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Old 06-22-2011, 12:02 PM   #32
tvp2003
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Wow, thanks for the replies. For me, it's a little bit of a psychological thing -- trying not to get attached to every little thing, and really minimizing what I need to live and be happy. I had a lightbulb moment last weekend when I realized I "needed" to spend my day off cleaning up/organizing all of our "stuff", when I could have been relaxing or doing something better. Now that we've cleaned out a few rooms, I know I enjoy the space rather than having a bunch of stuff all over the place, but it's definitely a work in progress.

It doesn't help that I developed the frugal gene growing up (trying to keep things that I might use later, or don't want to give up because it seems wasteful). However, trying to change my perspective on things (i.e. charity and donating to goodwill) and realizing the value of my time is definitely helping.

Next step is to tackle the basement, and to a lesser extent, the garage (as someone posted above, it always cracks me up to see people with a double garage but both cars are parked outside because of all the junk being stored in there).

Oh, I did come across three good rules in order to decrease the amount of stuff we accumulate:

1) The next time you buy something (i.e. a piece of clothing), you have to get rid of two items in return that you don't use.

2) Before buying something, waiting 30 days and deciding if you still want/need it.

3) Emphasizing experiences (i.e. trips, visits, etc.) over possessions.
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