Do you ever have the urge to get rid of all your material possessions...

[terrya]

And live a minimalist life?

To free yourself of the corporate consumerist mentality of buy, buy buy? To free yourself of the pressure to accumulate more and more?

Just a question...

Terry

[Intelsucks]

1. Did you just see the movie "Fight Club"?

:D

[FunBobbyMucha]

8. Plannin' to watch it again this weekend, fellow space monkey.

Gotta watch it once every six months or so just to stay honest.

[GOPisEvil]

2. ALL of them? No. A lot of them, yes.

I'm moving to a new apartment in June. I'm torn between moving to a larger place to give me more space, and so I don't feel cramped and moving to a smaller place, getting rid of a lot of my crap so I don't feel cramped.

I have too much shit - some of it needs to go. I've gotten rid of a lot of junk, but there's so much more. :-(

[Burma Jones]

3. Only when I didn't have much stuff

I have wife and kids now, so there's them to think about. But back, say, the first five years out of college, I had very few material posessions anyway. Ever since mute buttons started showing up on TV remotes, I have been ignoring commercials. I don't feel that corporate consumerist pressure much.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. Sometimes, just so I have less house to clean *l*

[Nikia]

19. Yes

We have too much stuff for our duplex. It is difficult to keep the place clean because of all our stuff. Having less stuff would definitely help.

[waterman]

5. I spent 2 years backpacking across this country and another 6 months

hiking in New Zealand. There is no better feeling of freedom than to have everything you need hanging on your back. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It's totally liberating to be free of all your things, at least for a while. If it were permanent, I would probably only miss the sentimental things and a few musical instuments. Mabye a small handful of books.

[skippysmom]

6. One of my New Year's resolutions was to spend less money

And I have to say that I feel good about keeping that one. When I go into my basement and see how much crap I've accumulated -- most of it purchased on a whim -- I feel sick about how much money went down the toilet.

Needless to say, I think we're going to have a tag sale soon!

It does mean waiting for books to come out in paperback, or getting them at the library. Or not going to the movies as often and waiting for things to come out on DVD. Or buying fewer CDs. But it is allowing me to put aside more money for retirement. (Greenspan would be proud!)

[FunBobbyMucha]

7. Big time, and then...

I start parsing away what I would "have to" keep, and the inspiration gets muddied with the gray gouache of compromise. The one decision I made a few years ago, though, was that I would not be anybody's fucking billboard. I strategically avoid tee's, hoodies, etc that have "Old Navy" or whatever emblazened across them. It can be very difficult to walk thru most stores and purchase hip clothes unless you're willing to be Tommy Pulltrigger's, Calvin Klein's, or Wu Tang's bitch.

[SOteric]

9. OhYeah. And it's helped me to do that to some extent.

Not all of them, and certainly I have some periods of accummulation that I need to stop and review from time to time. There's a movement called 'Voluntary Simplicity' which I've allowed to influence my life.

It's not about giving up all of the trappings of society, but of assessing which are really important to you and removing the ones that merely clutter up your life and cost you time and money.

There's a great deal of peace in it.

[waterman]

10. Here on the east coast of Florida, we're always ready to evacuate

from a hurricane so everything important now fits in 6 mango boxes, each being a half bushel. Makes it easy to bolt if needed.

[radwriter0555]

11. Viva la mexico baby.

That's my full intent and purpose in 7 more years.

[Blue-Jay]

12. No way1

I don't have a lot of "stuff", but I like what I have.

[Bonhomme Richard]

13. Huge Thoreau fan so............

every so often I wrestle with the idea of simplicity. Wish I could do it without hurting others.
I always believed that every new possession was another pound added to that ball and chain we carry around in our lives.

[Heyo]

14. Uh..

No. ;)

[pmbryant]

15. Yes

Well, not quite all. (I want to keep my computer!) But a whole lot of 'em.

--Peter

[BeFree]

16. Yes

True happiness comes from being free from manufactured 'goodies'.

[BritishHuman]

17. When I moved out of my parents...

...Into my own 3-bedroomed (admittedly two of them tiny) house, I was amazed that what had previously occupied one bedroom now occupied so much space.

I need to buy another bookshelf, or give about 100 books to a charity shop. Then I need to throw out all the broken appliances. Then I need to ...

Err... Yes, I think is the answer to your question.

[Kali]

18. oh yeah

Whenever I travel I allways realize how easy it is to do without. Then I get home and have to find a place for that new basket or piece of pottery or whatever I got while traveling.....

[supernova]

20. Did it several years ago

Inherited my parents' place and the household goods along with it. That meant I had two households' worth of goods. Ugh! Need to pare down.

I did a couple of things:

1) Let siblings and relatives come take what they wanted. Which turned out to be not much. I was dissapointed they didn't want to take more.

2) Called a reliable auction house to come take the other stuff away and sell it for me. They

I was left with a fairly empty house I could do something with. Best thing I ever did. And I don't miss the stuff I sold for a minute. But you have to be emotionally ready to let go of it.

I still haven't filled the house back up yet. And I'm a fleamarket/auction kind of person.