How long would it take you to reduce all of your possessions to a pile of rubble?

I do not wish to contemplate the destruction of my stuff -- too much of a downer.

I think I could do it in one hour. If that includes any papers (legal documents, notebooks, textbooks, stupid drawins, stuff I've wrote), then I guess I could burn it. If I am not aloud to do that, I'd shred it all to bits. I don't own a house (yet). I don't know what I'd do about my cloths though, I guess that would fit through a 4 inch hole.

Also, any personal files that I have on a network my college provides, my hotmail and SC acount, I am not sure how I should or could destroy those. I guess I could delete them all and "unsurbrie." I don't think I'be be able to place any of this intable property though a hole, although it reduced down to electrons and photons, that should easily go through a 4 inch hole.

I think I could do it in under an hour if I used the torch to set fire to my books and mattress. I think everything else could be destroyed quite quickly with the sledge hammer. The mattress would probably be the thing that took the longest, unless I had to tear up all my books by hand.

Hey! I thought you were into Buddhism? This sort of thing should be right up your alley. Rejecting materialism. In Tibet they have this practice where they meditate on images of decaying corpses.

I think that using the torch to burn paper is okay. Most clothing wouldn't require any work, apart from bulky coats and such. I wouldn't consider files on a computer to fall within the scope of this question.

More than a day. I have a lot of clothes and books that a sledgehammer wouldn't help me with. And I'd have to take breaks because my hands would get too sore. If I had an industrial shredder, then it would be faster.

Oh, well, if I could build a really huge bonfire, that would make it quicker, too. But it would probably take me a few hours to build the bonfire. Of course, if I just set fire to the house, then it would take as long as it took to gut the first floor.

hym, you mean we're allowed to use fire.

Well, in that case: We could all probably burn down most or our property, without depending on any other heay equipement. A slege hammer would probably do the trick with everything else.

Also, if we had access to nuclear weapons, we could probably vaporize all of our belongins. (note: I would never avocate the use of them, this is just a hypotetical situation, in case some idiot does actually do it as a Jack-ass stunt and tries to sue me for typing this suggestion)

I own a lot of land. A long, long time.

Well, I kind of had in mind keeping it pretty much limited to the tools that I described. But of course I'm not able to foresee every possible dilemma that can occur with the variety of objects that people are likely to possess. I'm hoping that everyone feels free to improvise within the scope of the question.

If you were to set fire to your home, it would probably tend to slow down the procedure somewhat in that any large objects would probably be inaccessible to further destruction once the various authorities arrived.

I would think that nuclear weapons, or even more conventional explosives would fall outside the scope of this inquiry.

Probably about an hour and a half. I don't own all that much.

I refuse to contemplate the destruction of my possessions, besides it would take me alot longer than a day, maybe a week or better.

just out of curiosity, we would have to still get access to these machinary. That would mean we would have to call up CAT (_R_) or some company, wait till they diliver the equipment, clear the zone, etc etc etc. This all takes time. Did you specify at what point in time would the stop watch be rolling.

To actually destroy everything would take just over an hour I think, *but* I would have to travel between here and Oxford to get to half my stuff. It's shoved in my teeny, tiny cupboards there. Then I'd have to go and get the keys to other people's rooms and cupboards where some of my stuff is stored (my cupboards being so teeny and tiny compared to everybody else's). That could take a significant amount of time. So, all together, I reckon it would take considerably more than a day.

a day. what about my fridge, cooker etc.

Yeah, I am a Buddhist, but I guess not strong enough to get into rejecting my junk. I do from time to time love to give stuff away -- to the laundromat (with a "free" sign on the bag) or a thrift store, etc. when I can talk myself into living without it. I do this as much as I can because I have so little room in my teensy studio apartment and people have given me so much useless stuff -- and I, in the past, have on impulse bought stuff, like at garage sales, that I later decided I didn't really care for all that much. I think it's good to weed stuff out once in a while -- especially in one's closet!! I buy books at garage sales, etc. and rarely keep them. but pass 'em on to neighbors -- and the laundromat down the street.... I have always been a very strong materialist but am a bit less now that I've seen how crowded my place can get...

It is kind of hypothetical. I imagine that the sledgehammer and acetylene torch would more or less materialise, and then you would begin.

In case you hadn't figured it out, my "hidden agenda" was to confront people with the IDEA of destroying all their stuff, and to think about it in as much detail as would be required to calculate the time involved. "Hmm...How would I go about cutting my car up into tiny little pieces? How long would it take to completely demolish the kitchen with a sledgehammer?"

I think that materialism is an unhealthy fixation on a number of levels. I was hoping that this little exercise would be beneficial, conceptually.

I also find the images incredibly amusing. People trashing their stuff as quickly as possible. Women running through their homes with sledgehammers, guys methodically cutting their cars up with a torch...

I used to work at a thrift store for quite a while recently. We would get donations from all kinds of people, including the same people who regularly shopped there.

I think it is admirable that you donate stuff. People ought to do more of that.

I don't even want to think about it.I'm a Taurus,myself,you must remember.I love STUFF.

more than a day, i own my house which would take a while and a car and part of a second house in another state.

yeah, that would be pretty funny. I am craking up just thinking about it. I guess I dont have that much "personal" property to destory, but I sure could figurre out some stuff. To tell you the truth, I would be able to figure out all the details just yet. But next semester I am taking physics, so maybe by then, I can tell you in much greater detail what I would do (hypoteticly of course )

Okay!

As a matter of fact, I really hate throwing stuff away if I feel there is any use for it whatsoever. We have an AIDS Emergency Fund sidewalk sale in my neighborhood every year and I donate to that -- books, etc. -- and tell others about it. Recently a new thrift store opened in my area called "Out of the Closet" which proceeds go to AIDS-related causes. I too am the kind of person you described -- I would donate items I no longer used (as long as they were in fairly decent condition) and would shop at the store also. Some people -- maybe they are moving and don't want to bother taking their unwanted junk somewhere -- just leave stuff out on the sidewalk in bags for whoever comes along to pick up. I've scored some good clothes, books, etc. this way. We used to have an annual event where a junk trunk would come along the next morning and pick up from sidewalks -- a few streets at a time -- people's unwanted furniture, art, clothing, books, etc. This was SO fun. The evening before, neighborhood people and homeless people with their carts alike would converge on the area and pick from the piles of stuff others had tossed out, and my neighbors and I would set out our own unwanted stuff. Like once a neighbor of mine bought a new bed so took down his old one, because what was he gonna do with it otherwise? Many of us live in small apartments and from time to time have perfectly good stuff we no longer want, so it was convenient to just set it out on the sidewalk once or twice a year. Unfortunately this no longer happens. I think people complained that they set their unwanteds out in neat bundles and people tended to make messes as they scavenged. Drat -- I used to have such a good time...

I grew up in the suburbs. When I was a kid they used to do that. I think you were allowed to put out anything except car parts. They don't do it anymore.

Probably they don't do it anymore because people from other areas find out about it and come into the area to get freebies, and it gets out of hand because some people are so messy. That is what happened in my area -- even people who did not live on the streets that had this would find out about it and cruise by in their cars and scavenge on foot. Fun for some but too much of a clean-up hassle I guess.

It would take me at least a week. I have six cars, a house and twelve acres of land!

I think in our area it had more to do with the landfill situation, and just the costs involved. There was a certain amount of picking over, but I don't remember piles getting spread around a lot or anything.

I dunno exactly why either. I just figured some people complained... I did not know for sure. Maybe it did have to do with the costs involved here too...

Under an hour! I'm Mr. Efficient.