Every January I go through my entire kit, everything in every bag, and ask a blunt question about each item: did this actually get used on paid work in the last twelve months, or is it in the bag out of habit. It's an uncomfortable exercise and it's the single most useful hour I spend on gear management all year.
What the audit usually turns up
There's reliably a handful of items, an old lens I keep meaning to sell, a lighting accessory I bought for one specific job and never used again, that survive year after year purely because removing them from the bag feels like admitting a past purchase was a mistake. The audit forces that admission on purpose, and it's freed up real physical space and real money more than once.
Sorting into three honest categories
Everything gets sorted into used constantly, used occasionally but genuinely useful when needed, and hasn't been touched in a year. That third category gets sold, not stored, because gear sitting unused isn't insurance, it's just capital tied up doing nothing while depreciating. The occasional-use category is the one I actually think hardest about, since that's where the real judgment calls live.
- Used constantly: stays, obviously, no debate needed
- Occasional but genuinely valuable when needed: keep, but track it honestly
- Untouched for a full year: sell it, don't just store it
What this year's audit changed
This year the audit pushed me to finally sell a second flash system I bought for a job that never repeated, and to admit an older action camera body was living in a drawer purely out of sentiment rather than use. Neither decision was dramatic. Both freed up money that went straight into replacing genuinely worn-out cables and a card reader that had been quietly unreliable for months. Boring, unglamorous, and exactly the kind of maintenance that keeps a working kit actually working.