Valuating Personal Possessions

I am not a minimalist and have no plans to convert to one. But I hate clutter and definitely hate collecting the things that I am never going to use. One day, after wasting 20 minutes in order to find a dress in my wardrobe, I was irritated and furious. That was the time when DH pointed out that my love for clothes has resulted in an unmanageable wardrobe.

In Retrospection, I realized that it is a truth. I have so many things lying around in my house that I have never used because of my mental blockages:

• I forgot long back that I owed any such thing.
• I loved it too much to get spoiled, so I preferred to store it for later rather then using now.

I was sure that I have to do something about it. My personal experience, something that deserve a separate post, taught me hard way that be least attached to your possessions and enjoy them to fullest.


So, I decided that I'll list down all of my personal possessions and try to valuate them. It was an intriguing task initially. Listing down all the dresses, shoes, bags, accesories is certainly not fun. But the process really helped me:

1. I was able to see how much money I have locked in my wardrobe.
2. Once I realized all that I already own, I was able to shop from my wardrobe for accessories, dresses, bags.
3. I was enjoying my stuff more then I used to do before this experiment.
4. I was saving money every month by not buying new stuff as I had a whole list in front of me of my possessions.
5. I was able to set realistic goals for myself and in the process increase my self-discipline.

Result of the experiments:

Category	Quantity	Amount
Dresses	150	Rs. 160000
Coat/Sweaters	17	Rs. 15000
Shoes	34	Rs. 40000
Bags/Wallets	39	Rs. 10000
Accessories	XXX	Rs. 30000
Phone/IPod/Electronics	XXX	Rs. 20000

In all, I had locked somewhere around Rs 265000, yes, 2.65 Lakh in materialistic possessions.
I also found out at least 5 dresses with rate tags on. :(

I set a goal for myself, till 2010, I have a limit set that my materialistic possessions should not exceed Rs 3L (Rs 300,000). All the gifts that I get are also added in the list of possessions, so scope of buying stuff for my own is even less. But yes, it has a flexibility that if something of great need is lost/torn off, it can be replaced. (Subtracting and adding similar amount should not impact the number after all).

I finished this compilation in Aug 2009, and now I am 4 month into this and can say that I have only added more stuff worth Rs 5K only. So, so far I'll count this as a successful experiment, though it still has long way to go.