I had no idea this thread existed and I've subscribed. This is hitting me at the perfect time in my life. I've just returned home from a brief foray to the UK ( I moved 2 months before Covid hit so my wife and I decided to reverse course and be closer to family and our properties). There are two things hitting me right now that's pushing me towards a more minimalistic approach to life:
- My aging parents ( dad 82 and mom 74) have over time become owned by their things. I'm talking rooms filled with old clothes, stacks of paperwork from my dads business, to the point that they're into hoarder status. I've tried for at least 5 years to get them to clear out while they were able-bodied enough to do so. Over the last couple of years Dementia has hit my father, my mother has been hit with debilitating sciatica pain, and they've just aged out of being able to physically do much now. It annoys me to no end that I feel like this has become my task to fix when I saw this day coming from a mile away, and what makes it so hard is they just won't let go of some things, to the point where I'm actually arguing with them about it. At a certain age people just become inflexible and stuck in their ways, and I'm vowing to not become what I see before me. Which leads me to..
- I look at my own possessions and I'm making sense of it all. Most recently I've sold off comics and a few blu rays, but even dropping other movies to giveaway prices people arent biting. So I've resolved that the time and effort to sell these things for relative peanuts is not worth the time and effort dealing with peoples bullshit on Facebook. You know, those who express interest then ghost you, and when you follow up you can see they saw your message and they just choose to ignore you? Yeah, fuck that so shits getting donated this weekend.
The big test for me are my games. I have NES games but no console. SNES games, most of which I want but a few have modern ports so why keep them ( novelty? Moving past that). PS1 games that look horrible on my HDTV but some RPGs that are worth alot of money. Same with my Saturn collection. Scores of 360, PS3, Wii games that I bought cheap and told myself I'd play. I'm over it, I really am, and just don't want these things around me anymore. The thrill of the hunt left once retro game collecting hit mainstream and you were competing with resellers. Not worth it. Nor do I want the mindset of constantly looking out for things to add to an ever-expanding collection of games I simply won't play. I'm left with alot of shit that no longer matters, and I'm no longer driven to acquire more of it. These things represent memories but I've realized the vast majority will not be replayed ( or played once in some cases) and it's time I stopped deluding myself otherwise.
So I'm cashing out where I can, and focusing on the games I really treasure ( 16 bit era stuff), being extremely selective with current purchases and donating what I can't sell ( exception my Saturn RPGs because there's simply no way I'm giving away CIB copies or Dragon force, Lunacy and the like.) If I didnt live on a remote island that's a dead zone for retro collecting, that stuff would be up for sale too. This has also spread into my social media feeds. Your metal jesus rocks/ John Hancock types prompting you to collect, collect, collect. Yeah, unsubscribed.
That has also filtered down in other ways. I deactivated my main facebook account, and created one *exclusively* for marketplace dealing. Instagram and Twitter are gone. I'm not interested in scrolling down pages and seeing a bunch of opinions, selfies, political and covid rhetoric, and the general narcissistic cesspool that these social media sites have evolved into. I've deactivated several forum accounts( not this one which ironically I probably spend more time on than most, but I'm getting better at sorting through what I want to click on). And last but certainly not least, minimizing people in my life who dont contribute in a positive manner. Unfortunately this has led to distancing myself from a few people that I was once very close with, but as time has passed I've recognized some things about these people that dont vibe with me. Eating and drinking out constantly, soaking up social media and putting their entire lives on it, and just generally being about things that I'm getting away from in terms of lifestyle and what I value. One friend in particular seems to be about collecting as many 'friends' as possible while I'm consolidating and trying to make my circle more intimate. Just trending in different directions and it's just naturally created a chasm.
Sorry if this post is bit all over the place, not my best by any stretch. Just got alot of thoughts to get off my chest and glad I found this thread to unload. I wish everyone here well and I'll definitely be keeping tabs. Cheers....