How do you downsize / reorganize your collection?

[Keatah]

Most of us these days are downsizing and focusing formerly huge collections into a few 3 or 4 favs. Huge collections full of everything are no longer the fad. So the question is: how do you downsize? What approaches do you take? Do you dig into a monster pile and break it down into keeps and not-keeps? Do you dig through it searching for junk? Or dig through it searching for the "gold".

 

I tend to sort into two piles, keeper material and not-keep material. I also keep things that are nostalgic and that I actually had back in the day, along with things that support the original stuff.

 

Recently acquired ebay stuff is at high risk for being dumped - as I got off a buying spree the last decade. Lotsa filler crap. Books and quality manuals are definitely keeper material. They are surprisingly nostalgic and informative.

 

So.. what are your reorganization plans?

Edited May 10, 2020 by Keatah

[wierd_w]

I have always tried to keep mine "recent and functional" because "posterity" was never the goal-- "Free friends and family tech support" has always been the goal of my collection; When parts were too old to reasonably be useful for that purpose (always with full disclosure that parts were old second hand cast-offs, but tested functional-- and their being cast-offs are why they are free*), I would dispose of them.

 

Recently though, I have been coming to regret that decision-- but I also have to balance that my parents were both hoarders in their later years, and I want to avoid that for myself.

 

I would suggest creating a "purpose" for the collection other than "I think it is neat."  "I think it is neat" is how you end up with a hoarding problem.

 

Focus instead on something objectively constructive, like "Dedicated specifically to obscure hardware for historical preservation", or "Specifically what I had when I was a kid and nothing else."  etc.

 

In my case, the objectively constructive purpose was "Likely to be useful when a friend or family member demands a free impromptu service or upgrade out of me yet again."

 

Right now, I have several laptop DIMMs from yesteryear, in small capacities, that I need to consider getting rid of, because they are everywhere. In the past I would simply toss them. I am thinking I should ask if anyone wants or needs them, and if somebody ponies up shipping, send their little butts off to a more loving home.

[spacecadet]

I just think about how I'd feel if I no longer had something. Would it affect my life in any way? Would I ever think "I wish I still had (that thing) to play"? My main thing is just making sure I don't regret getting rid of something. The first time I tried downsizing, I did a major purge thinking I had to be unemotional about it - just rip it off like a Band-Aid, all in one motion without thinking. I figured once something was gone, I wouldn't miss it. But I was wrong about that in at least a few cases. So now I do try to imagine how I'll feel in the future.

 

I guess it's kind of the Marie Kondo method, before she was a thing. If something doesn't "bring me joy", I don't need it. But most of my stuff actually does.

 

Periodically I actually do sweep my house and look at everything individually and think to myself "am I happier with this than I'd be with the extra space and money I'd get for it?" I do it quickly, just glancing at everything for a couple seconds. It's quick because most of my collection has been here for many years, so I just need to kind of remind myself what I have. But that's my decision-making process. Obviously that also takes into account the amount I think I could sell something for and the difficulty of selling it. I've kept some stuff around just because even though I don't care that much about it, it's worth marginally more to me having it here than the few bucks I'd get and the hassle of selling it.

[5200Fanatic]

Accumulating is so much easier than selling. 

[+OLD CS1]

1 hour ago, 5200Fanatic said:

Accumulating is so much easier than selling. 

 

Indeed.

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/AETV/search?query=hoarders