Selling Stuff

The desire to buy stuff (including t-shirts) is the cornerstone of much of the economy. But when you’re clearing out the house prior to moving, it makes you realise that you have spent decades filling your life with material goods that not only don’t you need but have not even touched in many of those years. For example, I just sold an unused paint sprayer. Why and when did we acquire that? Some stuff we have got some benefit from like a Garden Shredder but won’t need in the new house. It’s all up for sale. We’ve sold a large amount of stuff and there's more yet.

At one point Dawn was going to build a jewellery business. So there are 5 feet of boxes of beads she was going to start with before life intervened. And there’s even a kiln for melting silver. So that's all up for sale and will make someone a great starter stock for a business.

And we haven’t stopped yet. There is everything from knitting machines to full tins of paint and varnish to get rid of. A local community workshop needs donations and I think they’ll take a lot of it, including a pile of timber for projects Dawn never started.

The odd thing is, we’ve sold piles of stuff and yet it doesn’t appear much has changed really. I think that’s because they were all stored out of everyday sight. We certainly haven’t missed anything. Quite the opposite. It goes and we don’t pay it a second thought.

Life has been full of junk. Things we never used or haven’t used for years. We’re determined not to repeat this acquiring habit. It’s gotten out of hand. I think it started to really grow about 15 years ago when we lived in Norfolk near a massive car boot and Dawn would come home with anything from a drill to an inflatable mattress. We just acquired a lot just because it was cheap, including records. 

When we left, we threw a lot out but the time has come to slim down everything, I think. It was starting to trouble us. We must try to not repeat the habit. You don’t need a lot of stuff to make you happy. Just the right stuff. Trouble is, we expand to fill the space, whatever it is. And we lived in some substantial places. The new place is quite compact so we won’t be able to just fill it with crap and ignore it.

I go through phases of just wanting to live very frugally. They never last but I think I’m on the verge of one now.