selling off and streamlining collections

[Daeothar]

When I moved all of my hobby stuff into my new gaming room last year, I realized just how much stuff I had stashed over the years. So much in fact, that the storage capacity of the new room was already insufficient!

This made me think hard and go full Marie Kondo on my accumulated mountain of hobby stuff.

I got rid of quite a few projects that would never see completion by my hands, even in the most optimistic of scenarios (me retiring at that exact moment because of winning €25M ). I mostly let go of a substantial pile of games and model kits; miniatures will follow once I get some temporal breathing room later this year.

And even though I had always feared letting go of certain elements of my mountain, it actually felt quite liberating!

The only thing I will however never get rid of are my finished miniatures, models and terrain pieces. They're the end result of all my hobbying efforts; it's how everything making up the mountain is supposed to eventually end up.

Now, I'm not a prolific painter by far. Last year I managed (for the very first time!) to finish 100 miniatures from Jan 1st till Dec 31st, but most years I produce significantly less. I'm talking 28mm or equivalent here, so not the sheer mass of miniatures that 15mm can facilitate.

I once made the cardinal mistake of selling off an entire 40K army when I was moving to go to uni; a black enamel painted beaky Dark Angel army. They were not painted well, but I had put a lot of effort in them nonetheless, and I still lament them being lost to the Warp.

But no such feelings for anything sold since then that I had not even started on.

Actually there's a lot of materials still in storage, waiting to be taken out for their intended purpose. Mostly terrain in fact. And once the terrain has been built, I will be very happy to get rid of all the extra's!

So; does it serve a direct practical purpose, or does it make you happy? Keep it. All the rest; get rid of it!

[Dolnikan]

I am truly jealous of you for having the mental fortitude to do such a thing. For me, the main way that things leave the collection is as gifts to some people who I know are looking for assorted mini's. Fortunately, I've so far been able to match what came in (since I moved in with my partner) but before that, I had a very serious purchasing issue. And now, well, let's just say that there are some small issues when it comes to storage.

[tikitang]

This whole process has happened to me several times.

My usual hobby pattern is:

1. Getting excited about an idea
2. Making a post about it on LAF
3. Collecting the components over a series of months (due to budgetary constraints)
4. Painting things up
5. Get tired of painting
6. Change my ideas a bit -- a different ruleset, perhaps?
7. Finally get some miniatures on the table
8. Lose interest
9. Sell EVERYTHING
10. Go through a period of emotional numbness
11. Think of a new idea, which only requires ten miniatures in total...

In the past, step 3 has sometimes grown to heaps of miniatures, before I suddenly come to my senses and think: "WHAT am I doing?!"

Strangely, getting rid of stuff always feels amazingly good. Almost as good as when I'm getting excited about buying things and the excitement of when they first arrive. Why can't the bit in the middle feel as good?!