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Giving Stuff Away for Free Makes Me Happy

Over the decade of so I’ve been living in Korea, I’ve collected a lot of stuff and ever since I moved into a large apartment (about 700 square feet for just me!), it’s been extremely easy to keep getting more since storage really isn’t an issue. Except now that I’ve decided to move to Canada in a year, it’s time to unload.

My Unloading Stuff Strategy

1. Sell the stuff that had some value. I sold around 7 or 8 things for $5-20 each.

2. Give stuff away to friends. 3 of my good friends were moving into unfurnished apartments, so I put all my crap into my extra bedroom and they went “shopping” for free. They took a significant amount of stuff.

3. Post the rest on an expat Facebook group for the neighborhood I live in and give it away for free. 3 people, 1 friend and 2 random people I had never met took advantage of this.

How did I feel? Giving Stuff Away for Free Makes Me Happy

people

People are more important than stuff

I really have no sense of “stuff” being important to me. Sure, I like my bicycle or stand-up paddleboard or some of the clothes I have but friends, my students and my cats are way more important to me in Korea. Maybe it’s because I’ve never spent the money to get really nice stuff, but I have a feeling that I’ll still feel the same way once I move to Canada. So giving away the stuff really came with no sense of loss at all, but it was actually very satisfying. I genuinely felt happy that I could help my friends or even random people and that I was not throwing out stuff in the trash to fill up a landfill.

I also feel extremely happy that I have fewer things cluttering up my apartment. Simplicity and minimalism was something that I had gotten away from in the past few years, but it is what actually makes me happy, far more than buying stuff. Lesson learned. When I go back to Canada, this is going to be a huge priority for me and I plan to consider every purchase carefully when I’m buying household goods. Simplicity=the way forward.

For the ultimate in simplicity and minimalism, check out: Tiny House Living: Ideas For Building and Living Well In Less than 400 Square Feet

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