simple living/downsizing questions

[chewie]

this is pretty simple really. as i've said, moving is going to be on our plans soon. so now is a great time to do what i've wanted to for a while...get rid of lots of stuff! we have sooo much stuff--mostly clothes. now, no way we need to wear them all, (nor me washing them all!) so the question for now is...do i dump all but the small amt i really want to keep, or box up all but that amt and save the other stuff for when this first batch is worn out? we seem to have more clothes than most do. we seem to be given clothes often, not sure why that is, but it means we have tons of clothes. they all fit, sure, but geesh, we dont' NEED that many. so is it wiser to keep them (since they fit and i do like them) or toss them since we have waaaay too many?

i really love the voluntary simplicity ideas, and the more stuff i toss out, the better i've been feeling. my life is less cluttered, my house is easier to clean and is nice and 'open'. i looove that! but i am also pretty frugal and tossing stuff that i CAN (and would eventually) use seems kinda wasteful.

[Beaners]

I suppose some of it depends on the quality of the clothes. I have some clothes that I could wear every day for years and they'd still look new. Other clothes start to fall apart much faster.

My own view is biased by the fact that I don't anticipate us having cheap clothes available forever, I think that at some point we won't be able to buy those things in stores. So after you decide which clothes to keep for use now, I would pick out some of the hardest-wearing clothes that remain. I would set those aside for a point in the future. I wouldn't keep everything, and I wouldn't keep stuff that won't last.

Kayleigh

[Sheripoms]

I say if ya got the room to store them put them in a big rubbermaid tote and save them for next year. Just think you won't have to do any shopping for a Whole Year!!!!!:banana02:

[hotzcatz]

I'd save the clothes in an attic or somewhere if you could. Times are getting interesting and we won't have the same shopping resources we do now. Sometime in the next several years you may not be able to replace those clothes, especially at the prices you paid then. I'd store them someplace if they were mine.

[Ravenlost]

I'm packing up and saving all our excess stuff...clothes, dishes, etc. Then I'm going to break my shopping habit...no purchases unless they are NECCESSARY!

I figure I'll never have to shop for clothes again the rest of my life!

[sgl42]

i'd say it depends also on how much space you have, and how much psychic energy it takes to have the boxes of clothes around. Since you're moving, I'd be more prone to tossing stuff out -- the extra boxes have to get labeled, moved, stored, opened to remember what's in them, etc. And if your new place is smaller (or you'd like it to be smaller) then it's harder to tell how much space you need. I've carried too many extra boxes up long flights of steps in summer heat to want to take extra things with me.

if you're just worried about "throwing" stuff away, there's always freecycle, or your church, or goodwill, such that your extras help someone else.

me, I have to be in the right mood to throw thing away, so when I get in that mood, I start tossing out lots of stuff to take advantage of that rare mood. (Several packrats in the family history.) I decided that enough clothes to wear what I normally would wear for 2 weeks without washing was enough, plus a few special purpose clothes, and tossed the rest. Freed up a lot of physical and mental space. Haven't missed anything I tossed.

also recently got rid of a couch and dining table when my neice moved into her first apt. helped her, and more free space.

Everything has not only the cost to replace, but the cost to store, and the cost to organize/find it when you want it. As I've gotten older, it becomes easier to be realistic and realize which things I'm never going to use again.

--sgl

[PyroDon]

vac pack them .
thats what we do with our summer clothes in winter and vice versa

[simplefarmgirl]

If it were me,, I would be handing them over to a place that could use them,, if you have an over abundance,, share them there are people who dont have that problem,, I would probably just pack away a few items,and give the rest away,, some times less is more.I have alot of things that are going to be given away shortly,, there is way to much stuff in this house..

[Alice In TX/MO]

WIHH, would you come clean out my closets? I quit teaching five years ago, and I need to get rid of clothing I don't use any more. It's just hard to 1) take the time, 2) make those decisions, and 3) believe I don't need those things.

[Itilley]

I am in the same predicament. Way to many clothes so I have started going through it and what is in good condition but I haven't worn in a long time, goes in a bag for Goodwill. Just have to start somewhere. Both dh an I are collecters and we have so much stuff that we need to get rid of. I have blueberry pottery. I started by buying a piece or two at yard sales and dd has bought me almost everything available for Christmas and stuff that the kids get us I just can't part with so I deal with the dusting. My real goal is to clean out the dreaded "JUNK ROOM!!!!" That has clothes everywhere and everything else that we couldn't find a place for.

RenieB-

[Mostie]

I would give them to someone who can really use them...."He who owns little, is little owned"

[Mostie]

Oh shoot, did I forget to give you my address? heh heh!

[booklover]

By nature, I have always been a minimalist. I don't even put things on my walls... to me, even that is ugly clutter and really, anything that you don't use is waste that will one day end up in a landfill. I find that having less leads to a much less stressful life. I don't mind cleaning, but the thought of a bunch of unused stuff gathering dust is really stressful. The thought of useless trinkets is stressful. Obviously, I am a fan of simple living, but I've also seen the benefits of it as well. Get rid of everything you didn't use in 2008. It will be liberating!

[melina]

OK, here's a great idea I picked up from the de-clutter guy on Oprah. Take all the clothes in your closet, turn them around so the hanger is facing out. As you wear them, turn the hanger back so the point of the handle facing in again. At the end of the season (or a month later, or two months later, you decide) you dispose of everything that's still hanging with the handle pointed toward you. You obviously havent worn it, don't care enough to rotate it into your regular outfits. So GET RID OF IT!! I've been doing this with my own stuff and DH's ton of shirts and I'm amazed at the results. We don't wear more than a quarter of what's hanging there. The rest is heading for the local thrift store.

[Faerunner]

I'm thinking about doing this with our closet. My fiance doesn't want to lose any of his shirts (they're all "awesome", even the ones worn down to tattered hems), but I know there are several he can go months without noticing so I'm going to start folding them and putting them away in the rubbermaid container I bought for just such a purpose. Then when he argues that he needs new shirts I can pull them out again! Here's hoping I can narrow my own closet down a bit, too. I have at least one blazer my mother bought me that I've never worn... I keep saving it for Easter because that's the only time I can think to wear a lavendar jacket.

[Graystone]

I’ve been on a personal crusade for the past 5 years to get rid of clothing items that appear excess. Yes it did take me 5 years to get rid of some items I’d been hanging onto like the leather jacket that was this strange blue color or the suit that no longer fit I bought 20 years ago for my fathers funeral. As others have pointed out I don’t know what the future will hold so I’m starting to rethink the logic of giving stuff away that I might not be able to replace. Most of the clothing I’ve bought for me in the last 4 years has come from Bass Pro Shops, their store brand label that holds up well and is reasonably priced.

Also clothing I buy new has to be a traditional or classic style. I know that’s easier for men’s clothing than women’s. Buying stuff that won’t go out of style. Poor color choice is another issue I think about in getting a color that will not show stains.

[soulsurvivor]

I've been watching a miracle take place today, one I never thought I'd live to see. DH has worked all day in his closet and junk room, cleaning out stuff that hasn't been touched, other than new additions, since we moved here almost 30 years ago. Even more than the physical effort was the great mental effort it took from him to "let go" of all this. All that he required of me was to listen as he made decisions as to who got what and what went into the back of the truck to take to the recycler. I was honored to oblige.

[sgl42]

not so much related to clothes, but to voluntary simplicty in general and "giving something up"... I found the following excerpt an interesting perspective, and might be useful for others here:

http://simplicityfirst.wordpress.com...31/letting-go/

Letting Go
January 31, 2008 by Shasha Cedar

I was looking at a book “Plain Living: A Quaker Path to Simplicity” during Meeting this past weekend. I was inspired by a passage:

I stopped and realized how true this is in many aspects of my life. As I seek simplicity, I also find myself tied to materialistic comforts. My mother passed away a few years ago after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. My father remarried a year later. When he did so, he passed to me many of my mother’s items. Some items I kept due to sentimental reasons and other items I immediately found new homes for. The things I have kept have weighed heavily on me. I really don’t want all of them, yet I felt some sort of sentimental tie - as if I rid my home of them, I would be losing my last ties to her. Yes, my mother and I were extremely close and it pains to me to think about losing any portion of that relationship

After I read that passage above, I realized that these things were creating more burden and hardship in my life than they were in helping me remember her. They weigh on me and take space in my heart - and not the good memory space, but the challenging space of not knowing what to do. My memories of her are not in the items. The memories are in my heart and mind. The items are simply material goods which she had possessed. These things do not help my life. They cause pain. In this realization I learned that these items need to go. I determined that there are two of her things that I will keep - a piece of jewelry and her rocking chair. The chair that rocked me and now rocks my children.

Had I passed on these items a year ago, or even a month ago, I would have felt lost or that I had betrayed myself. I would have sought to replace them or been angry at myself (or spouse or children) because these items held importance in my mind. Now that I have found a place in my life and my heart that says that it is time to let them go, I am able to say good-bye to her items and it does not pain me to do so. I realize that letting these things go will aid in my journey toward a more peaceful and less complicated life.

Just as giving up the items that belonged to my mother, I believe that preparing for a low energy future takes that same type of evaluation. As we prepare, we need to evaluate our dependence upon and our desire for materialistic things. We may have to diminish our wants and feel anger or sorrow at our condition. Or we may realize what is occurring and mentally prepare to give up our current comforts. It is the space in our hearts and minds that allows us to want another condition enough to give up the former. I want to be able to give up my materialistic/greedy items in order to focus more fully on a low energy future.

Lastly, a quote that best summarizes what I believe voluntary simplicity is about:

Originally Posted by William Henry Channing

To live content with small means;
to seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich;
to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart;
to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never;
in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common--this is my symphony.

WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING

(There is a more recent childrens book, "My Symphony," by Mary Engelbreit, which uses the above quote for the text, with charming illustrations alongside, for those that want to indoctrinate and subvert children, grandchildren, or the children of friends and neighbors, to a voluntary simplicity life. You can see the illustrations at Google books' preview which shows select pages of the book, and buy used copies at Amazon.)

[wpfarmgirl]

Personally, I say donate it. I have had the same arguement with myself in the past and have kept it. I have not touched those clothes in a few years, and if I didn't have them in a dresser that I never use, I'd just be tripping over the top of it. I shop thrift stores, though, so I know that I am able to find cheap clothes that I like. If some of the clothes you have are excellent quality work clothes that you can't find anywhere, or if you only buy new, hanging on to them might be the better option.

[chris30523]

I use the 2 yr rule.for clothing If you haven't looked at it or touched it in 2 years get rid of it. For everything else if I haven't used it or looked at it in 1year its gone. Unless of course it is something of sentimental value and I try to pull that stuff out at least once a year and evaluate it.