"Simplify, simplify; or, does the hobby end up owning you?" Topic

Recently I've given a deal of thought to divesting myself of the majority of my gaming stuff, boardgames included. Despite my best efforts I've allowed the siren call of "new stuff" to get out of control, my spare room is heaving with boxes of stuff, figures, terrain, rulebooks, modelling supplies, etc, etc.

Standing in that room it kind of feels like the hobby has started to own me, rather than the other way around. I've always had a bit of a hippy/minimalist tendency anyway and I can't help but think purging all but a core would be fantastically liberating. I'd probably keep my WW2 stuff, and Saga for sword and pointy stick games. I really don't think I'd really miss the rest, despite the time and effort I've put in painting and building it over the years. It kind of feels like the more games I have, the more my enjoyment becomes diluted.

Or even, possibly, dumping the LOT and starting afresh, choosing one period and scale and just doing that. I've always admired folk like BigRedBat and DerAlteFritz who do one thing but do it really well.

Has anyone else come to a similar conclusion, and acted on it? Was it liberating or did you regret it?

(Of course, a number of Kickstarter pledges I'm waiting on would probably end up restocking my newly empty shelves…)

Must be that time of the year because I was thinking the same thing.

New stuff doesn't really enthuse me any more. I write my own rules. I have more than enough minis to paint. Life is demanding more from me these days and I can't even get motivated to paint. So, my purchasing is way down.

However, I too, have more than I need. I want to cull the heard, so to speak. I may go and sell stuff at Cold Wars next year in Wally's basement. Rules and games I won't play any more, miniatures that I won't get to etc.

I've done it twice before. I did not regret it. It was quite liberating. I think I sold a couple of things that I did eventually buy back (very minor regret) but for the ost part, I am glad for what I did.

There are therapies and medications to make the nasty voices go away, you know.

Keine sorge, Keine sorge, this will pass. Have a bromo-seltzer and a nice brandy and consider your pretty toys.

I'm in the middle of such a purge myself, and it's trickier than you'd think. I'm down about seven period/scale combinations over the last two years, and three more to go--not to mention miscellaneous books, rules and whatever.

Regrets? Not so far this round. I've sold stuff for money when I was hard up and wished I hadn't had to, and if I hadn't sold a particular collection for peanuts 20+ years ago, I wouldn't be spending some serious money on something similar today. But that was stuff sold for money. I haven't missed the stuff I sold because I had too much stuff.

My advice would be to
1. Pick a volume you don't mean to exceed.
2. Outline a core area and be generous with yourself about it, and use part of the sale money from the surplus to get the core stuff complete.
3. Minimize scales and climates. Every scale and climate means a new set of terrain and trees, hills and buildings take up a lot of volume. If your fantasy armies are 28mm desert, so should your colonials be. If your WWII are microscale temperate zone, your horse & musket might as well match.
4. Remember conditions of life change, and not always for the better. If you love miniatures, keep at least one set you can play on a card table--and with bad eyes.

But keep thinning the collection. Like edging the lawn, it's just something you have to do at regular intervals.

Can't say I've had this inclination. But then I have limited myself to 1 scale and 1 period, but have thought of branching out.

I've had the urge, acted on it and often regretted it.

This is a therapeutic hobby.

Consider your aquisitions and effort as a pursuit of your bliss. Cheaper and less evasive than psychiatrists. You stand atop a mountain of accomplishment. Keeping it close at hand…even if it requires a periodic visit to the attic it is well worth the trouble. Some people write diaries…we paint stuff creating way-posts to our existence! Cling to it as a baby opossum clings to it's mother…. or some better analogy.

If you need the money dump it!

I've got stuff that I'd consider getting rid of, but I don't really know how to sell it.

I've got a matched pair of 28mm Turk/Pole armies painted to a very high standard that have never been played – probably 500 figures total. I'd hate to sell one, and then get stuck with an unmatched army. Selling both seems unlikely, given the selling price, plus the fact that they are so heavy that it would have to be a local delivery. So I do nothing.

Every once in a while I have the urge to streamline my collection. I go through the various bins of stalled projects and ask myself if I will ever revisit the project and would I miss the figures if gone…I probably get rid of less than I should but it's a start. I then promptly reinvest the funds derived from the culling into new lead. For me there is nothing better than opening a package and looking at unpainted lead and imagining how I will paint them up and base them (even if I never do)….

I moved around periods and scales and sold figs after determining I would never use them again and have been correct mostly. I began my current 28mm ACW because I decided the rumor the Perry's were sculpting AWI was false. A year later there was Perry's AWI. I bought them anyway, never painted them and sold them. Of all the figs I sold off, I miss some of the AWI figs.

I've done it years ago and never looked back. I limit myself to a few ranges and one scale. Happy as a lark am I!!! The hobby is loads of fun but not the center of my life.

I did it. I sold a 35 year collection of figures, books, terrain, everything. I felt like I was drowning in stuff. I actually stopped gaming for a couple of years. I went back to it with my old gaming group. I was very glad they welcomed me back.
So to your bigger question. Do I regret it. Not really. It helped me at the time. However, I have one large caveat. Look at the stuff you have. Are there periods you really like where you have figures. Later on, there were a couple of collections I was sorry I sold.
On the whole, though, it was good for me.

I cut back to three periods and actually game more. Before I spent more time on different projects. For me, better to have fewer periods and I'm actually gaming more.

When I have felt bad about selling something, I realize that if I actually gamed it, I wouldn't have sold it.

But that's just me.

Frothers, I understand very much how you feel about drowning in stuff, yet being hesitant/reluctant to let of things. When I was younger, I would hang on to every game, rules set, figure or model collection because I knew my gaming desires would go in cycles, and I never knew when I would want to play with any given part of my collection again. Before I could let go of something, I had to be able to face up to the fact that I would never use those rules/figures/board game again.

I don't think I ever had a collection as large as some of you here, but I used to have a dozen or so Avalon Hill games in addition to my miniatures. I sold off or gave away all but three, because I realized I would never again play some of those monster games, (like Struggle of Nations).

Then I started selling off some collections of figures I had collected as one side, since I had been for the last 15-20 years in a group where we would each paint our own armies to fight someone else's armies. I didn't regret selling them off.

But the real kick in the pants was when my wife and I had to quickly pick up and move from the west coast to the east coast. There was no time to sell off anymore, and I still had more than I wanted to take with me. I took stock of what I had left, and ended up giving away about 1/3 to 1/2 of my remaining collection.

There is a quote from the Minimalists to the effect that we should always ask ourselves if our possessions still add value to our lives. The trouble with wargames, and historical wargames in particular, is that it is easy to convince ourselves that ALL of it adds value to our lives, because we "might want to play ____again someday". There is so much out there to catch our interest, and it can be hard to set limits for ourselves in how we are going to spend our efforts.

Does this mean I have made my final decisions on where to focus the rest of my life? No….no. But in the last two years since the move, I have had fewer distractions by ignoring the magpies following after the latest new hotness, and enjoyed my painting and gaming immensely. Smaller games, and in 28mm, individually mounted figures for maximum flexibility, have been the theme of my activity. God bless those who can collect and paint 1000's of 28's for massive all-day affairs, but that just isn't for me anymore…and that's ok!

By the way, if you are getting hung up on the thought of all the time and money you spent collecting and painting the figs, don't expect to "recoup" your cost, or take a loss. If you had fun painting the figs, and even played some games with them, you have been repaid in the therapeutic benefit of painting, plus fond memories with friends. If you get some money from them, that's a bonus.

I have had reduced my wargaming stash a few times and it has felt liberating. I totally understand where the OP is coming from.

What I did was let my subconscious percolate on it for a while before I sold things, to prevent an impulse sell from making me jettison something significant to me.

The stuff I have got rid of over the years I have generally regretted, but I do get the idea of drowning in stuff.

These days, any new stuff I get is limited by the designated storage area, so I have an exciting new game of fitting slightly too much stuff in the same storage space. I is fun!

Yeah me too. I have a load of PSC stuff still in boxes and a stalled 7YW project. My Indian city occupies two hampers in a corner of the bedroom.

Consider your aquisitions and effort as a pursuit of your bliss.

I don't think that acquiring stuff is the path to contentment. I am firmly in the simplify camp. I just got rid of a bunch of unused figures and am happy to see them go. I am now doing small projects in small scale (3mm), which reduces the amount of clutter that my minis cause.

Another tip for simplifying is to remember that there are only 3 periods. Echoing Morschauser, they are shock, horse & musket, and modern. Sticking to 3 reduces the amount of forces needed. For versatility, I use imagi-nations and sci-fi. Sci-fi is extremely malleable. You can do gunfights a la the Wild West, pirate boarding actions, tank actions, battleship actions in space, etc.

This is where gaming mostly in smaller scales (2mm-10mm plus a few 15mm DBA armies and some 20 & 28mm skirmish types) comes into its own.

Space to store is minimal – particularly for unpainted stuff. Easy to transport even quite large armies (I don't drive so that's important).

Selling them gets next to nowt so I just keep stuff. Where is there a decision in that ?

Loads of very good advice on strategies to keep/get the collection under control also great thoughts on how others approch the hobbies physical aspect.

A few years back I felt the same as you. I decided to sell off all unpainted miniatures,rules I didn't care for and research books that weren't part of the periods that were being kept. I gave away the bit's of wood, plastic and sundry stuff that had been saved for building terrain. It was a good move. There was more space and the thoought of completing the projects that remained was not so over whelming.

That's not to say new projects haven't been started. Most are small and all have an endpoint.

Part of the hobby is collecting things even if they are never used to thier fullest. So I woould imagen that every so often things must be sold off to keep it in line. I've no regrets about what's been sold and none of those periods have been replaced.

Good Luck!

Part of the hobby is collecting things even if they are never used to thier fullest.

Yeah, so true and yet its not mentioned much.

I have a control mechanism: my apartment is so full of gaming stuff that I really have to think about doing a new period.

20 years ago I did divest myself of a bunch of stuff. I do have the odd pang of remorse every now and then. I'm not tempted to do it again any time soon.

I just cleared out 4 boxes of books and old boxed games, to refocus on things I want to spend the time on.
Felt pretty good.

I have been thinkng of playing ACW again and bought a few figures awhile ago. When I started to get the painting bug,I opened up a box and lo and behold was several hundred already primed and waiting to be painted,so no new figs are needed. Sometimes there is something to be said for drowning.

I have been downsizing for several years and I feel a LOT better. I actually just gave away a project to a local guy because it was like an anchor around my neck.

I am with Ed, few period = more gaming. Try it, you will feel better about yourself and the hobby.

As a youngster, I collected mostly Avalon Hill and plastic minis. When I joined the military, my Ma either gave or (probably) threw it all away. Loads of games and thousands of figures.

I collect most periods in most scales. I am one of those that can change from one period or scale to another in a matter of minutes. I have numerous painting trays, usually with a smattering of periods/scales on each tray to cover any eventuality. What usually triggers my change in mood is what I am doing that day. I am retired and don't watch TV, except for sports. I usually start off in the morning doing my chores and errands. Usually finished with all by noon. I will then usually put on some music, or pop a movie into the DVD player. If it is Battle of the Bulge, out comes the WW2 stuff. 6mm or FOW. If I am watching a documentary on the Templars, out come my Crusaders….10/15/25mm. It goes like this until either I or the kids visit.

I do not find the painting, building, or cleaning frustrating or taxing at all. To me it is very therapeutic. My wife met me as a young Marine, and at 1st thought my hobby was a little funny….(oh, you play with little guys). My kids and Granddaughter have come around to her way of thinking. My Granddaughter even asks me for guys to play with when we visit. My wife knows I could be doing a lot of other things that might lead to trouble or cost more if I did not have this. She even bought me a 16X16 2 story shed to house just my hobby stuff. Eventually the downstairs will be a reference library/work area and the upstairs for a large table and storage.

I am a firm believer in "he who dies with the most toys wins". I'm just trying to get in the running. Enjoy it, life is too short to worry about toys, unless you collect cars.

I am with Ed, few period = more gaming.

There's wisdom in that. One of the things that prompted me to consider downsizing was that the more projects I took on, the less got done on any of them. If your focus becomes diffused, it's harder to hone on on anything at all.

So, thank you for all responses, pro and anti dumping of figures/rules/stuff. After thinking deeply, and chatting to a gaming buddy about it, I'm going to go ahead. After Xmas eBay will be getting some serious attention from me! And bearing in mind warwell's observation about there only being three periods I'll be keeping:

28mm Saga
28mm ACW Sharp Practice
20mm WW2

And all the rest, including most of my boardgames, will be OUTTAHERE.

And I would say even just having made that decision feels like a burden has been lifted!

I've spent the last couple of years gradually downsizing and have not missed a single item. It's been tremendously therapeutic.

The only toys I regret dumping are my original Airfix/Britains/Timpo 1/32 figures; luckily I found I just don't have an emotional attachment to anything I've bought since 1983.

I'd get bored silly just doing one period so over the years I have arrived at some sort of happy medium. I have three main 'big battle' periods that I have both sides for and a few smaller skirmish type projects as well. I've sold stuff off and it's been a positive experience clearing both physical space and perhaps more importantly head space.

I've tried to be realistic about what I can hope to achieve which has ensured I've not bought too much stuff.

I went from a 2600 square foot house two story with a cellar and a 2 1/2 car garage to a 1050 square foot patio home. No stairs, no cellar, no garage. I got rid, sold, gave away two-three laundry baskets of stuff that was just dragging me down. Besides all the other STUFF in the house. It took us three months to liquidate our belongings to the point we could live in our new teeny tiny house. Now I do Saga and Lion rampant more as an excuse to collect and paint 28 mil models than play. I have a large army of Crimean war n 15mil that I kept. Next year want to do ATKM with WSS plastics for a small imaginations setup. And a small peninsula war force for BP, a division for each side. And commands and colors because I love the little wood blocks! At the end of it all, it really did feel liberating! Incredibly so!