Nothing quite like moving to make you aware of how much stuff you own. With every new house tour comes a new mental map of how my existing furniture fits in. Because, obviously, I can't just get rid of it. It works fine! It's like new! What if it misses me?
My desk is cluttered with stuff. A hat, a set of hex keys, another hat(??), a hairband. Everything I own I can come up with some justification for owning it. And somehow it's still too much.
Adding my two cents here. I realized some time ago that I'm usually annoyed about clutter when my mind is a mess. The mind clutter overwhelms, and then I start trying to organize/trash things to organize the mind. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
When life is good, clutter doesn't matter much.
You know, I'd always thought that ultimately it didn't matter what organizational attempts I made, that fundamentally it was a question of whether there was Too Much Stuff.... but it turns out that with things like the paper detritus that I Cannot Discard, having the right binders and boxes and such is really helpful.
Still,when you start feeling two-question-marks of exasperated with your stuff, it's probably time to scale back. I wonder if there's any kind of barter / free group where you can be more sure a possession will be appreciated than in the secondhand store
This is a battle I'm in as I type this. Perpetually as it seems. I recently was talking to my wife about my college dorm room, which had only my boombox, a turntable, some books, and notebooks. I was happy with that, but I don't know how to get back there. In some ways it's not feasible. But I still hold out hope for a balance.
I don't know what to tell you. There's lots of stuff I'd love to be rid of, but my wife insists we might need it some day. I figure I'd have to get rid of her before I get rid of the junk, but being completely clutter-free isn't worth nuking my marriage.