Possessions?

Recently as I've been cleaning out for college I've been wondering, exactly why do I keep so much stuff? I've kept miscellaneous things that evoked memories all the way back from my childhood, and it was the brunt of the things I've kept in the attic. I also have a large amount of Pokemon merchandise that I intend to sell at some point, but in reality I'd really like to just get rid of everything but a select few things. I feel that collecting tons of stuff like I have is just...too much. Any movies I will want to watch in the future I can use Netflix for, can I not? (I don't have Netflix yet but of course that's a better option than buying cable)

I feel like I've been living overexcessively....help?

Ah! Some of my friends have the same problem!


Something that kinda helps them is to have me look over their shoulder while they're cleaning, and to sort everything into four boxes: Keep, Sell, Donate, and Toss.

Usually if they wanna be pack-rat about it, I just say "You never use it! I've never seen you take it out!" (They quite literally have some stuff still in the packaging)

But maybe it'll help you if you have someone to keep you company while you clean, not only to help you stay on task, but to get you to toss some stuff if you feel like hoarding stuff.

EbonyWolf wrote:

https://2img.net/h/i49.photobucket.com/albums/f266/gamefreak360/newroom/IMG_0008.jpg

See, that's only a sliver of my collection....and I'd like to keep the PS2 and gamecube games pictured cause they're good games (Resident Evil is like a great canonical story, Animal Crossing is a good memory, etc), but then again, why? All these games to bide my time over, it seems an awful waste to me, but I just dont want to see them go cause I feel I'll miss them, but I just want them gone. It's an awful paradox, really...

I'd like to sell my Wii and all the games, but I got it back in November 29 of 06 ten days after launch, and I dont want to give up on Twilight Princess or Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World...

Bleh...

And here I was thinking this was a thread about being possessed

You say you wanna keep your Gamecube for the games, why don't you sell it and keep your Wii and a couple GC controllers? That way you can play all your old games, and even use your memory cards from it, and have only one console that can use them all

I honestly have had the same problem, I like to keep what I have, because of memories or special meanings, but it likes to build up a bit. I had to recently go through and clean up a bit since it was just before I moved (Just moved today) and like Ebony, I use piles, although I use a Definate keep, Don't need, and possibility piles. First two are obvious, think really hard when putting into those piles, but it helps get a picture with how much stuff you want to keep fully, and how much room it will take up, compared to whats in the possible pile for you to choose from. Even when I am building card decks (I play a lot of magic the gathering and World of warcraft CCG) and I am cutting down to 60 cards, I use the same process.

Also, find out if there is any storage options available, cause I see the old cartrige games on your shelf there, which I am sure you wanna keep, but possibly not take to college. If your guardians don't mind keeping a few boxes back home while your gone, or someone who can help, that might make things a little easier.

Sabin wrote:

Also, find out if there is any storage options available, cause I see the old cartridge games on your shelf there, which I am sure you wanna keep, but possibly not take to college. If your guardians don't mind keeping a few boxes back home while your gone, or someone who can help, that might make things a little easier.

https://2img.net/h/i49.photobucket.com/albums/f266/gamefreak360/252033_10150210095893955_604388954_6973494_7976412_n.jpg - empty room (that PS1 is being sold, not sure if I want to part with the lightboard just yet)
https://2img.net/h/i49.photobucket.com/albums/f266/gamefreak360/253424_10150210095958955_604388954_6973495_3156292_n.jpg - stuff being sold ( a bit fuzzy)
https://2img.net/h/i49.photobucket.com/albums/f266/gamefreak360/255784_10150210095848955_604388954_6973493_6307997_n.jpg - more stuff (and there's even more on the other side of the room)


The thing here is, they think I'm absurd for going overboard in cleaning and clearing everything out. They want me to stay "moved in" when after I'm done with college I'm going to be wanting to move on, and I want to majorly thin out everything I own. I don't even want that entertainment center when I move out. I want my apartment or whatever to be a relatively empty place where I can meditate, and maybe have a little room off to the side for my computer and gaming. Kind of like separate rooms to meditate, connect, think, write, ponder, and another room to "plug in". I don't like feeling attached to anything anymore, I don't think becoming so favorable and obsessive over something so useless and dead-endish is a good thing...video games have been my life up until the past few months, I've amassed 700 of them, now I'm trying to sell sell sell. I'm selling 300 of them right now, and maybe more when I move out (I have 113 NES games, I'd like to wait and cash in on them maybe, though right now I enjoy collecting Nintendo and Super NES games as a hobby, though have been shying away from collecting the latter in lieu of getting better games for the system such as Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy, Earthbound, and Super Metroid, all of which I need)

I enjoy modern games that have a good story or fun RPG element (Resident Evil, Star Ocean: Till the end of Time, Team ICO, Level-5) but generally games have been seeming like a one shot deal if they don't fall into that category (Trauma Center, Boom Blox, Super Smash Bros, most sports games I used to enjoy) which in the end just falls into a shelf to collect dust. I like things that have a lasting, close, deep impression, which tends to fall into movies for me (2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Amadeus, Requiem for a Dream)

I used to love games for the sake of accomplishing them (Getting all the collectibles in SSX 3, maxing out characters in SSX Tricky, unlocking everything/getting all the trophies on Super Smash Bros, and - not to say it's not a great game, cause i AM keeping it - filling the encyclopedia in Metroid Prime.) But what is all of it worth if it doesn't accomplish anything? Sure you spent all this time to do something, but did you really just pay 50 dollars to waste that much of your time completing a predisposed series of events with complete precision and excellence, just as another person programmed it for you?

I've been so depressed lately, I don't know if it's still my breakup eight or nine months ago, or just the fact I've been having overload from having so many games and movies and not knowing what to do. I think about both just as much, and wish I could put more effort into my future. I'm heading to college in the fall, one of the top 50 private universities in the country, and I see what everyone else has done, where everyone has traveled to study or do charity work, how much of a life they have already made for them, and seeing college to them appears to be just the frosting on the cake, to say you did it. Just how I'm seeing high school graduation for everyone else in my class as a way to say goodbye to all the great times they had with others. I've moved around here and there, and am in my seventh home, my college will be my eighth I guess. It's hard to make friends when you get seperated so often. So for the majority of my childhood my connections were with video games.

What a waste when they can't talk back to you and interact with you forever, and they take up more of your time than a conventional relationship with another humanoid would. Eventually you're done with them, and you only keep them to relive the memory of your brief friendship.

I really want to slim down on my game consoles. I'd sell my gamecube, but I want my Game Boy Player for my GBC and GBA games (I like being able to play the games on the big screen, and I have my Pokemon games, Zelda games and a couple decent other GBC games. I would sell my Wii, but I love Zelda: Twilight Princess....wolf Link Okami would be lost too...and Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World (I haven't even gotten to disc 2 of the first game)

My parents are really pulling their hair out over it, they think I'm going berserk on them, but I'm really just seeing the path they have supported and will continue to support (My mom wont let me sell anything because they insist they bought it in some way or another, cause all my money has in some way come from them) as a dead end path, completely useless in every respect unless I want to be a game designer or programmer myself. Even then, I see the broad spectrum of games I've been playing (since my mom also does not support me playing M games and will not buy them for me, and neither mom or dad wants me getting a 360 or PS3) as extremely childish, shallow, and unhelpful in my general well-being, and I would in no way find myself happy trying to mimic that. It's like if you asked Michael Bay to direct a Disney film, it just wouldn't work.

I need the money from it all for college...if they tell me I can't sell it, what am I to do? Just give it up and have all this money they spent on me wasted? That could have been put into buying me photography equipment, beginner courses at a community college, or on books. I'm just stressing out...The road to maturity is an arduous one.

Ok... Let me try and respond a bit to this:

I know EXACTLY how you are currently feeling at the moment, with some slight differences. Growing up, my parents moved around 7 times, from the time I was born til I left for college myself. I was never in a place for more than 4 years, and never in the same school for more than 3. I had very little friends (and it has affected my ability to actually make friends/relationships) and eventually grew attached to video games and getting online to try and have something in my life. I still have instincts to check every so often on my email and messages on various sites, as well as have a morning/daily ritual of going through sites. I can see that if I didn't have the internet (which my parents hated me being on, they thought it was a bad influence). I know having these connections, and having your life affected by them. I felt like I did very little with my life, and honestly, up to the time I left home, I honestly had, but it wasn't for not. Sure, I didnt get to travel over the world, do charity work, but honestly, thats ok.

I admire that you want to break away so much, and have a more simplistic life, or atleast 2 seperate sections of your life for it. What you need to do is try and sit down with your parents, ask them to help sort out your finances for your college. Once they see that you are needing with paying for everything, they will probably understand, and stop pulling out their hair. And honestly, having a small base back with your parents, isn't a bad thing; It can be very good if you need to get away from college, or should anything else happen, you still have a place, and honestly, you are their son, I really think that they just want someplace they could sit down and still feel you. They dont want to feel a giant hole when you are gone, and see a physical one as well (WARNING: This is all going off the basis that they are loving parents, and care about you, I figured it was a safe bet since they spent so much on you, please disregard this if they are otherwise) I know that this is a stressful time for you, your anxious to get away, to be your own person, and go live your own life. They just want to hold onto you a little longer, and it is always hard to let go.

And for all honesty, games arent all horrible and anti-social, they are great links to others you will meet, whether through college or other ways, when you are on your own. Those memories are ones you share with thousands of others.

And, for the future, try and find a group to roleplay with, like DnD or some other type of paper and dice. Its a great fun, you get to create your own path in a world, and memories you can share with others. It has definatly helped me out in my adult-hood