George Carlin says that a house is "a pile of stuff with a cover on it"

[Flaxbee]

That cracked me up - and for so many people, it's true.

For me, it's true. I'd love to eliminate a huge amount of the clutter we have in our home, however, my husband is a collector of electronic stuff ... he's trying to get better (has a bad thrift store habit of buying old, 'neat' electronics he can take apart).

I also don't want to eliminate our books. Fiction, fine - I can pretty easily find reproductions if I need or want to. But non-fiction? I don't want to get rid of many of those books, simply because I don't trust digital representations to always be accurate.

Could you be a minimalist? And to what extent could you reduce your current possessions? What would be easy for you to walk away from / donate, and what would be very hard for you to let go of?

(I cross-posted this in the "Frugal and Energy Efficient Living" Group)

[blueamy66]

1. We're trying to cut down on clutter.

We've had a few garage sales and are having another one tomorrow morning.

I am ready to donate what we do not sell tomorrow.

I always said that I wouldn't part with my books, but, what the heck....I'm ready now.

Family pics too......just too much stuff!!!!

[Flaxbee]

2. we're definitely going to cut down on a lot of books, cds, dvds, etc...

but there are some books - old ones from the 1800s and early 1900s, that I don't think I can part with (yet)

I feel like it would be knowledge lost, or at least unavailable.

Good luck with your garage sale tomorrow!

My husband has a lot of electronic gadgetry and we're going to some end-of-year hamfests to try to lighten that load.

[blueamy66]

3. Oh for sure, there are some books that I won't get rid of ever. I understand totally.

I had some guy come over a month ago with a barcode reader that went through all of my CDs and DVDs and only bought the ones that were "needed". Not sure what the heck was going on! Technology!

I always liked clutter....pics and books and knick knacks and the like....but no more. I guess it hit me when I went to an old friend's house and couldn't find my way to the bathroom. It was just a mess. I actually came home and scrubbed the kitchen floor and both bathroom floors cause their house was so bad. Sorry, but it was bad. So now I'm into "less is more". And am becoming a clean freak!

[begin_within]

4. Carlin's "A Place for my Stuff" is funny.

We still say lines from it like, "Well, smell it!" and "It could be meat, it could be cake!"

[Wounded Bear]

6. You called it.

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[Wounded Bear]

5. He also said.....

Your stuff is shit and my shit is stuff.