Why Did You Downsize?

And that is how my odyssey began! Each week, I put up a different pet for adoption on the Pound Neoboard. I adopted each pet to a person who could come up with the funniest limerick about said pet. I had a lot of fun laughing at the limericks, and I was so happy to give away the pets to the witty, clever people who deserved them!

This made me wonder… What are the reasons why people might downsize aspects of their accounts? For instance, why did people give away pets, or delete accounts, or even give away their wealth? Thinking this would make for an engaging Neopian Times article, I dashed off to the Neoboards and asked the people there why THEY downsized. I got many interesting replies!

The most popular way that people downsized was by giving away pets, much as I had done! They had fallen out of love with their pets, and wanted to give them away to deserving new homes. The most interesting aspect, to me, was the fact that these pet owners announced their pet giveaways on the Pound Neoboard, rather than simply pounding the pets. It seems that despite their no longer loving their pets, they were still a tiny bit attached to them, and demanded some effort in the form of neomail applications. Otherwise, they'd simply give the pets away to their closest Neofriends, people that they already trusted and respected.

I've done both. I gave many of my pets away on the Pound Neoboard, but for the special pets, like my Maraquan Draik, I gave them away to close Neofriends. It's fun to log into Neopets and hear my friends gushing about how happy they are with the pets I gave them, and it's fun to see their pets' characters grow and blossom in the form of creative stories and artwork.

Another popular way that people downsized was by deleting accounts! I met one player who deleted all four of his side accounts, and gave away all his pets except for the first pet he ever made. So he was down to one main account, and one pet. I thought this was refreshing! I've often wondered what it would be like to have one account and one pet, though I love my thirteen pets too much to ever go through with it!

And still other players, who I admired very much, gave away their wealth as soon as they earned it! For instance, one player gave away a Pirate Draik Egg that she got from her dailies. Another person created and gave away Krawks once a week. And yet another person, who made me gasp in shock, gave away all 20 million of her savings, and now has 4,500 NP in the bank. She did this by buying lots of expensive items and giving them away to her favorite players on the Help Neoboard. She admitted that after getting her dream pet, a Chocolate Draik, she no longer had interest in earning Neopoints, and instead spent all her time chatting on the Neoboards.

There were many other ways in which players downsized, too. One person had a cluttered user lookup that she replaced with a sleek, professional lookup from Sunnyneo. Instead of tracking her 20 different hobbies on her lookup, it now features a wonderful winter theme that is both simple and elegant!

One player admitted that she downsized her dailies. She used to do every single daily available, but now omits such places as the Wheel of Knowledge, the Lunar Puzzle, Snowager, and more. Having done the same, I had to nod and agree that downsizing our dailies was a good move, saving us time each morning!

2 players admitted that they recently downsized their Neofriends lists. They each had literally a hundred friends, and after having combed through them, they deleted most of them (who they haven't spoken to in years) and ended up with a grand total of 20 and 35 friends. I did the same thing last year! I had around 60 friends, and currently have less than 20. I now treasure the friends I chose to keep on the list, people that I've shared laughs and giggles with for the past 8 years.

Several people admitted that they recently emptied out their Safety Deposit Boxes. They love the newfound emptiness of their SDBs, and admitted that downsizing their SDBs was both fun and necessary. (Fun because it was the first time in years that they'd looked inside their SDBs, and necessary because they were running low on NPs.) One player stated proudly that she only has some Petpets and healing potions in her SDB. Having downsized my own SDB a few months ago, I had to encourage my fellow players to have fun (and patience!) while pricing all those items in their shops!

Many people downsized their Closets, which I also did last year. I'm happy with the 30 items I chose to keep, while selling all the other clothes for a lot of profit. It's cool to have remaining clothes that fit a certain persona, like "warrior" or "princess," and dress my pet up in them. The extraneous clothes that I sold, I don't regret losing. After all, what am I supposed to do with 4 different staffs, none of which go with my pet's personas? What is a "bookworm" supposed to do with a flower mask, or a "detective" supposed to do with a feather boa?

You would think that by accumulating lots of items, pets, and Neopoints, people would be happier on this site. The opposite has turned out to be true! Multiple people claimed that by downsizing, they enjoyed their Neopets experience a lot more. And by downsizing, they often ended up helping out other players, people who had difficulty earning Neopoints and acquiring pets. I thought this was truly intriguing!

And finally, I thought it would be necessary to include all the ways in which people WANT to downsize, but currently cannot. For instance, I've met people who are eager to give away all of their NC items, but can't because they don't have enough gift boxes. There are also people who want to give away pets to newbie accounts just to help them out, but can't because newbie accounts have to be aged a certain number of months to receive painted and limited edition pets. And finally, there are those generous souls who want to give away the Paint Brush clothes that they've accumulated by zapping countless pets, but to do that, they need to be transferred a pet of the corresponding color, and they might not have room to accept these pets because they already have the maximum of 4.

Like a person cured of hoarding, I now revel in the emptiness of my side accounts. I treasure my remaining pets even more than I used to. And oh, the possibilities! I can now surf the Pound to nab painted pets. I can now create and paint future pets. Or I can leave the accounts empty, and thank my stars that I was able to stop hoarding pets I didn't really want! And every time I think of the pets I've given away, I smile because I know they went to responsible and loving homes!

Now that I have lots of room on my accounts, I'm thinking of creating 2 Chombies and 2 Cybunnies when they're available from the Create-A-Pet page. I'm going to zap them and cross my fingers for some pretty results, such as Faerie or Ice, and then give them away. It'll feel like downsizing all over again! What a rush!

Thanks for reading this article, dear readers! It's great to know that my fellow players are just as neurotic as I am when it comes to organizing our accounts juuust so. And if that means downsizing, then we do it with zeal!

Stay tuned for future articles from yours truly, and have an amazing week!