Has anyone gotten rid of anything that they missed or regreted?

[mschrisgo2]

I ask because I have decluttered a lot of stuff and have more to go. But I really can't remember 99.99% of it!! One of the reasons I post in the 100 items a month thread is so I can go back and look at my lists. I just looked at last year's lists, and there's not a single thing on there that I have missed or had to re-acquire.

I have lived in a 600 sq ft apartment for the last 6 years, and I'm planing to move into 400 sq ft, with a 120 sq ft storage loft within the next 6 months. I have several pieces of furniture that will not be making the move: 2 chairs, a loveseat, 2 tall bookcases, and a 5x6 storage cabinet. Basically, I'm not moving much furniture.

When I moved here, I used the smallest U-Haul truck. This time, I think a van will certainly take care of it all.

[iris lilies]

you are right that 99% of the stuff I got rid of are things I don't regret and besides, its easy enough to get another one if that's really required.

The thing I think about the most when we discuss this topic is an antique blue splatter pitcher that belonged to my mom. I jettisoned it because I didn't want it to just sit around, and the use I had for it (and it WAS useful!) was sitting on the stove holding long handled utensils. And it would have eventually broken, I knew it would slide over the edge of the counter come day. It was old and retailed for around $200 and while that's not a ton of money, I didn't LOVE it. I liked it was wanted it to go to a home where someone loved it.

I have been doing flower arrangements for a few years and I swore I wouldn't collect a basement full of stuff like more flower arranger ladies. Well, now I am collecting it. But I threw away a fair number of things that I had purchased for one time show. A few of those things, now that I've committed to it, would come in handy.

[creaker]

My high school year book - 20 years ago I didn't care - now I do.

[kally]

maybe, but I have forgotten it now and I am so glad I got rid of it really.

[ApatheticNoMore]

I guess an air filter machine, it has occasional uses, but if that was really that important I could buy a new one. Maybe an old can opener that opened some cans the current one doesn't, even though overall it was worse.

[Chicken lady]

I am a saver "just in case" who loves having hings other people need to give them. So the things i've regretted in the last couple of years as I've started to approach "normal" have been things I purged and then one of my kids - who are trained to call mom, have asked for the thing, and I had to tell them I got rid of it.

They have been really good about coming back with reassurances that they can still get/buy the thing easily and that they are proud of me or cleaning out. But I still feel dissapointed in myself for not having the thing. I think that's a specific pathology though.

[Ultralight]

I currently have about 160 things. So I have over the past couple years or so gotten rid of a lot of stuff, obviously.

But there is only one thing so far that I got rid of and later wanted and re-acquired.

A ukulele. I always wanted to learn to play one. I bought one a couple years ago, did not get around to learning to play it. So I sold it.

Then I kept having this urge to learn to play one again. I even had dreams about it. So I went out and got another one.

One thing out of all the thousands of things I have gotten rid of (in my initial purge back in 2009 and my current/ongoing purge from Jan. 2014-present).

That is not a bad record.

Maybe there were one or two other small things, I can't recall at the moment.

But I can say this: It has been worth it! Living so simply and having so little clutter is just a great way for me to live. :)

[nswef]

2 silver charm bracelets...didn't wear them any more, but still think about them. Of course I still wouldn't wear them and they would just sit in the jewelry box, but I do think about them and hope someone is enjoying them but suspect they got melted down.

[pinkytoe]

My second Volvo 240. In retrospect, it was a wonderful car with low mileage that I should have kept rather than buying a newer old Volvo.

[Float On]

6 months ago DH told me to put all his free-standing guitar stands in the flea market booth. He has wall hangers for his guitars that work really well. 2 weeks ago for his birthday he got a new electric base...it's too long and a little heavy for where he has the wall hanger system. He wants back 1 guitar stand only they all sold.

I sold my fancy college ring when gold was at it's highest. It had diamonds and amethysts. Wish I still had it because I could of had it remade for my son going to the same school.
I wish I still had a pair of turquoise and silver earrings that I bought in the square at Santa Fe when I worked out there in '85. I remember giving them to someone in '91 at the height of no one wears silver but only gold phase. Now I never wear gold.

[JaneV2.0]

I tossed the back and seat of an office chair, only to discover that the seat and legs would have made a perfect roll-around stool...So now I'm saving the legs for the stool that will never be made.

[pcooley]

Heck yes - I don't declutter nearly as often because I often go way overboard. There's nothing recently, but throughout my life there are things I got rid of that I wish I never had.

In the mid-nineties, I traded my very nice, 1965 VW bus for a mountain bike and $500. While I'm not that in to motor vehicles these days, I still wish I had my bus. It was rust free, in very good condition, and I had just put a new steering box on it. It had an engine I had largely rebuilt myself. Occasionally, I look for old VW buses, but they're not to be had in the $500 range, rust-free or not.

I got rid of my original stereo system in my early twenties. It had a tuner that I had bought second hand that had a lovely glow and a smooth feel to the tuning dial. I also had my original linear tracking turntable from my teens. Now I have a linear tracking turntable I found at a thrift store, and an old all-in-one receiver with a tuner that isn't quite as nice. Wouldn't it have been easier just to keep my original one?

I decluttered a whole bunch of books a few years ago. I still go to the bookshelf looking for books, and then I can't find them, and the reason I can't find them is I dumped them all at Goodwill.

I did a similar thing to a bunch of albums I did not think of as ones I listened to often. They really did not take up that much room. I look for some albums to listen to now, and they're gone.

That's actually pretty much it - 1965 VW bus, stereo system, books, albums.

If you have any of those things, hang onto them.

[kib]

There is a strange synergy in my house.

Kib, to herself: "huh, this used food dehydrator someone gave us 5 years ago has been taking up space unused since we got it. To the Goodwill with you, sir!"
Mr. Kib, two weeks later: "Hey, I found this great recipe for apple chips, where'd you put that food dehydrator?"
Kib: "ummmm.... I'll go get another one, I see them all the time at the thrift store.

Five years later:

Kib, to herself: "huh, this used food dehydrator I bought 5 years ago has been taking up space unused since the failed apple chip experiment. To the Goodwill with you, sir!"

Mr. Kib, two weeks later ...."Hey ..."

>8)

[Teacher Terry]

I have never regretted anything I got rid of. Some of the stuff I regretted the amount of $ I spent on things now not wanted:(

[sweetana3]

Every time I read this thread, I go get rid of something. Two big sets of books were the first things to go and now I am entering the kitchen.

[Ultralight]

I have never regretted anything I got rid of. Some of the stuff I regretted the amount of $ I spent on things now not wanted:(

So true!

[Kestra]

Steel-toe boots (re-bought, used once and gave away AGAIN) a chop saw, and a ladder (ran away from home ownership so didn't replace).

[ToomuchStuff]

My high school year book - 20 years ago I didn't care - now I do.

Any reason why?



In the mid-nineties, I traded my very nice, 1965 VW bus for a mountain bike and $500. While I'm not that in to motor vehicles these days, I still wish I had my bus. It was rust free, in very good condition, and I had just put a new steering box on it. It had an engine I had largely rebuilt myself. Occasionally, I look for old VW buses, but they're not to be had in the $500 range, rust-free or not.


That would have been cheap for that time, depending on the area. Here, when I was 16, you could find bugs/beetles for $500, but by the time I was 18, they were over a grand, and any under were underpriced. (parents sold theirs for $800 and it went in hours) Buses were more.

I had a ring that belonged to my grandfather that I no longer have and sometimes wish; an Army Air Corp ring, and my size.

[freshstart]

this will sound silly, but I wish my family had kept the house my nana lived in. I was 18 when she passed, could've changed my college plans to a local school. It was super tiny, it would be the perfect house for me then, and as a single mom and just me, when they are grown. My grandfather and his brother built it from a kit. Instead of an upstairs, they made the perfect smallest apt ever. In college, I would've lived there, rented out the rest. It had the best porch. The whole 50s vibe that I love. She was a minimalist in many ways, very German, zero clutter. Which is my default mode when things are running smoothly. Tiny yard. Across the street was all park. Bus line 3 houses away. Just inside the city.

I would've rented to own or whatever deal my mom and my aunt wanted, I had been working like a dog, I could've afforded the rent. I could watch over the tenants in the main part of the house and keep up the property. The market was in the toilet, the neighborhood was changing.

My aunt is very wealthy so this should've been no skin off her nose, getting monthly rather than what was sure to be a pretty small lump sum. But she and my mom did not want me changing my college plans, did not think I should be in a landlord/tenant situation. Worst of all, they did not take me seriously, I had written out various plans, offered very generous rent on the tiniest but my most fav apt ever. They thought I was just sentimental.

Looking back, driving through the neighborhood, I could've totally stayed there. If my ex wanted more space, the beloved upstairs apt could be turned into upstairs living space. And had I stayed, OMG, the money I would've saved almost 30 yrs later.

they still don't believe me that I'd still be there. They don't know me very well. They sold at a very poor price, "just to get rid of it". It makes me sad that they could not see why that teeny house was perfect.

[Williamsmith]

I was having a hard time with this and you would think with all the selling and giving away I did last and this year it would be easy to pinpoint something.

So I finally remembered I have three of the four handguns I carried on duty during my career. A Ruger Security Six in .357 magnum.....a Beretta semiautomatic in .40 caliber and a Glock semiautomatic in .45 GAP. I have three children, each one gets one in my will. But I also had a Beretta semiauto in .40 caliber that was stamped with my state patch and I sold it to my best friend from childhood and best man. I do regret that.

I sold a compound bow and replaced it with a crossbow which I do not like because of the weight. It is very hard to carry long distance.

[larknm]

A little pinkish-brown rock my husband gave me--it's on our mountain land somewhere now though.
A balalaika I had in the late 1960's.
A pair of earrings with four tiny rows of tiny, round turquoise stones.
A beautiful wood cabinet painted two shades of green my then-partner (a blind woman) made.
An 8 1/2 x 11 stained-glass rendering of Jelly, a horse my partner had drawn on a Styrofoam plate at a café when I asked her to draw something for us to see if she had any visual memory from before she lost her sight at age 6. I still have the original, but the stained-glass one has a different kind of power.
All the money I could have saved and didn't--except what I gave to people my parents had ripped off and other poor people.
An article my father wrote about his father, published in the Texas Law Journal series about old time lawyers.
All the poems I wrote, mostly published, that I now know were strong. I have some that were published, but not most.

[Williamsmith]

All the opportunities to get to know my father more deeply before he passed away unexpectedly.

[iris lilies]

We had a couple of unexpected deaths of bulldogs in the rescue program which brought up ashes of dead dogs. Someone said that they could never get rid of ashes. That's not me, I don't need the physical reminder, I want them spread around our place in the deceased dog's favorite spots.

I have gotten rid of several sets of ashes, but don't regret that. One set of ashes I split up and sent parts to someone in another state because we had a shared history of the dog. Now I kind of regret that because I think she feels like she can't get rid of those ashes. I feel as though I burdened her with them.

[freshstart]

I cannot remember if I said this already, I don't see it, apologize if I did. When we moved we realized we have every dog's ashes since my first dog at age 7. We used to joke that whoever bites it first, the dogs go with that person, pushed down by the feet of the coffin, in case you're not allowed to do that. Looks like my mom will be first, she wants cremation. I'm not happy to have her take the dogs, she is not a dog person. I want to be cremated and either scattered with all the dogs or kept with them mixed in, I don't care what happens to my ashes. If they do pile them in one after another over me, that's making for some weird sand art, lol! you know- those vases kids fill with different colors of sand.

[pinkytoe]

I think I might start another thread about letting go of the sentimental things since that is really the only thing I struggle with. This weekend will be rainy so I am going to go through ALL my jewelry and make the decision of what to keep, sell, give away. Most of it belonged to someone else and ended up with me. For example, I have a ring that belonged to my father (who I was not close to due to divorce). It is a 14K gold dome ring shaped like an armadillo and ebay shows that it recently sold for $619. Do I want the money or the ring? I don't know. On this topic, I just saw a book on amazon called Making Peace with your Things which looks at the psychological side of our relationship with stuff. Maybe it will help with these kind of decisions.