hard grieve...I kept pushing it away, and stuffing it down. The grief would come out in dreams, and I'd wake up and be very logical and say to myself it was just a dream. And stuff my feelings down again.
Then came the meltdown. I had another dream, fell apart had a really good cry and finally broke through that wall...and I stopped needing to know where my mom's things were.
Sometimes though, we need help processing. My husband is a collector and he sells and buys on eBay, and he enjoys it, but if he had to toss it all tomorrow, out it would go. He's not emotionally invested in it. The fact you are, and you are seeing it as an issue makes me think you could be helped by therapy. What have you got to lose?
Heck, if I had had grief counseling my nearest and dearest wouldn't have thought I was a candidate for a stay in the local Chuckle Hut... I scared my husband badly.
I think I am on a roll. We had 5 18 gallon tubs in the garage of books from when my kids were younger. I took three full tubs and threw them in the garbage probably containing 200 books. I hate doing that but I don't care. I hate these items and I am putting no energy into finding them new homes....It isn't worth selling them for 10 cents each at a garag sale.
You said you "hate doing that" and in the next sentence you say "I hate these items." I see real ambivalence in those statements. If you hate the stuff, you shouldn't hate throwing it out. But you don't have to throw the stuff away! If the stuff has meaning for you, you'll use that as an excuse to keep it--to not throw it away. To not get rid of it. Put the whole lot of books up for sale on Craigslist for $100. Somebody calls and offers $50. Deal! If it's Beatle's stuff, people will be interested. If it doesn't sell, the low energy way to avoid throwing the stuff away is to do the curb alert thing on Craigslist, as I suggested in my previous post.
I had old Time-Life books my parents bought us when we were kids. They were great books, but it was time for them to go. I tried eBay, no luck. I tried Craigslist, no luck. Nobody wanted to buy them. I asked my neighbors with kids if they wanted them. They took a couple. The rest were left in a box on the curb. And somebody from Craigslist came and got them. Who? Why? Don't know, don't care. Not my stuff anymore. But I didn't throw them away.
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You cannot rip your CDs and sell them. That is illegal. I majored in music business in college and tool copyright classes. You are allowed to make a copy of your albums for your car or whatever. It is covered under fair use. However, once you sell them. You no longer have the right to retain a copy. If the RIAA comes to your door, you better have the physical copies of your mp3s or proof from iTunes that you purchased the. It has happened to people.
I don't buy that. I know you can't rip the CD, burn that to another CD, and then try and sell the burned CD, while keeping the original. That's illegal. You bought the original CD. It's yours. Let's say you rip it to your iPod, or whatever. And then, you're saying, the law is telling you what you can or can't do with your physical property? The CD? Either you keep it or throw it away? Or you have to throw it away? That doesn't make sense. The RIAA shows up on your doorstep and says what? "We want to make sure you still have the original CD/or don't have the original CD." Tell them to pound sand. They have no proof of anything. But if you rip your CDs, and then try and sell burned CDs on eBay, then you've got a problem.
Or, let's say you are right. You can't sell your CDs after you rip copies, and you are a do-gooder. Rip the CDs, and donate them to the local library for their book/CD sale. Or a charity thrift store. That you can write off your taxes. Too much trouble? It's cardboard box and Craigslist "curb alert" time.
Just don't use "It's illegal" as an excuse to avoid doing something.
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