Take an inventory of your stuff
Inventory is waste | Photo by SixMillionDollarDan
This idea from John December really stuck out to me this week as I consider a Fool Month of Purging…
Make an inventory of everything you own.
John suggests that if making an inventory of our stuff seems to daunting — it’s a sign we have too much stuff.
He recommends creating an inventory on paper index cards or a computer spreadsheet.
For each item, list this information:
- its common name (as you refer to it)
- a more complete description (brand name, model number and serial number if it has one)
- the amount of money you paid for it (estimate the cost if it was a gift or you can’t remember the original price)
- the date and store where you bought it (again estimate if you don’t know or remember)
Put down a question mark for information you don’t know.
You can write out a group card for small items of the same type. For example, just make out one card for your socks, or a single card describing your knifes, forks, and spoons.
Once you’ve made your inventory, rank each item based on how they help support your goals, or the things most important to you.
0 = no support
1 = least support
2 = little support
3 = some support
4 = good support
5 = strongest support
This ranking can help you decide which items to keep and which you can discard in situations where you need to pare down on your stuff.
Just the idea of making an inventory of my DVDs seems daunting to me. Perhaps it won’t be so bad once I’ve purged another stack or two.
Have you made an inventory of your stuff? Does it seem daunting to you? Got any pointers?
Have you enjoyed this post? Would you consider subscribing to our blog via 
I did this once. It was scary and it was depressing, but it was also a very motivating experience. When I told people about it, they thought I was crazy. The idea that someone would try to count all their possessions seemed to be impossible to them. A good indication that we have way too much stuff, if you can’t even count it. I wrote about our inventory on my blog, Rambling Traveler if you are interested in reading about it. The post is called Taking a Home Inventory and tagged under Simple Living.
I’ve inventoried my DVDs and it was quite surprising. 200+ DVDs. Then I started to go through my CDs and they’re going to take just as long. I think I’ll be shipping most of those off to the resale store. 99% of them have simply set in my attic for months.
We’re getting ready to move in May so it will be interesting to see how much more I inventory and/or toss before then.
When it’s easier to toss the things away than to inventory them — you’ve got too much stuff!
this is definitely a daunting task, but is a great idea and will be worth it…it will probably help me figure out my purges for the month as well…!
daunting for sure! scary. but it can be done!
i’m committing to it!
let me know how it goes for you.