When I read about John O’Nolan going homeless and getting rid of all of his possessions except for the things he needs for work (laptop and clothes, basically), I was inspired by his stories of how free he felt without the burden of assets. I started looking around me and was disgusted by how much crap I own.

When I looked in my closet, it was filled to the brim with junk. Old CDs, crumpled paper, boxes, old broken toys and much more other things. I didn’t want it.

So I purged. I went and cleared out my entire closet, leaving only what I wanted or needed. There was a pile of crap about three feet high on the ground when I was done.

I found a tonne of stuff I didn’t have any idea I had, and I was, again, disgusted by how much crap I had accumulated.

It felt like a huge relief to get rid of most of my junk. My goal is to be able to list all of the things I own from memory and not forget any, the point being I would have so little that there wouldn’t be much to list.

I’m a packrat. I save everything “just in case,” and I know I’m not alone. It’s been difficult for me to see all of this stuff that I had some sort of emotional attachment to in a give-away box, but in a way it’s also therapeutic.

Recently I’ve gone through the applications I use and axed about three-quarters of them (that’s another blog post). I’m now applying the same principle to my physical belongings. I don’t need 500 apps, I don’t need 500 pieces of junk sitting in a box in my closet.

So that’s my pre-New-Year’s resolution: to get rid of all of my needless crap. Take the minimalist route in regards to what I own.