Mostly save it all. Donate whatever I can manage to part with to charity. Siometimes in a fit of cleaning I will throw gigantic amounts out. My neighbors are often surprised a house could hold that much - and my garbage men hate me for a few weeks.
Donate to out of the closet, and yardsales / ebay / vintage store anything of value (ie- keri’s clothing)
The only thing I was ever really hording was e3 swag, just because I was too tired to do anyhting but shove it in a closet when I get in the door. When we moved from that apartment after 6 years, I had more or less 8 backpacks full of e3 shit, magazines are HEAVY.
I give my old stuff away or sell them for greatly discounted prices to friends and QT3 members.
I have packrat tendencies. I am currently sorting through all my clothing. My wife has forbidden me from buying any more clothes until I actually wear the stuff I’ve bought. I’ve got a huge pile sitting ready for donation to the Salvation Army.
I’ve also got a pile of books to ditch. They are boxed up with thought of selling them, but considering how long that thought has been there without any associated action, I think they are likely to go the donation to charity route as well.
My neighbor/friend tried to convince me to start selling all my old Sports Illustrated magazines on eBay. “You might have something mint, man.”
I told him I seriously doubted it, and anyway it seemed a quick glance at ebay revealed magazines going for like four dollars.
“Yeah, but if you sell a hundred of them that’s four hundred dollars.”
The thought of shipping hundreds of magazines over the next few years pretty much convinced me tossing them was the way to go.
Cleaning this stuff out is good because I am finding some stuff I forgot I had. I recorded hours upon hours of tape during and after 9/11 and during the 2000 recount fiasco. I don’t know if I’ll ever look at that stuff again, but for some odd reason I like knowing I have this documentation of those days.
-Amanpour