All My Life For Sale

I found John Freyer's article "All My Life For Sale" to be very interesting. Freyer first decides to sell his unnecessary possessions so that he could leave Iowa and make his way back to New York City. As he began to sell these possessions he began to think about how these possessions effected him and where they came from. As he progressed he began to sell them he would add descriptions and photos. Freyer then thought about the dot com boom that was occurring at the time and decided that he would start a website that would help him sell the stuff that he did not want anymore. The only web site name that was available was allmylifeforsale.com.

As Freyer thought about the website and began to put his items up for sale, he began to wonder if he was living up to the name of his website. If he were to back up his website he would literally have to sell all of his possessions. He cataloged everything that he owned, all 600 items, and put them up for sale on his website. As people began buying these items he began to ask for updates on all of his own possessions that he sold. The people who responded talked to him about the objects and what they meant to him. He proceeded to ask his clients if he could actually visit them and see how the objects were put to use. He traveled across the country to these houses that would take him in and allowed him to look at the objects.

Freyer thought of the objects that he owned to be unnecessary in the beginning of his project. I think that as he began to sell his stuff that he realized that they actually meant something to him and that overall they defined him as a person and that they told his life's story. Freyer became fascinated how much these items had meant to him and how much they meant to other people after they were sold. I know that my possessions are very important to me. I don't know how I would survive without them and I feel that Freyer wanted to see how it would feel to be stripped of his possessions and prove to himself that they don't control him.