During the time I was stranded in Thailand in 2020 I came back to China.  I came back for my then-fiancee at the time, but let's be honest I also came back for my stuff.  The ultimate question is:  without all that stuff tying me down, would I have come back? 

Many lengthy conversations on planes and trains with a true friend I met at work show that the decisions I made during 2020 were driven by fear.  In his own words, "Fear is what made you come back to China before they closed the border."  And he is essentially right.  Staying there in Thailand when the virus began to surge seemed like real fear.  When China had somehow 'contained' it, the idea that I could avoid this fear of the unknown by going back was what set the trap.

Even before the Shanghai lockdown in 2022, I knew this had been the wrong decision to go back.  But I took stock of the situation:  I could use the pandemic as an opportunity to gradually declutter all my stuff.  And so the minimalism philosophy was born.   What followed was a complex 3-5 year plan.

The plan was centered on a few pillars.  The first pillar was to take a general inventory of what I had and put the bulk in storage.  Then over a period of years I would visit the storage locker on a bike, take more inventories, and find creative ways to get rid of things.  Books, for example, could be downloaded from Z-libary which unfortunately got blocked but seems to be back running again.  Then the physical books could be donated or sold.  Many other stuff could be donated or sent to charities.  Countless times I would bike to the storage locker, do an inventory or partial clearout, and feel satisfied when one more box of stuff was gone.  As long as more stuff was coming out of the storage locker than going in, I was on the right track.  Friends helped out with this too.  A key moment was getting rid of my desktop computer and printer and donating to a student and he could use for his own lessons.

The other pillar was to guard against future clutter like a hawk.  I would set a rule:  no deliveries of any kind to my house whatsoever.  If I needed something, I would buy it at a store.  If there was a gift from school or whatever, I would assess the value of it.  Stored value cards like Starbucks for example were useful.  Other general clutter would have to be dumped in a garbage somewhere off the premises.

The key to all this was to do it slowly.  Sure there were a few purges where I would get inspired and dump a whole bunch of stuff at once.  For example, right after the Shanghai lockdown I had successfully digitized my entire former DVD and computer collection.  As soon as the compound opened, immediately I put everything into a large bag and dumped the whole lot.  Sophia was shocked, but how could she be?  We spent over two months in lockdown and I was ruthlessly decluttering the whole time and already planning my escape.

The same process happened with clutter and stuff in my office.  The end game was to reduce clutter to nearly zero.  That way if I needed to move offices at the drop of a hat  (and I did at the end of 2024), then it could happen.  Also it set the stage where there was nothing to leave behind.  If I wanted to do a midnight run, I needed to be prepared.