I have tried downsizing as well recently. It's not easy to do because my hobbies have consumed so much of my time and money all these years its hard to let go of it and feel like I'm just giving up or throwing away what has basically consumed my whole life. A lot of these lights and things I have purchased over the years I purchased with the plan on using it one day when I get my own property and house. I am turning 35 this year and still have no money saved for land or a house because I spend all my money on my hobbies. I currently only have one large storage unit that is 10 x 30 but these days when I open the door and look inside the unit, I just get this feeling of like, depression or disgusted in myself because the storage unit is packed with so much that I have to move things out just to get in and I have to climb over boxes to get to the back while tripping and falling over things. I've broken a few street lights trying to get them out of my storage unit. Tripped over a box or something only to drop the light and glass to shatter all over. It's really a huge headache at this point. I know if I ever want my own place I need to make a change. My goal was to have my own place by 25 and I'm about to be 10 years past that goal. I've gotten more aggressive recently attempting to downsize by just throwing lights and other things in the trash instead of trying to sell them. It's only been a few things so far. My really rare lights and favorites in my collection I won't let go of but I will probably have to make some tough decisions and throw away some things that I don't want to get rid of because it's time for a change to be made. Selling on eBay has just gotten to be a waste of time. The fees they charge plus having to deal with paying taxes now that they've changed the rules it's just not worth it anymore. My eBay store currently only has a small number of items in it. I would prefer to see the items go to a new home and be appreciated and used. If I could get top dollar for everything which is what I usually try to do then it would be more worth my time dealing with listing, selling, shipping and paying taxes. These days when I list items they just sit on eBay for months or sometimes even over a year with watchers and that doesn't help me at all. I get it because I put stuff on my watch list for an extended time as well but when I list items for sale it's because I need to sell it and it doesn't help that it sits on there forever. I recently listed a few more things for sale and let them sit there for a short time and once I could see that the items were likely just going to sit on eBay for a long time I just ended the listings. I've tried listing things for cheap, like I sold an NYC Cooper OVZ recently for a cheap price like $80 with free shipping only to find out that it cost me almost all my profits to ship it to the buyer. So the rest of the NYV OVZ,s will probably be going to a dumpster. Paying for a storage unit all these years has costed me tens of thousands of dollars. So with that in mind I decided that throwing things away in the trash isn't really that bad because I've already lost a lot of money storing this stuff. Dealing with selling it is just another headache since it takes time to go to my storage unit, find items I want to sell, take pictures, post it on eBay then wait sometimes months or a year or more to sell it to then have to pack it up safely to make sure it doesn't get damaged and ship it which just takes more time out of my busy schedule since I have two jobs and very little time off. Maybe once I get my own place it would be easier to collect lights since I will no longer have to pay for storage. Plus I have been telling myself for years that once I have my own place I will be more active in the community and start posting regularly. I will have my own place and a setup where I can mount lights to take pictures of them. I just have to decide what to let go of for now. Every time I go to my storage unit to look for items to get rid of I either can't decide to get rid of anything or I walk out with one item and it's going to need to be a lot more than just getting rid of one thing to make enough of an impact to help me. I might just have to take the most rare and hard to find items out, or my most favorite that I definitely do not want to throw away then have someone else go there for me to just throw some stuff away since I find it very difficult to let go.
I’m more or less in the same situation as you. I had a dream for years of buying a house, and I imagined being able to do streetlight installations outside. But my main collecting is things like ceiling fans, exhaust fans, lamps and wiring devices that I’d find and planned to use.
The problem is I dreamed a little too much and what I was hoping to someday afford back pre Covid after saving a few more years is nowhere near attainable now. And though I have a down payment saved, it’s just not enough to get me into anything at today’s prices and rates, much less somewhere with enough space to put streetlights in the yard.
I guess dreaming and acquiring stuff helped me pass the loneliness during Covid. Little did I know that house prices would skyrocket.
I also had this vision that my dad and I could work together a bit to get some of these projects done, but then my parents’ health started going downhill and that threw a further monkey wrench into the whole situation.
Now I just don’t care anymore about lighting or anything. I go to work, but it’s just to pass the time and pay the bills really. I’m still saving for something, I don’t know what, emergencies I guess, but I don’t really feel like I’ll ever own a home and I’m really just apathetic toward it at this point. It was a dream that wasn’t attainable after Covid.
I don’t care anymore, if I could buy back my parents’ health and my happiness, I’d totally do it, but buying stuff or an house even if I could isn’t going to do that.
I have a storage unit too, and it’s a mess as well. Hate going over there, stuff falls everywhere, I don’t know what I’m going to do with it all. I’ve considered just donating two things a week, but that would take forever to do, and like you, I just have trouble getting rid of it.
I truly think I’m a hoarder and my parents were able to limit/stop it when I was a kid, by selecting what I got and making me get rid of stuff, but when I became an adult is when it got out of hand. The weird thing though is it seemed to only become a problem after I reached 30? I collected stuff, but I wasn’t really bad about it until after 2021 or so.
Fortunately I don’t buy things on eBay or online anymore, but I do still thrift from time to time mostly on the weekends. I don’t buy stuff as often anymore at these places, but I do still do so occasionally. Mostly just small stuff like lamps, switches or photocells, but it still takes up space.
