Possessions – the weight of the world on your shoulders

No, before you ask I haven’t joined the local communist party. I’m probably one of the most pro capitalism guys you can meet. All property is not theft. However I do believe in order and organization and in not having too many possessions. As always my reasoning behind these beliefs is practicality. If something in my life has become so bloated and impractical then it needs to go. Period.

I have in the past been accused of hoarding stuff. I had a habit of buying nice new shiny things, using them once or twice and then putting them away. It got to the stage that my apartment was overflowing with clutter and ‘stuff’. It wasn’t that it was a messy apartment but it just didn’t feel comfortable and if I was in it for too long I would start to get a little claustrophobic. Every inch of storage space was used up and the apartment was getting seriously cramped.

I lived like this for a couple of years until it finally dawned on me that the possessions I was clinging on to so desperately were adding no value whatsoever to my life. In fact they were taking value from my life. Every time I went home and looked around at the clutter my life force would drain away. Little by little the energy would sap away from me. It got so bad that I didn’t want to go home. Finally one Saturday morning after stubbing my toe on a crate of books I lost it.

I hadn’t much planned for that Saturday so I just went mad. I decided that if something is no longer adding value to my life, be it a book, a CD, DVD, clothes or whatever then it was gone. By the time I was finished going through my stuff I had a pile about two feet high.

Now I had two choices. I could sell this stuff on ebay (which I highly recommend - click here) or I could give it to charity. I decided to give it all to charity – no it wasn’t because I was looking for some good karma. It was because I was sick to death of having an apartment that I could hardly move around in. I wanted that stuff out and I wanted it out as soon as possible. I loaded it all into my car and headed to the nearest charity shop. The look of amazement on the woman’s face was worth it. I had that much stuff to donate.

What’s the point?

So what has this got to do with me? I hear you ask. Quite a lot actually. When I came back to my apartment after dropping off my stuff to the charity shop the sense of relief was enormous. I mean I can hardly describe it. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I hadn’t realized it at the time but up to that point subconsciously I think I felt my possessions me holding me back. Not just in my living space but in my life in general.

Look around your home. Is there any stuff that you don’t need that is just sitting there gathering dust? Do you feel that you can’t get rid of it because you might need it someday? Ask yourself “What value is this item adding to my life?” if it is adding little or no value then get rid of it. Now.

Don’t define yourself by your possessions

I know that it feels good to have nice things. A brand new high powered car will make anyone feel good – but at what cost? I’m sure if you were to do a poll of the people you know that are in debt then I imagine that the vast majority of them are in debt because they spent so much money acquiring ‘stuff’. They used this ‘stuff’ to define who they were instead of being authentic they simply bought into the latest trend.

Possessions can blur the lines between who you are and who people think you are. People use possessions to project an image of themselves out into the world. In a quest for self identity they just end up looking the same as everyone else. Possessions are just things that some marketing guru said that you needed. Do you really need all those things that are in the bottom of your closet? Do you use them every day?

If you are uncomfortable with talk of self identity then simply bring it down to a practical point of view. Clearing out the clutter and selling it will help you raise cash to pay off your debt. For this reason alone it is worth doing. Possessions are only things and at the end of the day there are a lot more important things like your health and wealth that you need to be concerned about. You won’t get wealthy by spending your cash on ‘things’ and your health won’t improve if you hardly have room to breathe in your home.