Every year I end up with less and less stuff, except money.

Too much crap is just a burden.

I went from a 5 bedroom, 4 car garage on 1/2 acre to a 800 square foot house with room for my Porsche under cover. Life is easier w/o excess crap....and the ex wife long shall she rot in Lancaster CA.

Tools don't need to be maintained, just stored. Fine if you've got the space.

As soon as maintaining a car is no longer fun, it's probably on its way out.
That's gotta be very bittersweet.

If you have Netflix, watch The Minimalists. Very good show about the movement towards less stuff. We are actively working towards our way out of the rat race, planning to massively downsize once the kids are out of of the house, and cutting back on the "stuff" in the meantime.

What an interesting notion u have there. Expound please?

My thoughts echo many of the ideas you guys are describing above. I have never understood a collecting mentality. It takes space, money, and time to collect stuff, and I don't have much of any of those.

We have lived in the same house for 22 years now, and for the first 5-10 years, I kept dragging home new projects with the hopes of repairing/refurbishing them at a later date. Some of these projects have been finished and sold, others have been scrapped/thrown out in the quest for more usable barn space. It's amazing to me how much less junk I have in my shop these days than I had 10 years ago.

My 78 year old FIL just went through a triple bypass, open heart surgury, and mentioned at Christmas, that in the Spring, he wants my help listing some of his shop tools on Craigslist/ebay, and also selling his diesel truck and camper. I applaud him for realizing that he won't be able to use these items much anymore, and is wanting to make a simpler life for himself, while also eliminating some of the work involved with his estate when his time comes.

I was a minimalist before I ever heard the term. Small house, 750 square feet. 21x21 garage. A car and a truck, nothing with a back seat.

Thank goodness I don't hard anything or have any collections. I do have a bunch of bicycles. At the end of the day, I always ride that "one", always. the others are older but top of the line race bikes when I bought them. I pay too much to throw them away and can't seem to want to sell them only because I get pennies on the dollar. I have three pairs of shoes. One pair of sneakers for daily, another new in a box somewhere and a pair of dress shoe in case I get invited to a wedding. At the house, I have one room that hold all my siht and it serve as an office too. My wife and kids take over the entire house with their crap. Car in the garage and some tools. My shop? Well, that's a cluster fook with a bunch of new and old equip. Old machine that no longer works well will get the " I will fix it someday when I need it" That day never comes, we just buy new because we needed it yesterday. Too much money to throw away. What do I do?

My wife and I got our collectionitis under control last winter and started divesting ourselves of selected junk. We've had something on Craig's List and eBay pretty much constantly for nearly a year. We've made monthly trips to Goodwill. I gave a couple of dozen vinyl albums away on Christmas eve. I still don't see much of a dent in the piles. I have about 150 tire ashtrays to start getting rid of next week. I collect cameras they way some of you have guns. I don't need 6 DSLRs and all these lenses, so some Nikons are going to new homes via eBay in January.

Brother and his wife get rid of anything they haven't used in the past year to keep their clutter down. I just rarely get anything unless I am going to use it. And when upgrading something I get rid of the old one.

Do have a problem because my Mom lived with me for 10 years with Alzheimer's. Need to get rid of all the stuff she collected. Most all of it is only worth $5 to $10 for each item.

For sure I have crap in my attic I can chunk in the trash. As for the minimalist thing, go for if that make ya happy. I don't have any collections of "collectibles." I do have one or two models and only a 1996 Boxster model that Porsche AG gave me for my work on the Porsche Parade back in 96 is on display. For sure I could thin out my junk in some closets. My garage has my tools and I will not get rid of any of that. I have tools that I might not use but once every few years but I do enjoy just opening a drawer or cabinet and putting my hand on so tool or device that allows me to complete a task with ease. I have things like a harmonic balancer puller that has been used three times in 20 years. It does not take up much room but it sure is nice to use mine rather than running to the parts store to borrow or rent some POS tool that is often bent or mangled.

My garage, and shop seem to be the only thing I can control in my house, and I keep them fairly tidy. Garage is only 18'x18' so a Mustang GT, and a BMW 325CI just fit with not much more room for anything else.

I just re-organized my shop (a separate room at the front of the garage that is 18'x8') so I could get my Kaw KLR250 into there so I can work on it, and store it for the Winter.

I have a Mr. Heater on top of a 20# propane tank for heat, and it only takes minutes to heat up a 18'x8' area.
My wife is going through a bunch of her stuff when we got new furniture, and had to re-arrange the living room just after Christmas, she is finally letting go of stuff that has been sitting in the same spot untouched for 10 years.

When we got married my wife wanted a set of formal dining set and silverware. In the 25 year we have been married I bet we have not used it a dozen times. It is all in a GIANT antique cabinet next to the formal dining room table. In my opinion that entire room could be emptied. My opinion on the house decor is does not matter. The garage is MINE. I let her park her car in there and keep a few things on a shelf. The rest is my garage, with my posters and photos on the wall.

I don't have clutter, but the trick is avoiding other people's crap. I've got a pick-up and a garage, so family members are always asking me to pick up large stuff, which I'm happy to do. Then comes "hey, you've got room in your garage - can you store it for me until...?" Nope. My sister hasn't been able to use her garage for years because it's full of other people's crap. Worse, her garage roof started leaking maybe a decade ago, so it's moldy, water-damaged crap. She won't throw it out, the owners won't come get it, so there it sits.:rolleyes:

I've been thinking a lot about getting rid of my accumulation of crap. I have have had three hobbies that have taken up to much space for too long. Eight years ago, we closed a restaurant (will be closing another in a few weeks, thanks god!), and all fixtures and equipment ended up at my house. Took a long time to get rid of everything, but it started a realization that clutter was ruining my quality of life. Still have a lot of clutter from my three hobbies. They are stereo equipment, music equipment, and vehicles.
I live in the city, space is a premium. A few years ago, I built a garage, over 700 square feet, plus loft to hold and work on vehicles. I finished it, moved in, and it is already full of tools and vehicles. Didn't add to the collection. Storage of Music gear is taking one room of the house, stereo one room.
I am going to turn fifty coming up. And, much of the clutter should belong to someone younger. I am not going to race motorcycles anymore, haven't even been to a track day in years. Let alone started any of them for three... I don't even like riding on the streets anymore.
Music equipment, I haven't been in a band for a long time. And now, if I did, I couldn't use Marshall stacks or a SVT refrigerator because of noise constraints anyway.
Stereo equipment, egads! Fun hobby, but after thirty five years , you can really end up with a lot of spare crap! I have a closet that is just for interconnects and speaker cables...
I've purged before, but I'm gearing up for a really big one this time. I'm not a fan of eBay, and shipping stuff, but winter is a good time to get rid of music and stereo gear. Spring for the bikes, will get them running first.
But, the real goal for me is to move in a few years. I have been at the same house for going on twenty years. The values have skyrocketed, but so have the costs. The hipsters and well trust funded are calling my neighborhood home now. To move, I will need to clear most of it out. I am a minimalist for everything else. One couch, dining room table, bed, tv, nightstand. Four chairs in the dining room, and not another in the whole four bedroom, two bath house.
To move, I need to finish a few things. Electrical main panel, and service for new garage. Finish and heat old, small attached garage (extra square footage is too valuable here). Both bathrooms need to be redone. And of course, clear out accumulation of twenty odd years.
Then, off to the Burbs!

any of you all have a rented storage space? that makes no sense to me.
i rented one for 3 months while i shopped for a house and lived in a tiny apartment. the owner tells me he has tenants that have stored the same crap for 20 years. at $100 a month, that is lots of $$. he said one guy stores tires that havent quite worn down totally, thinking he will need them.

the owner loves him some hoarders. he said hoarders are the best..long term rent, and they never visit.

I need to have a "to a good home" give away on 914 parts...

My FIL was a hoarder. When he passed away he had three storage units filled with a vast assortment of garbage piled to the ceiling.

Ponderous.

Pursuant to this thread I took a look around. I have collections of stuff that weren't intentional. Franklin Mint used to send me promo copies of their new model trucks, so I have a couple of dozen of those. Ertl sends me their toy tractor releases. I have a hundred or so. It used to make me feel good to look at them, but now it's a feeling of what the heck am I going to do with these? I have a collection of company biographies. I keep thinking I'm going to re-read them some day, but - probably not.
I have been so blessed it's depressing.

I've been paring down my stuff over the last few years. I'm approaching that phase of life. When I had rental property, one storage garage was rented by a lady who had used it for years before I bought that property. After a dozen years, I wanted to put some of my stuff in there, so I asked her to mover hers out. Afterwards, she came and thanked me for it saying she had wanted get rid of that stuff for years.