Did you ever downsize?

This is really an interesting topic. There are lots of reasons why people downsize their collections. Some want to be able to manage the amount of dolls they have, others may be planning on getting a new doll to replace the one they let go.

In my case, I have "evolved" into someone who isn't really attached to their dolls or objects in general. I've come to a point in my life where I want to be free of unnecessary material possessions. Of course, I'm not going to be as extreme as Fumio Sasaki, who discarded all of his possessions so he can live a life free of material objects.I still need my clothes, shoes and accessories so I can look presentable at my workplace.

I turned to Minimalism because I was burdened by objects. I remember buying the dolls and the joy of having them, taking photos of them, attending doll meets and meeting other collectors. However, now that I've focused on my career and living a less cluttered life, most of my things (including doll) don't make me happy anymore. I had to make the difficult choice of letting go. I started with books. I had a lot of books! Hundreds of them--most of them I have not read but I thought I would have the time to read. But I let go of them all because I had realized I will not have time to read all of them. Once I got over the hurdle of letting go of my stuff, I let go of plenty of clothes and shoes.

I've had some life-changing decisions that I had to make and face in the last few years. I've also been inactive in the forums for a very long time and I have all my dolls in storage. I'm at a point in my life where I can't keep my doll collection since I'm traveling a lot and do not have a large space to display/showcase all my dolls. I will keep 2, since the y will be mementos of that stage in my life where I had the joy of collecting these beautiful dolls!

 

I think I have a tendency to "hoard", so I know how you feel... The moment I think of selling a doll that doll suddenly becomes my favourite. LOL!!
@Alithéa - I really do admire you for getting over that hurdle. I think the first few steps are the hardest. I've managed to let go of some things, but I find with each "category of stuff" there's a new hurdle.
When it comes to my dolls, there's no hurdle - it's a 10-foot wall. LOL!!

 

I have downsized before and probably need to do so again at some point in the imminent future. I'm always conflicted because it's usually older/retired dolls that have been stored away for a long time for whatever reasons (no longer my style/lost inspiration/never finished customizing/no space/etc), but I get a weird anxiety that I might not be able to find them later if I change my mind down the road.

I will say that I haven't regretted selling any dolls I have managed let go of. It's nice to know they're going on to someone else that can properly appreciate them.

 

I downsize when I feel like I'm not attached to certain bjds anymore. The money you make from them helps you get ones you would really like!

 

Helpful thread. I am considering downsizing my collection. I anticipate moving in a few years to a much smaller place, and I'd rather start now while I have the time and effort to contribute to the selling process. I miss the simplicity of only having a couple of dolls, too.

 

This thread is an interesting read. I've only been in the hobby for a year or two and have seven dolls at the moment, but I'm already eyeing my first couple dolls and trying to gauge how much I *really* need to hang on to them, given they're non-standard sizes that make them a little frustrating to work on despite how pretty they are and how sentimental I get about these things. I think my tastes may be changing somewhat since I got them, too.

I'm currently in a tiny apartment for about a year after moving cross-country, with a lot of things packed away in storage even after getting rid of ~70% of my belongings. At the end of the year, I plan to revisit everything that's been out of sight in boxes and see what I haven't missed, including dolls.

 

I'm in the process of downsizing atm. It is not something I believed I would do one day. I only own 5 BJDs and a head but I think it is already more than I can manage as I don't pay all of them the attention they need.

The main source of my problem is that in the past two years I started paying more attention to tiny anthro bjds and ended up with two in the same year. I do not really bond with them and I do not feel like playing with them as I origininally intended. I have already put one of them up for sale while I think about the other one because it was the one that I feel in love with in the first place. It's sad because both are limited dolls and I had a hard time getting them.

I think the effects after dowsizing depend on the reasons you downsized your colletion in the first place. If it is about space, maybe in the future you have more room for them. But if it is like my case, where you do not feel comfortable with more than 3-4 dolls, I think there is no going bigger or back.

 

I have down sized several times, more than once with the intention of leaving the hobby. Thankfully I could never sever the affection to 4 of my dolls - 3 of which are Pipos anthros. I always ended up falling back in love with the hobby, and have managed to get the numbers back up there. I recently hit 14 anthro dolls, which is the same number I had before my last big purge. And that's just my anthros.

I do think I was a little short sighted with some of my down sizing. If I had realized that some of these sculpts would be retired, I would like to think I would have held onto some of them. Hind sight truly is 20/20. Some dolls I sold because I didn't bond with them, or didn't end up liking, and those I don't regret, as it was something thought out over time.

For me, I think down sizing is best decided not under stressful circumstances. My regrets have come from decisions made then.

 

I think about it and talk about it but I’ve never sold a doll. (Yet)
I’m doing KonMari this year and dolls immediately got pushed back to the ‘sentimental items’ category to tackle last so I am hoping to be more decisive when I’ve completed the other categories. The dolls might be just one category that stays big or I might decide to refine my collection. I’m waiting to see how it feels once everything else is sorted.
I feel like I might need to take a year or so to really work in-depth in the hobby with my collection, paint and sew and photograph a lot... before I make any big culling decisions.

 

Have you ever voluntarily downsized or reduced your doll collection at any point apart from selling due to financial need? Have you ever decided to sell the dolls you like but don’t truly love?
Do you have a ‘doll in, doll out’ policy? Does it work well?
Have you ever had a big sorting and actually sold off those extra wigs, eyes, clothes that no one seemed to claim instead of holding on to them?
Please tell me about your successful doll and doll stuff clear-outs, I’m overdue for one and I’m dragging my feet...

 

Have you ever voluntarily downsized or reduced your doll collection at any point apart from selling due to financial need?
I have once downsized my doll collection from 10 to 5. Not because of financial need but at that time my focus was not BJD, some of them had been sitting there for like a year. Then I decided to re-home them :/
If I had financial need, I would sell their clothes, eyes, etc. before selling the dolls.

Have you ever decided to sell the dolls you like but don’t truly love?
Yup.

Do you have a ‘doll in, doll out’ policy? Does it work well?
I don't. But I have a policy of 'no more than 10 dolls'. For me, I can't handle too many dolls. Usually I play with 1~2 at a certain time then the other dolls.

Have you ever had a big sorting and actually sold off those extra wigs, eyes, clothes that no one seemed to claim instead of holding on to them?
Of course! This often happens when they 'grow' (changing body). I sold like tons of dresses when my Alice changed to SDGr body some years ago, and recently did it again as Shishou changed from SDGr body to SD17 body
For wigs and eyes it depends.

 

Have you ever voluntarily downsized or reduced your doll collection at any point apart from selling due to financial need?
Yep! In fact, I completely restarted my collection from scratch about a year and a half ago. I decided to focus on dolls I had interesting ideas for from a couple of sculptors I greatly admire rather than dolls I simply liked/loved.

Have you ever decided to sell the dolls you like but don’t truly love?
Quite few times, though I've decided I'm past leaving any of it up to chance. I know which dolls are my favorites and what makes them work for me now.

Do you have a ‘doll in, doll out’ policy? Does it work well?
No, but I've set a general number limit. It works fine. You just have to stop shopping.

Have you ever had a big sorting and actually sold off those extra wigs, eyes, clothes that no one seemed to claim instead of holding on to them?
Oh yes. This is a much bigger pain than the dolls themselves but worth it. Jsut think of all the space saved, the fact that someone else will enjoy those things. As a bonus, this also helps prevent future over-shopping in my experience.

 

I sold off almost all of my white resin CP/Delfs and about half of my Soom dolls once upon a time, nearly halving the size of my collection. I did that because I really didn't like the way CP's white resin was aging, and because I'd mostly fallen out of love with the sculptural style of that generation of Sooms.

I used the proceeds to buy NS replacements for some of the white Delfs, and the rest to pick up other sculpts that I was interested in. The total number of dolls that I ended up with really wasn't any smaller than where I'd started... but I was much happier with the collection as a result.

 

Have you ever voluntarily downsized or reduced your doll collection at any point apart from selling due to financial need?
Oh yes. If you see a rash of sales posts from me, it means that I'm paying bills.

About two or three years into the hobby, I restarted my collection. I got rid of all my dolls but three. I realized that I'd been approaching the hobby wrong, and I needed to start over. It worked.

I've culled and reset portions of it ever since. But nothing like that first purge.

Have you ever decided to sell the dolls you like but don’t truly love?
It's a must, at least if you're on low income. Or don't have a lot of space. I even sold a doll within a month of getting her. Right out of the box, she wasn't for me.

Do you have a ‘doll in, doll out’ policy? Does it work well?
No, but I should.

I've thought about it. The problem is that I finally have most of the sculpts I love. Not so many impulses. I've gotten better at discerning what I like, and what I want to own.

Have you ever had a big sorting and actually sold off those extra wigs, eyes, clothes that no one seemed to claim instead of holding on to them?
I did, and it was a disaster. One bid on Ebay, and the person who won turned around and tried to sell each item for scalper prices. Now I just give my extras away with dolls I sell or trade.

 

Have you ever voluntarily downsized or reduced your doll collection at any point apart from selling due to financial need?
Nope, but then I only have 4 MSD's and 3 Yo-SD's, which is a manageable number to me.

Have you ever decided to sell the dolls you like but don’t truly love?
It has crossed my mind a couple of times with my newer dolls, but then I take the doll out for a bit and fall in love again. XD I think it helps that I usually think about a doll purchase a lot before making it, to begin with.

Do you have a ‘doll in, doll out’ policy? Does it work well?
I don't. I just make sure I really want a doll before I get it (and I'm not just sucked in by the styling, photography, etc.)

Have you ever had a big sorting and actually sold off those extra wigs, eyes, clothes that no one seemed to claim instead of holding on to them?
No, but I have tons of extras, so I should! Some of the answers to this question in this thread are inspiring me to get off my butt and properly sort through my stuff for sale, so thanks for asking it! I think one thing holding me back is that the Marketplace here isn't really conducive to selling large lots of items... I need to figure something out....

 

Have you ever voluntarily downsized or reduced your doll collection at any point apart from selling due to financial need?
Yes, i've done this twice now. The first time was a few years ago and I had around 15 dolls that I downsized to about 7. While about half of my collection were characters from my favorite/main original story, the rest were some of my favorite characters from other stories of mine but they didn't connect in any way to more than one other doll/character I had at the time. I thought I was spreading my time/finances too thin trying to shell so many characters from so many different stories and I felt confused and overwhelmed as to where I should focus my attention next, so I decided to let go of all the dolls who's characters were not a part of my main storyline.
The second time I "downsized" was earlier this year, but it wasn't exactly a culling so much as it was a changing of doll scale. I had 7 MSDs and 1 SD, and now I have 0 MSDs and 6 SDs (including floating heads/incoming dolls). I adored my MSDs and I had put so much work into them over the years, but after working on their story-line for 6+ years I just got very burnt out thinking about all the characters I still wanted to shell and because I was such a huge perfectionist about those characters I found myself getting progressively more exhausted and frustrated while working on them. Now I only have SDs and technically they are all from the same story, but they are meant to be fun art projects that I am free to develop and change however I want, and i'm much happier and inspired by my collection now~

Have you ever decided to sell the dolls you like but don’t truly love?
Ahh...no I guess? I've sold plenty of sculpts I absolutely adored because they just didn't work out for the characters I had in mind for them or I decided to not pursue their story/character anymore for reasons that had nothing to do with my feelings of the sculpt itself, but I can't really say that i've ever sold a doll simply because I liked a particular sculpt less than another. I've genuinely loved every doll i've ever owned; each for different reasons. I suppose if you count "feeling less inspired by" a sculpt/character as "liking them less", then... yes?

Do you have a ‘doll in, doll out’ policy? Does it work well?
No, definitely not, but only because I don't really set a limit for how many dolls I can have at one time. I like the idea of keeping my collection somewhere around a max of 15, but as long as I have the time and funds to devote to everyone and am equally inspired by all the dolls I have, I don't feel the need to strictly enforce a max number at all times.

Have you ever had a big sorting and actually sold off those extra wigs, eyes, clothes that no one seemed to claim instead of holding on to them?
Yes, quite a few times. Generally speaking, I don't like to repeat colors/styles among my dolls/characters, so if I let got of even one doll its very likely that their items will not suit any of my other dolls. I also don't like to have doll things (or floating heads lol) sitting around that i'm not using, so I like to clean things out fairly often.

 

Someone a looooong time ago on a local doll forum created the "Razor" method. It consist on asking yourself if you hadn't bought that doll and could do it now, would you do it? I have found it does help alot in clearing your mind (I have a huge collection and tend to do this often)

 

Have you ever voluntarily downsized or reduced your doll collection at any point apart from selling due to financial need? Have you ever decided to sell the dolls you like but don’t truly love?
Yes, I had 5 dolls, and sold two because I didnt feel as bonded to them, Ive sold others as well but mostly because I didnt bond with their chacarters/sculpt.

Do you have a ‘doll in, doll out’ policy? Does it work well?
Not really, but ive never had more than 4 or 5 at a time.

Have you ever had a big sorting and actually sold off those extra wigs, eyes, clothes that no one seemed to claim instead of holding on to them?
Oh all the time!!! I tend to buy a lot of stuff, then find im not using all of it an sell it due to lack of storage.

 

When I hit 30 dolls I realized that I wasn't getting nearly the enjoyment out of them as I had when I had a third of that number. Add to that the fact that after several long-distance moves I had stopped unpacking more and more of the dolls with each move, and I started to realize that I needed to downsize because I just wasn't enjoying having all of them.

And more than that, it made me reflect on my general tendency to acquire things that I enjoy in the short-term but don't necessarily need. So while I'm still working through downsizing the dolls, thinking about my relationship with the dolls has gotten me to change a whole variety of other things from the ratio of books I take out of the library versus purchase to deciding that if I buy a new pair of shoes I'll toss or donate another. It's been an interesting perspective shift - although I wish I'd gotten there a few years earlier!