What Possessions Could You Never Leave Behind?

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    Currently I've gathered all the things in my flat together to assess and file into a keep/sell/bin category.
    Now I'm no consumer, I don't buy anything new unless I absolutely have to. I don't own a TV, no desire to buy the latest trends etc.. But I love stuff! Antiques, curios, things I've made, things I know I'll struggle to find again, childhood stuff etc. And as a result my life is completely cluttered with possessions.
    I've realised that it is this stuff that anchors me to this flat, to the job that pays for their preservation, and to the city all this happens in.
    But why? What exactly is it all? What does it mean to own it? Is it really that important?


    So I am wondering, what material possessions do you have that you can't give up, that you stubbornly drag through your life, hire vans to transport, buy insurance to protect.
    How attached to them are you? Would life be better or worse without them?


    (I suppose we should leave out living things like children, pets, partners etc ;) )

    I got rid of lots of my stuff before i moved to England and now just have a few favourite books and some pictures and bits and pieces that i don`t think i`d ever be able to dump. I promised myself when i moved here though that i wouldn`t buy any new crap and i pretty much haven`t bar a couple of things. I don`t think it`s about the stuff so much as the memories that come with it..

    My polar bear is the first thing that comes to mind. Anyone who has met him will understand. He is definitely the very last thing I would give up!


    Yes, he is a stuffed toy. I'm fine with that.

    “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain

    Funny that we were talking about this earlier, we dont have half as much stuff as we used to, but its the things like I have a couple of my nans rings, il never wear them, could use the cash for something I really want, that will last my life and will mean more to me, a tattoo, but dont know why, but darnt sell them!theres no one going to be mad if I do but.......some books I couldnt let go, a biiiiig box of photos.thinkin bout it theres quite a few bits, but why?the memories are in your head, not in the 'things'humans are strange, lol x

    Well im kinda doing the same at the moment, ive got till the end of august. Worked out that im keep ing the dog, i know i wasnt ment to count but well she does. Other than that im keeping my records, ive spent years finding them in car boots n charity shops as well as the ones from ebay. There going in my folks Attic. Other than that the lots going apart from a few pots, my frying pan im scottish after all n my wok. You cant cook chips n fry sausages at the same time in one pan.
    So the simple answer, im planning n only keeping what i need, ive got most of my music on mp3 other than that the only things im keeping will be family aer looms which will be safley tucked away im my mums attic

    Know how you feel, Dexter! We have loads of junk -ahem, stuff - picked up over some 30-odd years together, and we both tend to sort of 'collect' odd items, just in case, that we pick up off the street, in skips, car boots, jumbles; you know the scene.
    Got a couple of garages and a loft stuffed with this lot, and there ain't a lot of room in the flat, neither.


    Trouble is, some of this stuff does come in useful now and then. And when we make a determined effort to get rid of some, the space somehow gets filled up again. Is this because we never had that much as kids, and collect things to kind of compensate?
    Or do some folks collect naturally, like hunting and gathering junk instead of food?


    What I'd choose if I had to live in one small room is pretty difficult. Some favourite books, maybe a whole shelf of them, then a few stacked on the floor. A few favourite clothes and shoes, some of which I like just because they are comfortable. Got to have a watch, of course. A radio. A PC; couldn't do without that now. Perhaps a phone of some sort, to keep in touch. The best pots and pans, as Pyke says, are always useful. Rucksack for walking and shopping, maybe two, large and small. Some tools for a bit of DIY, those would be essential. Paper or scrapbooks for drawing and writing stuff down; I am one of those people who doodle ideas on paper first, gradually trying to get them into some sort of design. Lots of old tapes, vinyl, CDs, and something to play them on.
    The more I think about it, the more there is. As for what my other half would want to keep, don't even go there...!

    I have a lot of things i wouldn't part with, but they are all fairly small, so ive managed to cram them into two shoe boxes, photos, cards, little love letters and such. I have a flute that my friends bought for me, and that goes everywhere with me... My juggling balls too. I'm not really attached to much else, if we aren't counting pets, but i suppose that happens when you've lived in hostels, and slept rough, you only carry what you need, because it will get lost/ nicked/damaged....

    I have to much stuff a lot of it given or salveged from skips etc, never bought a tv just get em given when people chuck em, hmm, you know i have a lot of stuff but i don t value any of it, i could quite hapily walk away from it all some bring happy memories some sad, you know a stupid thing a set of brass ducks my godmother gave me, i built her a fireplace, and she wanted a hole leaving in for her ducks i said how big are they, she couldnt find em but she said oh about this big (holding her arms a foot apart) so i guessed about a 15 " recess i left in, then she found em the next day and they were tiny so i said bloody ducks when she was dying she said i want you to have those bloody ducks, it did make me kind of laugh and brought a tear, so yeah id have to have those dammed ducks. or id hide em in a special place if i was emigrating etc.

    The more I think about it the harder it is to find anything I could not live without. I would be gutted if I lost my Airstream because it is my home and I have put a lot of work into it but even that I would get over.


    If it came down to it I could walk away from all my possessions as long as I was still with my wife and dogs.


    paul

    There was a documentary I watched about our attachment to objects, and the amount of things we own. I can't seem to find it now.
    It said we have on average 4 times the amount of 'stuff' we had 60 years ago.


    I've always been the kind of person who attaches great sentimentality to objects, it's a family trait. Recently my parents, now in their 60s, have decided to have a massive clear-out. And the heaps of sentimental knick-nacks of no real use have been slowly let go of.
    It really made me think. I want to be the kind of person who only has a few good possessions, and just appreciates that something exists without having to own it as well. I never thought I'd feel that way but, that's how I'm feeling.


    Things I'm going to struggle to give up so far are books, my PC, some sort of sketchbook, and that's about all really. I haven't had a mobile phone in about 2 months and I'm thoroughly enjoying that. It was an iphone, and now I have a house phone with just family and two friends with the number. If I could get those people to communicate with me via skype or something, then bye-bye phone all together. I hate the things.

    Quote from aman

    The more I think about it the harder it is to find anything I could not live without. I would be gutted if I lost my Airstream because it is my home and I have put a lot of work into it but even that I would get over.


    If it came down to it I could walk away from all my possessions as long as I was still with my wife and dogs.


    paul


    pretty much the same as this, I don't have much stuff now anyway, mostly day to day essentials that are all replaceable - the one thing I wold never want to lose, for my daughters sake is her toy rabbit she's had since she was born, she still sleeps with it now and that's the only thing really.

    Growing up as an army kid, I moved house once every 12-18 months & my dad always made us "have a good sort through" every time we moved so I have nothing from my childhood. Sometimes that bothers me but as my kids have grown up, I've accumulated a fair bit of their stuff so I can see the benefit of not keeping it all. I have a box with a few old baby clothes, different types of tickets, trampolining trophies, my son's cub cap & scarf, a tiara my daughter wore as a bridesmaid & various other mementos from them growing up. Plus I have a ton of their drawings I couldn't bear to throw away. I'm saving up for a van to live in at the moment & when the time comes, I could happily walk away from all of my belongings except that box, their drawings, & brooch my nan gave me.

    The only thing I could never leave behind is my backup hard drive. It contains some things that are important to me (my past work, scanned documents, business documents, contacts, old articles, photos, some old software that can't be bought anymore, ...).


    Oh, and my savings. They give me peace of mind.

    Ive got loads o lps there going into my grannys attic soon. The black recycling boxes are great for keeping lps in. I just found a heap o brand new unused blank tapes in my attic if u want them?
    No use to me i launched all my tapes years ago, dont know how i kept these

    Travelling into work this morning I suddenly realised that I would be very upset it I had to leave my Bicycle. It is by far my favourite possession. I was manufactured by Thorn in Bridgewater and is the bike I would by if I won the lottery.


    They are quite expensive and there is no way I could afford on normally but through a strange series of events I ended up doing some work for Thorn and they paid me in parts. Over a year or so I had gathered everything I needed to build the bike. The frame once belonged to Robin Thorn the owner of the company which makes it even more special to me.


    I know every part of that bike. I built it up from a frame and have stripped it down and rebuilt it countless times over the years.


    I would be lost without it as I cycle everywhere.


    I love my bike


    paul

    I have a bear from when I wS born and one from shortly after.
    My laptop & ipad.
    This... Thing, a thing which resides in a pillow case and was once part of a single feather duvet from when I was a toddler, but my cat pissed on the bottom of the duvet and I cut the top off and sewed it, saved it, and eventually my ex mother in law insisted I put it in a pillow cover.... I cannae sleep without it!!!


    In fact, fuck the other items. This is the one item I can't leave.


    I have a few precious items belonging to my late nanna, my boyfriends hoodie, some important books and cds, and and my instruments. But if I could carry only one thing, it'd be my 'binky'.

    I don't think there's anything I couldn't leave behind if I had to (since we're not including pets and people). Nothing I would risk my life trying to save, anyway. I suppose the worst thing to lose would be photos, especially Rosie's baby ones, since they aren't replaceable - I have many of them backed up online though :thumbup: I wouldn't like to leave behind my camera, musical instruments, presents i've been given by friends, postcards or letters i've got from people, and some special ornaments and things, and i'd be pretty pissed off if I lost my van too, since i'm working so hard on converting it, but most of those things are replaceable, or at least live-withoutable.


    Most of my other posessions are easily replaceable. In fact I try and declutter every few months, and stuff I haven't used/noticed for a while gets given to a charity shop or freecycled.

    I've been tripping from sipping the dripping dirty water tap,
    i've been thinking i'm drinking too many drinks all by myself.
    I've been poking a voodoo doll that you do not know I made, for you, of you.

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    Didn't bother listing my car. For the first time ever. If I got stuck in Aberdare forever, I'd not complain. Just don't remind me about Brighton, Swansea or Camden!

    Not including your loved one's - regardless of the amount of legs they walk on


    OK then, Heck Paul you need to start a separate section for 'polar bear owners'. - I have one too, God knows when I got him; however there is a picture of a rather tipsy Dad and a very very small me and a white bear with a sparkly blue ribbon in what I recognise as our flat in London. So fair bets bear was a birthday present.
    I would have to take our snapshots, so I would probably bag up every media drive of a certain type in the house knowing that over the years we have both indiscriminately put photos on them.
    The print my husband gave me of Fred my old cat and the photograph album of the shots of me and Bill I had taken for Josh's Christmas. It was meant to be just Bill but we couldn't get him to stay put. It's up to Josh if he wants to take the one chosen for framing.
    Dad's photo, he's a young man on a bike somewhere in Ireland. I think my cousins would kill me en mass if I didn't take that. I couldn't not take that even though I see his face each day when I look in the mirror.
    Our 'box' which has a first aid kit and a supply of my drugs.
    My two wally cats that I got in the Barras and are worth a lot more than the £35 I paid for them.
    My kindle and as many of my of my psychology books as I could cycle with in the trailer in my bike with everything else - oh and the bike and its trailer!