You know what makes me happy? Decluttering. I am happy when I'm getting rid of stuff, and even happier when we're not buying a bunch of new junk to replace it.

I have had some packrat tendencies in the past, though I've always been pretty willing to get rid of stuff. Growing up, I'd always sell my toys at garage sales in order to have money to buy new ones, and I've never been the type to save school work or artwork (I do have some saved, but a lot has been thrown away over the years).

But I did have some compulsive habits, especially once Bruce moved out here and we started buying a lot more stuff. When I had my Digimon website, I bought everything Digimon I could find, and we were really obsessed with Pokemon and Beanie Babies for a while. Before I started selling stuff on eBay, I had over a thousand volumes of manga, and a couple years ago I finally did a big purge of all the books I didn't think I was ever going to read (or reread) and ended up donating about fifteen big bags to the library. I also used to compulsively collect Japanese music videos, even though I never, ever watched them (I had like 1500 videos, which I eventually uploaded to MegaUpload so I could ditch the ones on my hard drive and still feel like someone was getting some use out of them).

But I think I've broken the habit. I try not to buy anything now, though I do occasionally buy CDs and DVDs. I only buy books if I can't get them at the library. I resell the manga I buy as soon as I read it.

I feel good about having broken the desire to have things, even when the things don't do me any good (I don't reread, so having a collection of books or manga is not anything useful, but rather just a compulsive urge to have them). I love the feel of a house free from so much clutter. It still has some, but it just feels so much more spacious than it used to.

When I did the previous book purge, I kept a bunch that I really liked, but I think I'm going to go through again and get rid of everything except books I haven't read yet. Once I get a chance to go through them, I'll post a list here to see if anyone wants anything.