Here are in short my tips to reduce hoarding of stuff you think you may need some day but almost certainly won't. If you're not really a hoarder - as in the worst examples that TV likes to portrait - but do have a problem throwing things away despite not having space to store all that clutter, this may help to clean out your storage. (I'm assuming it may because it does for me.)
- Be aware that you are keeping stuff that you don't actually need or use reularly. Make yourself aware that your reasons to keep things may not be as good as you feel they are.
- Weed out things that you didn't use for a long time. Maybe plan an afternoon or sorting every six months or make a rule on how long you have to not use something in order to declare something unused. Use that time also to reflect on your reason to keep things. Is it really important to keep an object related to a good memory? How sure are you you will build that project some day that you've started to gather parts for?
- Sort unused things in three catagories, like: "Definitely still need it for a good reason", "Don't currently need or use it, but...", Don't actually need it". Then as move many things as possible from the second to the third catagory. Find reasons for doing so (be honest, you know the reasons) until you only have two catagories left.
- Ask a friend for a favour: Give them everything from the "don't need it" catagory and ask them to throw it away for you because you don't have the heart to do it. Chances are they can at least somewhat relate to your problem but have no problem throwing things away they've never seen before. IF they decide to keep some of it then it's their problem now. Feel free to donate valuable or really useful things or give them to a give-away store before throwing away the rest. Don't keep things because you want to seel them for money unless you do it right now and get rid of the things immediately.
- Forget about all that stuff so you don't feel bad when the day comes where you actually could have used one of the things you gave away.
If you have too much money you then buying storage or land to store things without having them clutter up your house is an alternative. But it's not really worth it. It's just paying money so you can keep that warmish feelng of still having access to everything but you'll also keep your problem. I mean unless you're really collecting something valuable or you become "that guy" for your town with large property where everybody goes before buying anything other than foot. Some towns have such a guy who stores avery piece of wood and metal they see so others can browse for their DIY projects. I like these guys. But you don't have the property for such a stock, do you? So don't try to be that guy for you town, for your friends or just for yourself. It takes the same amount of space in either case.
Being a digital hoarder myself, I'm hypocritical enough to have a different opiniont about data hoarding. But I'll write about that another time.