Greatly appreciate all the thoughtful replies. I see some common assumptions in the replies, though...and these are assumptions that I myself have and am looking to challenge.
If you've already cut over half your stuff, I don't know that you'd get a lot out of the boxing technique. You'll end up with a lot of things boxed that you still don't want to get rid of, like tools and camping gear.
I've been thinking the same thing - but, it is an assumption, and probably one that is the result of mental justification because hey, keeping something is an easier decision than getting rid of something, so my brain will try anything to convince me to keep shit and not think about it any more. I don't trust my brain in thinking this. I suspect that I use far, far less of my stuff than I think I do, even though we are pretty much low clutter.
The other thing I'm thinking is maybe this will get me past what I call Phase 1 of minimalism: getting rid of unnecessary items, and into Phase 2: consciously making due with less. For tools, yeah maybe I do use a tool once a year, so it's not purely unnecessary. But could I make due without it? Sure, I could rent that tool, or borrow it, or hire out the work...whatever. Maybe that doesn't make sense for just 1 tool, but if you apply that thinking to 1,000 items then you can dramatically alter your current circumstances and maybe you get to a different plane of existence where those things actually aren't necessary anymore. Like I won't need camping equipment because we are traveling as a lifestyle. Or I don't need tools because I no longer own my home. Does that make sense? It's like, that "stuff" is only necessary because of the lifestyle I currently lead, and I'm trapped in that lifestyle I lead (or at least less likely to change it) because of all that stuff.
I guess I could and that wouldn't kill me, but they have a nice little space in one of the cupboards and I'm no worse off for it.
Ah, the "we have space for it so we might as well keep it" discussion. This is my wife's argument. What is it hurting, after all? That's the thing...I think it is hurting us in imperceptible ways. Every cupboard that has a extra bowl in it, every drawer with the unused knick knack, every closet with the old jacket...the brain has to process all of it. Or at least mine does. On the other hand, the empty space is a thing of beauty. It gives my actual physical joy when I walk into a totally clutter free room. So, for me at least, I am worse off for keeping unnecessary things.
Your stuff isn’t preventing you from doing any of those things you listed.
This cut like a knife. You are absolutely right. If I was truly motivated and determined there is nothing stopping me from doing lots of things. And yet I don't...why is that? Maybe I don't really want to do those things. Or maybe there is just too much of a jump from my current life to that potential life that it's too scary without certainty that I would like it.
Overall, I feel like trying to escape our normal middle-class North American life style is like trying to escape the Earth's gravitational pull. There is so much weighing us down and it all just keeps getting heavier - the 9to5 job where you are supposed to chase promotions and advancements so you can own a suburban house full of stuff that is supposed to look a certain way. And that's it, you start playing that game and you get trapped spending 40 years working a job that pays for a lifestyle that is only required because you have that job. There just has to be a better way. I'm sure of it. I know it in the core of my being.
Could I get free in an instant with some herculean effort? Yeah, probably. But it's hard. And it's scary - everyone else seems perfectly happy being stuck in the black hole of consumerism, so what makes me so sure there is happiness waiting for me outside of it? My wife doesn't really question the hamster wheel life as much as I do. She's willing to go along with my weird plans, but with hesitation.
So my strategy is to reduce the rocket blast needed to escape this black hole by gradually but constantly loosening the grip that this life has on us. Show my wife (and myself) what it's like to not feel as heavy. Already we feel lighter. But there is more we can do.
The massive reduction in stuff is a way to jettison weight and see a big improvement in a short amount of time. Reducing my expenses in other areas is another. Extracting myself from the desire to keep up with the Joneses is another.
For us, I think the likelihood of us doing extended travel from the current position we are in is very, very unlikely. But, if I was staring at a half empty house...well, maybe that decision becomes easier. Or at the very least we become less tied to our current life and more likely to explore all of the options that life has to offer.