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I'm not a big fan of Marie Kondo for a number of reasons, but I AM a big fan of periodically purging crap I don't use.

Nothing like the feeling of relief I get from getting rid of a boatload of minis I was never going to paint/play with anyway.

There’s a difference between hoarding and collecting. If your toys are bringing you anxiety and ruin, by all means, do what you have to do. But my collection brings me joy, so I’ll be keeping it and growing it larger, thank you.

 Jimsolo wrote:
I'm not a big fan of Marie Kondo for a number of reasons, but I AM a big fan of periodically purging crap I don't use.

Nothing like the feeling of relief I get from getting rid of a boatload of minis I was never going to paint/play with anyway.

Between my blog and the spreadsheet I use to keept track of what I'm buying for and painting, I get a good idea of what games I'm not playing or interested in anymore. So those go in the "to sell" column.

 Sqorgar wrote:
There’s a difference between hoarding and collecting. If your toys are bringing you anxiety and ruin, by all means, do what you have to do.

But my collection brings me joy, so I’ll be keeping it and growing it larger, thank you.

Indeed.

If going through your collection one-by-one, every single item that you touch brings you joy, then that's awesome! That's what a collection *should* be.

That's how I feel about my bits collection. I'll heap them in a pile, run my fingers through them, let them trickle from my hands, pour them over my face like some elixir of victory to dribble down my chin, apply numerous Band-Aids and do it all again. Pure joy. Soon I will have enough to Scrooge McDuck into.

I had to do this when I moved country a couple of times a few years ago. A lot of what I actually got rid of were old books and stuff, as well as scenery. But I also sold off a few armies super cheap.

To be honest I regret it! I love all my minis and I tend to paint most of my stuff (eventually!) so I especially hate getting rid of anything painted. I really regret getting rid of the hardback rulebooks for WFB in particular.

Some of the armies I miss more than others - my beastmen were pretty cool and I was happy with them, and I am sad that I sold all my metal minotaurs. My Nurgle Marines, I am less bothered by. My old Lizardmen were my first Fantasy army, but I feel content that I am recreating them with modern models now.

I am totally disinterested in 40K and have been for about 8 years now, but I am keeping my Orks and Space Marines in storage and I will use them again sometime I am sure.

That said, different strokes for different folks and I think other people who are less productive painters or whatever might feel differently. But my advice would be, never chuck a painted mini!

I've chucked plenty of painted minis. I've probably given away far more. The tossed stuff didn't deserve a place in someone else's collection for how bad it looked.

If I paid bargain bin prices on some of this stuff, no remorse should be had for tossing it.

I have mostly just slowed down on which games I am upkeeping, and the rest of the minis are in storage. At the moment, no new games are coming into the house, only stuff that expands the 3 or 4 priorities, unless it's something like an indie ruleset that can utilize what minis I already have, save for a couple new minis here and there just to spice things up.

But no more with the starting a new project only to see something new halfway through, all that has done for me is give me half a dozen or more unfinished projects that have cost me who knows how much to just sit there after my creative juices begin to wane.

I used to sell a 40k army every 3 or 4 years... Sold Blood Angels, Imperial Guard and Eldar.
I still hit myself in the head for doing it. They were the beginning of me in the hobby and now this part is lost forever.

Still, I sometimes think about selling my fantasy Orks and Goblins. They've been hidden in boxes for several years now. I used them for Kings of War occasionally, but after WH Fantasy died, they're mostly dead miniatures.

I could sell stuff worth hundreds if not thousends of €... 100% Raging Heroes Sisters of Battles, 100% Mierce Miniatures Chaos Warrios, Warmachine Mercenaries, Hordes Minions etc etc.

I'm just too lazy to get rid of it

By and large, when you sell a mini you only receive a small fraction of amount that you invested in it.

I have seen countless people get rid of armies only to regret it at a later time. Some minis are rare and hard to reacquire even if they are not valuable.

This is not to say that purging is not good. It can free up your living space, provide some extra cash, and change your focus and psychology.

It all depends on your situation.

I rarely get rid of minis. I think that I am nearing the point of purging some. I suppose the best strategy for maximizing returns is to purge slowly and find the right buyers (although some people have had success purging a whole lot of stuff and generating interest on account of the sheer amount of stuff for sale).

I could never bring myself to do this. I'd regret losing my stuff, even the stuff I rarely use. Besides, everyone knows that once you paint your last model you die.

Never seen the show myself, but am a big advocate of clearing out those things you'll never get round to. I only have so much time to paint and I have to be realistic in my hobby ambition. That means that I've been pairing down and reducing the amount of projects I have. I've cut myself right down now and have another lot pending a sell off

Uncle Atom did a vid on this very topic a while back and it echoes much the same idea

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
I'd like to, but the act of selling the stuff is what puts me off; I'm just too lazy to want to bother with Ebay or whatnot.

(on which note, anyone want a Flames of War army? )

Find a reseller. If you were in the US, I would recommend myself, but I'm positive there are some that will just cash you out for any pile you bring to them.

Obviously everyone is in a different starting place. In my case, I had (still have) significantly more miniatures than I would ever use in a game. Therefore, I actually could get rid of fair number of them, and it wouldn't affect my ability to play at all.

In the case of my Warhammer 40,000 stuff, I had at least 25,000 points worth of miniatures for a game that needs a maximum of 2,000 points to play, spread unevenly across 10 factions (including allies/"soup", when I might need 2, 3 at most. Of these, my largest factions were Imperial Guard & Craftworld Eldar.

My Imperial Guard forces were far more than what I would ever field, and I wasn't enamored of the effort required to get every model painted, so shrinking it down to the Formation minimums made a lot of sense to me. This resulted me deciding to sell 40-odd Imperial Guardsmen that I had cleaned, assembled, primed and basecoated. I don't regret that decision in the least. My resulting Imperial Guard force is far more in line with what I want to field, while containing more options and and a better mix of miniatures than what I have ever fielded to date.

Similarly, I traded off my entire painted 2E Chaos Marine army, because I didn't like how small and ugly they were compared to the 3E Space Marines. No ragrets there, aside from spending the time and effort to collect and paint it, when I could have spent that time on something else that I would have kept for the long run. But even then, I feel that I got a lot of good playtime out of it.

OTOH, my Sisters of Battle? It's a minimalist allies army that just became completely playable, so there's basically nothing to cut.

I tried the Marie Kondo method of decluttering your life by getting rid of things that don't bring you joy. It's going pretty well, but the wife and kids are taking it pretty hard.
</sacrasm>

What if you get joy from hoarding?

I've decluttered my collection twice, both times before Kondi-ing was a thing. The first time was before my son was born. I cleared out a bunch of v2-era space marines and eldar, half a case of Star Wars minis (the WoTC versions), and a rather hefty pile of pre-Big Hat Chaos Dwarves. The SM and Eldar mean nothing to me, but the SW and CD still hurt to this day.

The second time was last summer, when I essentially gave away a bunch of unpainted, unassembled, unused models from various Kickstarters, including Myth, Deadzone, Battlesystems terrain and a bunch of other stuff that I don't even remember. Getting rid of this crap felt exhilarating. I guess the lesson is to be aware of what you really need and not be afraid to get rid of the rest.

I only throw out bitz that don't have any uses (too badly damaged, caked in epoxy, etc). I don't feel comfortable selling my stuff, though occasionally I give away things (like my spare Flagellant heads to a Space Pups player I know).

One element of tidying up I try to do is building the mass of sprued-up stuff I still have in my cabinet. They take a lot less space that way, and look more appealing too. Currently on my workbench is a Mantic Forge Father artillery piece and a small Kickstarter pledgeful of Ramshackle Games dwarf bikers. Waiting for their turn are half a dozen more Warzone Imperial Trenchers (1e plastic) and a dozen or so Eisenkern Stormtroopers.

Creepy thread.

If you're fondling every single thing in your home for an elusive sense of 'joy' (let alone every single individual miniature and bit), I honestly suggest therapy over summarily getting ridding of stuff. You aren't making rational decisions, and you're likely going to regret any you do make.

Pink Horror wrote:
What if you get joy from hoarding?

You do you man - but its a medical issue if it gets to be too much

Voss wrote:
Creepy thread.

If you're fondling every single thing in your home for an elusive sense of 'joy' (let alone every single individual miniature and bit), I honestly suggest therapy over summarily getting ridding of stuff. You aren't making rational decisions, and you're likely going to regret any you do make.

Well said.

I oddly do not regret getting rid of my old Warhammer minis or armies I painted as a teenage. I do miss my LEGOs from childhood on the other hand

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
I'd like to, but the act of selling the stuff is what puts me off; I'm just too lazy to want to bother with Ebay or whatnot.

For gaming stuff, take it all to a Bring & Buy at one of the shows. It sucks having to label and price it all though, but it's a lot easier than eBay. Troll Trader in the UK will buy complete minis in bulk, with some local collection thing too, I've no idea how much they pay but it's a quick way to get rid of a lot at once.


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 Overread wrote:
I just think a bit part of her technique is actually making people realise what they own. I think many put stuff into boxes and storage and corners and shelving and forget what they do and don't own. A "Theory that works" can be all the trigger for someone just sitting down and going through their own junk.

I think this is the key part. With gaming (and life), I've got loads of stuff in boxes that I can't even remember about and never leaving the boxes because of it. I'd have a lot more space for the stuff I did use, if I didn't hoarde all the stuff I don't.
Sometimes you find a gem, sometimes you find something and wonder why you bought it in the first place (usually because it was 50% off in my FLGS).

I want to keep every thing i have and make it as large as possible taking up as much space as possible. Unless it gets crazy and i cant even walk in the kitchen or some thing lool.

I suggest the instead of Kondo-ing, make sure any miniature you buy has more than one use in your gaming.

I.e. a Space Marine model could be used in 40K, in Inquisitor 28mm, or various Sci-fi games. A Martian Tripod could be used in All Quiet on the Martian Front, as an Alien beastie in a generic Sci-Fi game, or an adversary in a War of the Worlds Pulp style game. Blood Bowl miniatures can be used in various fantasy sports games, Blood Bowl, or generic fantasy mob models. If a model can not have multiple uses for you.... maybe do not buy it.

I think people need to look at their miniatures more as tools for a job and less of stand-alone items. A diverse range of games and gaming styles helps make each model more diverse.

 Easy E wrote:
I suggest the instead of Kondo-ing, make sure any miniature you buy has more than one use in your gaming.

That's an interesting take, although I don't want generics.

That said, yes, my 40k Imperial Guard could be used in other Modern / SF wargames. And yes, many of my Warhammer Fantasy models could be used in a variety of Historical, Ancients and/or Fantasy wargames. However, I'm not really concerned about trying to play several such games with each set of miniatures when I already have more than enough games to play.

Trying to wrangle several rulesets when I can barely stay on top of what I already have seems a poor idea for me

I think regardless of what approach you take, we're all talking about getting a handle on the pile of shame. It's certainly been a big focus of mine in the last year or so. My wife caught on to the Kondo thing a little and she does a good job of inspiring people to clean house, but its really the kind of problem you need to attack by looking at the whole thing end to end.

Part of that is that miniatures aren't very rewarding to get rid of. Their value is abysmal and the reasons to get rid of them are often temporary. Just because say, Tyranids are terrible now doesn't mean they will be next year and if you've even put in the time to build them its probably better to shelve them if its an army you're passionate about.

For a lot of people, its just about good intentions vs actual time. You get a deal on something you think you'll do someday but you do that way more than somedays you have to work on it and it just gets put far on the backburner. For me, the big thing I needed to tackle wasn't what I should get rid of, but simply realistically assessing what I can accomplish in a month or two and focusing on buying things to work on for that period of time. I threw most of my pile of shame in spreadsheet and sorted it out by project mostly so when something new and shiny caught my eye I could ask myself which projects I was willing to set aside to work on something new. By the same token, it gave me a good idea of what I really wasn't ever getting to and would be best off selling.

One of the big things I've done is lock down on a single faction for each game system I have and really work to get it fully painted. Sometimes I do this by making it a painting priority and sometimes I do this by selling stuff I probably shouldn't have bought, but ultimately the idea is to get it to the point where if I buy something for that faction, it becomes my painting priority so that I can be fully painted again before it gets a chance to build up. Likewise, if I want to start a side faction, I'm trying to be better about just getting what I need to run the list I want and not try to have a lot of options. The side faction is an option all of its own.

 LunarSol wrote:
I think regardless of what approach you take, we're all talking about getting a handle on the pile of shame.

Part of that is that miniatures aren't very rewarding to get rid of. Their value is abysmal and the reasons to get rid of them are often temporary.

For me, the big thing I needed to tackle wasn't what I should get rid of, but simply realistically assessing what I can accomplish in a month or two and focusing on buying things to work on for that period of time.

Exactly! If you have a pile of shame, a closet of shame, a room of shame, then finding a rational way to eliminate it is a good thing.

For me, I generally get my money back on OOP stuff, and I should be able to make a little more money as I clear out the excess bitz.

Having a master plan is a great help at clarifying whether an individual whatnot belongs or not.

Kondo-ing your gaming hobby results in you participating in this thread years later: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/770740.page

 Vulcan wrote:
Kondo-ing your gaming hobby results in you participating in this thread years later: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/770740.page

NO RAGRETS

Seriously.

I've sold and traded quite a fair share of stuff for various reasons, and I can't really think of any sales or trades that I regret. Every single one of those was something I decided to unload for whatever reason, and none of it has left me in a situation where I can't still play.

OTOH, I honestly believe it would have been far better if I had been even tighter on my purchases back when I was buying, so that I wouldn't now be in the position of sifting the wheat from the chaff and disposing of the excess. I am glad that I didn't start a lot of fad games, glad that I didn't add even more armies to the pile, glad that I didn't buy even more than I already did.

So yeah, I'm good.

I've had a couple of brief regrets, wanting to get into a game and thinking "ooh I've got a pile of them somewhere" to realising I need to buy them again. It's not really been a big deal.

But I made sure to factor in re-purchasing when clearing out. If it's rare or expensive (KS exclusives, OOP GW) I'm more likely to keep it, if it's going to be trivial to replace (badly painted Space Marines) then it's almost certainly gone.

My resolve hardened up when I thought of it like this:
Houses cost about $1500/m^2 here (9 square feet), so I can afford to take a loss of about $1500 on re-buying stuff if it saves me having to buy a bigger house.
I've sold off maybe $2000 worth of gaming stuff since I started clearing things out, and so far haven't actually had to re-buy anything. If I hadn't, I'd have definitely had to have bought a bigger house with room for a mancave (which would have cost me $100,000 easily, as I can't buy houses in m^2 increments.)

I usually get rid of armies that aren't up to my current level of painting skill. Although I've gotten rid of some cool stuff, I don't really miss any of it as you can always just buy more. Out with the old, in with the new.

My new philosophy is that if it isn't good enough to occupy a slot in a battlefoam case, then it goes into the drawer of hard feelings and eventually gotten rid of.

I'm tired of having so many miniatures for twice as many games that everything gets half assed.