Have you ever just left everything/given away everything and walked away to start anew?

I have left everything that wouldn’t fit in the truck on more than one occasion.

Several times. Not always fun.

I once quit a job and left everything that was in my office, including the jacket for the trousers I was wearing.

I didn’t plan to, but it worked out that way. At 23, I went to Paris to take cooking classes, planning to stay about three months. Unwittingly though, I was pushing the reset button on my life. Absolutely everything changed.

I’d like to, but it isn’t something I could realistically do, not now. Maybe it is better as the romanticized idea in my head.

Does leaving for college count? I left everything at my parents house except for a dufflebag of clothes.

I also like to take trips into the city with nothing more than the clothes I have on and a wallet. No phone, no ipod, no backpack full of “things” I might need during the day. I just take BART all the way out to SF and pretend I live there.

Yes, my husband and I used our tax refund to buy a used car, then we put our belongings in it, along with our 3 year old son, and drove to a California town we picked out on a map.

We stayed in a motel for about a week, until I got a job. I was a bookkeeper in the days before computers, so it was very easy for me to find work.

He was a house husband for several weeks until he finally found work with P.G. & E digging holes in the street. He was severely injured the first week on the job, and on disability for several months. After he recovered, he went back to college and got his Master’s Degree. With that, he was able to get a very good job, and we lived happily ever after.

Not really, but that is another story entirely.

Yes, when I left my husband. I started over with nothing. It was absolutely worth it.

Yes, when I left my 22 yr. marriage 9 years ago. Started over completely fresh, except for the pets. It was great! The first 2 years I was barely hanging on but I had a darling little rental cottage on property that I fixed up on a thrift store budget to resemble a 1930’s bungalow replete with big band music wafting out the windows.

My divorce took 5 years to finish, my ex hid assets, cleaned out bank accounts and did his best to squash me like a bug because he couldn’t believe I was actually divorcing him. His pride unleashed his evil side which was barely contained as it was.

After 2 and a half years of struggle I had a windfall of good fortune and moved to my current home. He couldn’t stand the fact that not only did I survive I was THRIVING beyond my wildest dreams and certainly to his displeasure. Talk about living well as the best revenge!

As I told him, ” I over estimated you but…you grossly underestimated me!”
Yay….power up, ya can’t keep a good woman down, for long anyway! :-D

During bouts of extreme depression, I have given away many things…. things I have regretted losing later.

No, but I sometimes wish I could, and sometimes wonder and fantasize about what that might be like; to let go of it all and just “be;” to not be tied down and so entrenched and connected to “stuff:” my house, my possessions, all of it. But I am pretty much dug in here; knowing myself I doubt that I ever will or ever even could leave it all behind and start fresh.

Well..I can say from experience that it is extremely liberating to let go of all your “stuff.”
I well remember selling and just throwing out decades of “stuff.” Part of my yard sale madness this week, lightening the load feels great! Really “stuff” is just material objects infused with our own sentiments.

Great grandma has been dead for 40 years so go ahead, sell the damn piano! lol

When you get down to the nitty gritty it means nothing, nothing at all. I now can appricieate things but I am no longer attached to anything I couldn’t walk away from overnight except my pets and even they have had wonderful lives so if I had to put them down in order to move on in a manner that was best for me, I could do it with relatively little suffering.

As a few above have said, I left with nothing after my divorce. I picked myself up and started over. It was a great feeling.

Sort of. I ended a marriage and an upper-middle-class existence to live on my own for the first time and support myself without the safety net of parents or spouse for the first time.

For many years everything I owned fit in one big suitcase and a backpack. Not always fun. And I kept my books at my grandma’s house.

I have done it a few times.
While it may appear as tough and difficult, it occurs because you are either driven to it or are simply in need of it.
It is not natural or easy to do, but for me was the best choice and happy I did it for many reasons.
It often takes a lot of introspective thinking yet an obvious choice when looking back.
I think I could fill a book on those thoughts and feelings around it.

Never had enough shit to make it look like I’d be walking away from much so the idea would be lost on me as well as anyone who would want to pick through it in my absence. If there was a large estate odds are the state would eventually move in and part everything out piecemeal and no one would get much except the state. It would be better to firebomb it all.

I have accepted fear as part of life – specifically the fear of change.  I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says turn back. 
~Erica Jong

Every time I complete a jigsaw, especially unfinished ones which usually end up scattered to the four corners of the room.

No, but it does sound like an adventure. Perhaps when my children are all grown and on their own, I’ll give it a try.

I haven’t done it, but I’m gonna do it.

yes. A relationship didn’t work. We had had an engagement party with gifts and such not and I had bought furniture (because I had moved half way around the world), and had been working to support myself and buy our joint apartment nice things, but I left pretty much everything behind and walked out because I was desperately unhappy and someone had accused me of being a money grabber and threatened to slit my throat. I reported the death treat and just walked out with a suitcase.

Yes, a few times and not out of choice. The first time it was to get away from a crazy person and I really missed my things. The second time was when a bf and I moved out of state. We advertised our apt. belongings on Craigslist, packed two cars with clothes and our pets and took off. For almost 6 mos., we lived using cardboard boxes covered in towels as makeshift tables and nightstands for our blow up mattress. Since then, I’ve grown less attached to household nesting. I try to keep the things most important to me able to fit in a car.