You'd love my current life!
I live in one rented room. Last year, I had moved from a one bedroom apartment of 28 years, into where I am now, putting my furniture and many boxes of stuff, into an expensive storage locker.
I decided to take everything I owned and get rid of most of it. I gave away my furniture. Then I had all my stuff brought out of storage and piled up in my room. There was so much that I could barely get in and out of the room. The boxes went up to the ceiling. I felt like crying every time I looked at them.
Not only did I have a lot of stuff, but I had inherited my parents stuff as well. Since I had a miserable childhood (see my Featured story) and a tough life in general, sorting through all this stuff was like reliving a lot of painful memories and even adding more pain as I went through a lot of tear jerking memorabilia and photos.
It was very, very hard. It took working every day for several hours for 8 months.
Now...for the first time in my life, I am organized and know where everything is. I gave away or threw away about 80% of everything. It is a great relief, though doing it was impossibly tiring and emotionally wrenching.
One book that helped me was really fun to read. The author knows all about clutter and trying to get a grip on a lot of stuff. And he has a great sense of humor as well as some excellent ideas for minimizing possessions. The book is:
Clutter's Last Stand
by Don Anslett
