Possessions- "should they stay or should they go now?"

Here at Steel Wül Headquarters we have been really trying to simplify our worldly possessions. Jess and I tend to go through this cycle every 5 years or so which will put us close to our 10 year wedding anniversary (very cool). We have been gathering those "do we really need this" items from the attic, closets, drawers, garage, yard, and cabinets and asking each other if we could live without them.

Our great friend Kev McGillicuddy told us, "always edit your possessions with extreme prejudice". Kev is right, we probably should be doing a better job. Olive jumped on board the other night after Jess told us about a family she read about in Marin County who only purchases items twice a year and has a predetermined amount of pants, shirts, tops, and shoes per family member. We think Olive took that as some sort of challenge and she started packing up her "old" stuffed animals, clothes, books, and do-dads as if she was winning the race to rid our family of clutter.

I am all about simplifying as Jess can contest to that. When she first met me my decoration inspiration was from Rob Parsons. You may have heard of the saying "less is more", well Rob is more like "nothing is even better".

How do we decide what is so important to us that we need to keep it? Is it how much we use it? That does not work so well for me if folks ask how much I ride my 1986 lugged Eddy Merckx Professional with Super Record. Or Jess's ornate kitchen items that are rarely used. Or our extensive LP collection that John Cussack or Jack Black would drool over.

Do you pass things on to the next generation only to have them "hold" on to them for decades as well? Jess's Aunt Helen to us to use every single family antique cup, plate, and dish that we inherit because that is what they are for. It was a breath of fresh air to hear that.

I purge my cycling items a couple of times a year by delivering Tom Sullivan (Amsterdam Bicycles) a fat box of goodies. It is amazing how good it feels to do it. I would like to think that the set of GL-280's I gave him with DA hubs ended up on some 15 year olds racing bike (with gears), but something tells me that they are chilling on a fixie up at Porter or College 9 spray painted bright green. Its ok, as long they are on the road I suppose and hopefully wearing a lid (not likely).

About 2 months ago I had my work vehicle broken into and had about $17,000. worth of safety gear and misc items stolen. When the Deputy Sheriff assigned to our case was fingerprinting the camper shell he looked over at me and said, "hey guy, don't let your possessions own you, and by the way you might want to put up a motion detector light". How many times has this guy seen things come and go in folks lives. I thought that it was pretty good advice.

In conclusion, Jess and I can not decide if we should keep our LP collection. When we got married our collection grew to about 600 or so. Our LP player has been out of service for 3 years and we have not missed them,......we think.

We need some help from you folks to decide if they are going to Logos or not. Before you give your input, here is some background- Olive is a big Cindy Lauper fan (Mama Wüleurs first LP) I like the original Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green (67' to 69') and Jeff Beck, Jess likes the Stevie years. We literally have all the Beastie Boys, Beatles, UB40, Dick Dale, BOB, and of course the Clash.

Let us know,..... should they stay of should they go now?

Keep them: 6

Dump them: 1