Minimalism / Decluttering / Freedom from junk

[opa]

I wasn't really sure what to title this thread but maybe once I put my thoughts down it'll make sense.

I have really scaled back on my collections of "stuff" - be it games, books, movies, or other tangible objects that are seemingly easy to gather. Every time I've moved it has been a lot easier to let go of material possessions. When you have to move something multiple times you eventually ask "do I really need this?"

Some things are harder to let go (the stack of books I've been "meaning to get to") but, dang, this stuff is heavy!

I've started to go digital with content when feasible (and there's no significant drm to manage). Also, I am seriously considering getting rid of most of the physical games I have left (the 2600 being a definite exception; you can peel those carts from my cold, dead hands). I'm just not interested in being the caretaker of a library for one person.

How have y'all handled clearing the clutter? Have you gotten rid of most of your extra items? Or are you sitting on your stack of retro goodies like a greedy dragon?

[Ack]

I'm still sitting on many of my games, though my collecting physical releases has mostly ended. My pairing things down has tended to focus on other areas, like giving up collectables, excess books (that I have read), and so forth. Truth is, I just don't feel like I need the stuff. I'm not really sure what to do with a lot of it these days.

[alienjesus]

I’m still collecting physical actively, and I rarely let go of my games and books. However, I’m a big proponent of collecting stuff to use and not just to have. I’m part of a collectors discord group and people there love collecting game boxes just to display them, completing collections of games many of which they have no intention to play. I’m glad it brings them joy, but it’s not for me - I don’t like the feeling of clutter, it makes me feel stressed - and considering I have a toddler, I have enough clutter to deal with with her toys and books daily!

I am lucky enough to have a decently sized home (by UK standards at least!) and dedicate space for my games and consoles. That said, I have been very deliberate in designing that space to hide most of my stuff - I don’t want a room that feels like a game shop, i want a nice room that has my games convenient to access without them being constantly visible. I shared the process of setting this room up in a thread on the forum too.

Realistically, I know that my physical collecting will need to have a cut off somewhere. The collection can’t grow forever. I think I’ve still got some wiggle room on this for now though, but one day I’ll have to make the decision to go digital on new stuff. Seems like that choice might be made for me soon enough with stuff like switch 2 game key cards and the likes. On the retro side, there was a time when I was new to retro game collecting where I wanted all of the systems - even stuff like the gizmondo and Jaguar. Nowadays I’m more sensible. There’s a lot of systems where there just aren’t any games I want on them so I just won’t buy them. I have more than enough consoles to manage as is!

[Reprise]

I am also in the UK and in a similar situation. I am in a few collector groups on Facebook and the like and it makes me realise how out of touch I am with the collecting scene these days. They tend to be dominated by people who collect multiple boxed consoles that they display, collect mint and complete (or even sealed) games and who aim for full sets. I very much aim to collect things I want to use and not just have for the sake of having too. I will also have a bit of leeway in terms of condition depending on the item and if it's a good price.

I used to want to own everything as well. I was fascinated by so many different consoles, particularly ones that "failed", but I made a decision about 10 years ago or so that I wouldn't get any new old consoles and stick to collecting for what I own. To be honest, I went back on that in the last year or so, as I picked up an original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Mega-CD, but it's something I am otherwise planning to stick to and there's nothing else right now I plan to buy.

I also own a reasonable sized house. We had our garage converted into a new room which also brought us extra space. So I do own a sort of retro games room for my collection. I have to be honest... It is starting to burst at the seams a bit and I will probably have to stop collecting for a while. There is room for a bigger or even an extra bookcase or storage solution though, so there are things I can do if I did want to continue.

I have slimmed down on some of my collections. Earlier this year I sold all my mini consoles that were getting popular a few years ago, quite a few games and I have moving on other things. Something else I collect (well kind of) is wrestling dvds/blu-rays and I have made the decision that I will only collect the PPV dvds and have been selling the match compilation and documentary sets. Actually, I have been selling a lot of dvds and blu-rays in general. I have also taken various books to charity shops (sold some on market place too) and have another pile to take in some time. I have also stopped buying figures and toys (something else I was collecting) for the most part now and have boxed up and put a load into storage up the loft for now (until I decide what I am doing with them, which might end being selling them).

I have two children, so space is an issue for me as well. So I am trying to move away from books, toys, dvds/blu-rays etc and just concentrate on the video games side of things and focus on things I really want.

[opa]

Thank you for the thoughts so far.

I, too, feel the pains of kids' stuff around the house.
Never-ending, never out-of-the-way.

I am also in the camp of "buying stuff to use". It has always seemed silly to me to collect things with an actual purpose and to sit them on a shelf. Living in a museum is not my ideal environment.

I believe that, for my sanity at least, I can go through my bins of "cables I may need" and trim it down a bit. I did look last night and realized I own an obscene amount of micro usb cables. At this point, two may suffice for my needs.

[Reprise]

The problem I have is my kids are just as big of hoarders as I am

My son's bright idea when we gave him the option of getting rid of some of his old things (and even explained he could potentially try to sell some of the better stuff for a bit of extra money to use for other things) was to say he'll "be kind" and give them to his little sister, so he could basically act like he had decluttered whilst still being able to continue using all the things he had claimed to have gotten rid of

I forgot something else I collect is old video games magazines. I scaled back on those too and currently I am just concentrating on completing my Official Sega Saturn (UK) and Official Dreamcast magazine (UK) sets. I am only 2 away for Saturn magazine and 4 away for Dreamcast magazine, so I may as well complete them.

[opa]

I got rid of my magazines long ago. Nintendo Power, EGM, Playstation, etc. Kinda miss the nostalgic "flip through the ages" thing but you can do that online for free (well, except Nintendo stuff; they hate their community and legacy for... whatever reason).

Either way, I have done a lot of soul searching lately about what I want to keep. Honestly, I could do without a PS3 and PS4 at this point. They only thing I'd miss would be the blu ray player but I can get one of those fairly inexpensively.

[Reprise]

I got rid of my magazines long ago. Nintendo Power, EGM, Playstation, etc. Kinda miss the nostalgic "flip through the ages" thing but you can do that online for free (well, except Nintendo stuff; they hate their community and legacy for... whatever reason).

Either way, I have done a lot of soul searching lately about what I want to keep. Honestly, I could do without a PS3 and PS4 at this point. They only thing I'd miss would be the blu ray player but I can get one of those fairly inexpensively.

I mostly did too, only keeping a few that had managed to stay in reasonable condition and that were special to me. But a few years back I decided to get into collecting them. There's just something captivating to me about getting a window into the past. You get a real insight into what the mood and feelings were like for video games back then. Reading or hearing someone's thoughts on the Dreamcast in 2025 is interesting, for example, but nothing compares to reading the genuine passion, excitement and hype journalists were feeling back in 1998 when it was first revealed and came out. It's the same with retro game reviews compared to the old reviews of old games that came out when they were brand new.

Flicking through the pages just takes me back to my childhood and I really enjoy sitting and reading through some of them. Just yesterday, when my kids were out for a couple of hours, I found myself flicking through an old copy of Diehard Gamefan magazine.

It's true a lot of them have now been preserved and uploaded online though. That said, not everything has been. There are a few magazines and issues I sometimes struggle to find. That said, there is a lot available and I am sure people continue to preserve more and more, which is great.

As for PS3 and PS4, I think those would probably be my choice too, if I was going to downsize any particular library in my collection. I pretty much never play any PS4 games these days. PS3 gets a bit more use, but not much.

[o.pwuaioc]

Nintendo Power was the one series I actually tried to buy back after all my childhood issues got tossed. I had everything up until maybe 94 or so bitd. All gone. I'm still not done yet, but I do know that the N64 era is my hard cut off. I don't want to get into the GCN era, except I do have a final issue I bought when it came out. It's still in plastic, though.

I only have a few hundred games now and what I consider my core console collection. I don't really feel the need to expand anymore, although every once in a while a new homebrew will catch my eye. I can only buy so many of those before getting bored with the practice.

Aside from the N64 burst I had at the beginning of the summer, I don't really play any of this stuff any longer, so it's really only here for the kiddos. I've also been planning on getting a little retro set up at the office for my staff. Maybe I'll try to do that this week. As long I see a use for it, it's not going anywhere, but it's certainly not like the heyday, when I had some 2k games and rarely had time to play a dozen a month, if that.

[marurun]

Between the Video Game History Foundation putting tons of classic mags online with full OCR scans, including one of the seminal early publications, Computer Entertainer, which is the only mag that survived through the crash into the early NES days, and a complete (?) GamePro collection, and the recent EGM Kickstarter with their online archive now live, this is a great time to not have to own the original mags to still enjoy them, even if those online versions won't have the full appeal of turning paper pages. I loved that 16-bit run of GamePro and EGM, especially the annual EGM guides.