I once was a real knife nut. I had a 'collection' of more than 50 knives, and my gun collection was pretty big as well. My the time I was in my 50's, I wasn't really using but a fraction of the stuff I had, and most of it was sitting around being coveted.
I'm to really sure what happened, but it was like a slow dawning, and then it was like coming-out of a some sort of temporary insanity and I looked at all the stuff and the thought camera into my mind, "What the hell am I doing with all this stuff?!"
First I sold off the custom stuff, like the Randall's and other custom fixed blades. Then I gave some the guns to the kids and grandkids that wanted. The nephews, nieces, co-workers and fiends all got stuff. What the family didn't want, got sold off or given away. The wife and I had went through our stuff and carefully selected what we really used and what really meant something to us. We'd accumulated a lot of crap that was impulse buys and got used for a bit then put away. That all went.
It was sooooo incredibly liberating that I don't know if I can accurately describe it. It was like a ball and chain got cut off our leg, or coming-out of a deep dark place and into daylight and fresh air again. Our possessions had owned us and we rebelled and found a freedom. We're not going there again. We have rule of not buying anything unless it's really needed, and if we don't use something for a year it's going. When we moved from Maryland to Texas in 2015, we did another really big downsize. We moved from a three bedroom two story place of 2600 square feet to a one level two bedroom 1600 square feet place in a warm climate where we don't need much winter clothing or any snow shovels.
My pocket knife 'accumulation' can be held in one hand, as can my handgun collection. A few nice specimens of each is good enough.
Simple is liberating.
