not to want my possessions?

[InfiniteVariety]

There is a saying, "That which I possess, possesses me."
(Buddhist possibly?)

The older I get, the more wisdom I think there is in this.

In my 20s & 30s I lived abroad a lot and moved through life with relatively little, but as I got older I acquired more things - a house & the stuff inside it, as well as a family. Every time we moved countries there was another baby and a lot more things! I have always been very good at throwing out, but nevertheless I sometimes feel overwhelmed by all the possessions we carry through life and attach so much value to and wonder why we do it?

Anyone else have thoughts like this?

I could put all that I need in hand luggage. I don't particularly like material things. It's just clutter.

I agree with this so much. The fewer possessions, the better. It makes you appreciate what you choose to keep so much more too. Living with less also simplifies everything.

I really understand now why the Japanese consider minimalism to the be the height of refinement. It's not just about the absence of objects, it's a mindset.

Yes, absolutely. We are hoping to downsize next year from our 4-5 bed home to something much smaller. We would be doing it now but DH has a health issue which needs sorting before we move (he doesn't need the added stress at the moment).

We have a house full of stuff and it all will not fit into a planned smaller place. So we're using this pre-move period to ruthlessly de-clutter, going through the house room by room and removing everything we don't need. Some has gone to the tip, some to charity shops, some has been sold either though ebay or Gumtree, some has gone on Freecycle, some through specialist outlets (DH has a hobby and has accumulated a lot of expensive gear which he never uses, but it's generated us a bit of spare cash ).

I definitely advocate this approach.

We have yet to tackle the loft, but we're getting there.

I am also pretty ruthless because each time we moved to another country, which was once every 3 or 4 years, I would re-evaluate everything I owned and think as I filled boxes, "Do I really want to unpack that thousands of miles from here?" If the answer was no I didn't take it. The last time we moved internationally, we had 2 huge containers that went by sea and I had fantasies of the ship going down and never seeing it all again.... the idea thrilled me (though everyone else thought I was odd)