<human>: Give me a shortened version of the text

I would like advice, particularly from anyone who has been in a long-distance relationship: I need to decide what the best way to break up with my long distance boyfriend. I am a 24-year-old girl, he is 28, and we have been dating for over a year and a half. The latest 11 months of this has been long-distance.

I don't want to hurt his feelings unnecessarily, and I still respect him as a person, but it is becoming time: He clearly feels the burden of our long-distance is too much, has been bringing up "compatibility issues" for months, and no longer wants to put forth any significant effort into our relationship. I would have been willing to go further with our relationship, but only if certain things on his end were to change, and I don't think he is willing to put forth the effort.
At this point we are probably just wasting each other's time, and unnecessarily drawing it out. He doesn't want to hurt my feelings, so maybe it would save us both time and effort if I am the one to break it off.
Complicating the problem of not hurting him is two things: that he has been divorced before, and the distance. 
The divorce was a very painful experience in which he did everything he could to keep her from leaving. I don't want to repeat that hurt.
The distance means that I would have to do it over phone or Skype (as Kelly once taught us, you should never do a Text Message Breakup.) And I also have some things of his that I held onto for him during his last move...

I also have in the past been "too nice" in these situations, so I'm not really sure what to do to help that...
Should I ask for a "break" to think about things and see if he wants to change? Do I make it a short, clean breakup conversation? A long breakup conversation where I tell him the reasons why and that I still respect him? Do I ship him his things before or after? Do I make him pay for the shipping costs?

Any help, especially from personal experience, would be appreciated :)
<bot>: If he's not willing to try, I need a "nice" way of breaking up with my SO over Skype that's not "too nice," and I'll have to ship him his stuff...