Earlier in my life, I conceptualized the ideal amount of possessions as the amount that I could load into a car. The idea was that this conferred maximal flexibility and mobility. If I didn't like where I was there were no barriers to picking up and leaving. This was pretty easy to do early on since I had no money and couldn't afford anything more than a plastic tub of clothes and a few small trinkets anyway.

Eventually though I did get some money, and after a few years of living in the same place and not using the mobility capability, I realized this self imposed prohibition was preventing me from doing things in life I wanted to do. For example, I couldn't scuba dive as much as I wanted to because while I had training, I wouldn't allow myself to buy gear - scuba gear, especially tanks, is bulky. Owning dive gear isn't amenable to maintaining mobility.

Put another way, maintaining mobility was, at that point, significantly limiting my personal growth. I decided it was no longer worth it. Starting with dive gear, I began allowing myself to accrue possessions in order to do what I was interested in.

Now I find myself approaching a big move and surrounded by many possessions. These are almost exclusively related to hobbies and sports - snowboards, skateboards, rackmount servers, firearms, diving equipment, climbing equipment, etc. I have quite a lot of things, and thinking about my past viewpoints, I've tentatively decided that moderate minimalism is probably the best policy for possessions. That is, keep around the minimum amount of stuff that allows you to do what you want to do, and no more.

I don't shoot much anymore so I'm selling my guns. I have an electronic keyboard, but while I would like to pretend I'm going to play it soon, it hasn't happened for a few years so I'm selling it. Anything I haven't used for a year is on the chopping block. I've found that unless I perform regular, aggressive purges eventually I build up so much crap that takes up space and weighs me down both physically and mentally. It's an axiom that moving is easier the less stuff you have, but for me, having less stuff also makes me tangibly happier. It's less to manage and maintain. I especially like selling or donating things because I'm not throwing them into a landfill, but making sure they end up with someone who will actually put them to use.

Another thought for this disorganized list: many people have a viewpoint that they shouldn't buy something expensive unless they know they're going to use it. It sounds right on the surface, but what I've found is that in many cases, items keep their resale value so well that it actually costs much less than you think to own expensive things that you end up not using. For example, in 2021 I got into flight simulation and was doing it for long enough that I decided to purchase a very nice HOTAS system costing around $500. I waited months to buy this, living with a $30 logitech joystick, because I wanted to be sure I was going to stick with the hobby before spending so much on equipment. As often happens, some months after getting the HOTAS I stopped flight simming and the system went back in its box for over a year. Finally in 2023 I admitted I wasn't getting back into it and sold the throttle - for $426. Owning an extremely premium throttle for 1 year 8 months cost me $75. Well worth it since it allowed me to explore flight simming completely without wondering if better equipment would enhance my experience! And now someone else has a like-new unit, at a discount, who is probably putting it to good use. Everyone wins.