We have started sortting closets and I can not believe all of the stuff we have put in them.. There are boxes of things I have not even looked at in 4 years...Old wallpaper and paint samples.. dishes, steamers, pliates machine, videos, you name it we have it in a closet...I can not believe I have held on to all of this stuff.. Now I have to find out how to get rid of it.. We live in the country so a yard sale will not work.. I can try listing it in the local paper but in the past that has not worked well either.. I think I will try Craig List .. I have seen where several of you have used it and sold your items...If not I will call Good Will and it will be a taxable donation... 
I can't wait to see that we find in the garage... look out ... patti

Just last night, we were looking at photos of our official move in date, June 1, 2007. RV in the park, patio covered with boxes, stacked 6 ft high. Inside the RV, more boxes with barely a walkway thru the middle. And this was AFTER numerous garage sales and donations. UGH !!!!!!! I just hope we don't ever collect that much stuff again! Because that is what it is, just stuff.

I am just amazed at it all...I went to goodwill today with 2 boxes of books...I tell my husband all the time after you read the book you pass it on.. but no he has to hold on to them... why I don't know... I can't wait to get into the kitchen closet.. I know there is a bread machine , deep fryer and a juicer that I just had to buy from QVC and they are collecting dust.. so I can't be too hard on the hubby...patti

I know this is an old post but the comment about books got me.  DH and I are voracious readers and neither one of us will hesitate to read a book over and over again so we tended to collect books by our favorite authors. When I started packing the house, I got rid of hundreds of books but still kept way too many. (DH wanted to keep all of his Stephen King and Dean Koonz books; there were over 40 of them!) After we got into the 5er, I managed to convince him we needed to dump the weight, so I got several flat rate boxes from the post office and mailed them in stages to his brother and neice in Orlando.

Now that the "home library" problem has been solved, I'm seriously considering a Kindle because I know we'll start accumulating books again. The Kindle would allow us to continue our passion without having to worry about weight and storage. *sigh* I just wish they weren't so darn expensive. LOL, well maybe it can be a joint Christmas present like the 5er was a joint "anniversary present"!

How do we do it? Its our nature, collecting stuff makes us feel safe, i think it probably goes back to a time when we needed to gather, hoard, and collect stuff for our survival. G

I think all the STUFF helps some of us justify all the time and energy we put into our work.

-Colleen

I agree with you Colleen....in our former life I would buy things just because "I work hard and deserve it." LOL Patti... don't feel too bad we have all been there and experienced that. We started full-timing in August and I think I made that same comment on this forum. Where does it all come from and WHY??? You are doing the right thing by getting rid of as much as you can now. Don't wait. Craigs List is a good source and then so is just donating some things. Yard sales are such hard work and you never net a lot of money. Good luck and stay with it.

Just an update all the closets in the house are cleanned out... we are working of our small garage... You can not believe the stuff we have sat out at the end of our lane and people take... Every Sunday we set stuff out this week a Large dog crate and some brand new floor covering.. if it is not gone by Wed.. it is garbage....Anyone need 3 window air conditioners, a 4 ft plant table with trays , and an Oriole Range from 1940.....yes my DH got it out of a house he was working in when he worked for the gas company...he planned to put it on our deck as an outdoor cook area to steam crabs.... We have discovered we are pac rats...even the kids do not want what we have saved as treasures... I have not even broke into all of my holiday ornaments and decorations... someone please save me patti

Craig's list is a great way to go but if you list furniture or large items watch out for the scam artists. Sell local, anyone who is from a long distance that says they will arrange shipping is probably a scammer. If you tell them you are not interested in shipping and are only selling to those that can come and get the item themselves you'll be in good shape. I learned a lot of this as we were downsizing and luckily I read up and was able to get rid of the scammers pretty easily. Good luck with the downsizing, we are still working on ours but I have found it a very freeing process.

We also have Kindles and if you read a lot they are a great investment. When we downsized we gave Friends of the Library over 500 books. We both read all the time so it was a great solution to one of our "paper" issues.

We feel your pain. We are going through stuff now, and it's amazing what accumulates. What gets me is that we went through this same exercise 5 years ago when we moved to this house. The only explanation I can offer is that, if left alone and undisturbed, stuff mates with other stuff and reproduces. LOL!