Would you buy all your stuff again?

I opened the top closet in our apartment and took down my snowboard.  I had only just recently used my snowboard for the first time in a few years.  The padding on the bindings for some reason started to peel and got my snowboarding pants covered in black smears, like I’d walked through an ash pit.  “Well, these bindings have got to go,” I thought.  I unhooked them and put them in the Craigslist/Freecycle pile.

Then I got out my little luggage weigher and decided to check how much the snowboard and case weighed.  I hooked up the little device to the snowboard bag and suspended it in the air for a moment.  I was shocked when I saw the device read 5kg.  Wait!  5kg!?

I did the math quickly in my head.  “Okay, so it’s about 950 yen, at the cheapest, to send 1kg, and this is 5, so I’m looking at paying almost 5,000 yen (around $60) to bring my snowboard home.”  Or in other words, I am buying my snowboard again for $60. 

It’s already mine.  But, if I want to keep it, I have to pay for it.  That is how I am looking at all of my possessions as I get ready to move back to the US.  Each 1kg book, 10kg box of tools, or 10kg bike must be analyzed.

1kg book:  Would I pay $10 for the chance to read this again?  No, I wouldn’t.  Freecycle it is. 

15kg of Videogame stuff (including consoles, games, controllers, etc.  This estimate is probably high):  I do play a lot of games, and I could sell it for more than that back home.  Okay, it goes.  But I am very picky which games make the cut.

Bike:  This is a no brainer.  The bike has already paid for itself, plus.  It’s coming with me.

In the end weight is the most important, but still I’m having to buy my stuff again if I want to keep it.  I like looking at it as if I’m in a store and have a choice to buy or not.  If I really feel like I wouldn’t buy it in a store it goes into the Craigslist/Freecycle pile.

So far no DVDs, books, comic books, nor toys have made the cut.  It’s not looking good for the snowboard either.