Although I am not a buyer at all. I recently (2013) came to the conclusion that I acquired a lot of things during my 16 years in Holland. Most of the time I am very picky about what I buy and I do not love going shopping as a leisure activity, but still.
Now that I have decided that I want to travel for a while without an end date. I am trying to get rid of everything. It has been lots of fun selling those things on marktplaats (a Dutch equivalent for eBay) and bol.com.
And with getting rid of those things not only my house grew empty but also my head! Which was a nice side effect! The stuff I didn’t have a problem getting rid off, but with digitizing my pictures I had a harder time. With the pictures came the memories, the good and the bad ones. Sometimes it felt almost like going through therapy flipping through the pics. It felt like confronting myself with the past that made me who I am today! It was a good process to go through, my past makes me who I am now.
Steve Jobs has a famous quote about the connection with the past: 'You can’t connect the dots looking forward; You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something. Your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever'. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.