As opposed to collecting things, what have you realized is no longer of value to you? For me it's been my seasonal sports gear, unused furniture, 100+ shoes, majority of clothes, and a car. The feeling of being semi-featherlight is wonderful... The biggest of anything I own are books, and I'm tempted to buy an iPad / equivalent and switch to ebooks. There are a handful I'd definitely keep. I plan on selling much more in the next 2-3 months, having offloaded 90% of my belongings.
*ding* After we got burned out of our last placea shade over 2 years ago, first thing to go was obnoxious, stupid, idiotic, loud, cretinous, fire-starting Brazilian ******* "neighbors". Due to that, threw out more than I care to reminisce about, but, less is more.
Recently - unloading lots of guitar and bass pedals that I don't use. Collected far too many over the past few years. Got rid of the Wii as well, hadn't turned that thing on in two years. Going through a clean out sell a thon at the moment. Unable to part with guitars, even if they are left unplayed. It's called the after effects of watching fifteen minutes of Hoarders.
Most everything. I moved from one state to another a little over a year ago. I filled up 3 giant trash bins with assorted rubbish. Another two or three bins with odd crap like furniture and books and essentially the detritus of the thoughtless consumer. A few more bins later and I was done. All that was left was the good furniture, an SUV and about 10,000 pounds of tools. A friend got all the oak crap; my niece got the SUV, my nephew carted off all my tools and I left Alaska with 28 medium sized boxes. And I've got those boxes in a stash. Why do I have them in a stash? 2012, arseholes. Zombies. End of the world. Travel light. Travel fast. Travel well armed.
I usually give things away. If I cant find anyone who can pick it up quickly I leave it on the front curb outside my house with a little sign and it is usually gone within a few hours. Did this with a 36" tv a few weeks ago. Next week Im renting another msall dumpster as over the past few months my garage has been cluttered with random junk/boxes/etc
I march around the house chanting "when in doubt, throw it out" and everyone scrambles to save stuff. Lately I cleaned out the furnace room and threw out boxes of stuff we haven't opened since we moved years ago. I don't even really know or care what was in them.
+1 I live on a really busy street in the city and always put stuff out when I "throw it out" and it disappears quickly. I feel better then filling the landfill. Some people get some really nice stuff!
I gave a bunch of clothes I've had in a stored away finally a few months ago. In the next couple of weeks I'm going to grab some more shirts and some shoes out of the closet and give that away too. A few of the shoes I only wore a few times back in college and that was over 5 years ago.
My wife and I regularly donate clothes and all kinds of "stuff" to Easter Seals/St. Vincent DePaul. Several years ago, as we realized we were collecting all kinds of stuff at home, I put a moratorium on stuff. No more scale die cast cars. Limit one glossy British collector car magazine per year. No more things to display on shelves. No more dishes. No more things for the kitchen. No more clothes or linens without getting rid of some. No more electronics. No more stuff. Today, we don't buy anything we don't need, and if something comes in, something else has to go out.
Awesome. Being a neat freak in an almost OCD kind of way we have NO trinkets. When we sold our last home we actually spent a few hundred bucks on "junk" "throw pillows" and "art" since in pictures it was so bare!
