Got too much stuff? Take the 100 Thing Challenge
Posted
Jul 24 2008, 06:04 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Many people are feeling the need to de-clutter, so why not make it a game? David Michael Bruno at guynameddave created the 100 Thing Challenge. He plans to reduce his personal stuff to 100 items by Nov. 12 and then live with only those things for one full year.
The rules are kind of loose. It's his challenge, Dave says, so "I get to set the rules and decide when a rule can be stretched or outright broken." But generally, personal stuff doesn't include household items used by the whole family. He's also exempting memorabilia that can't be replaced, books, tools and his beloved Marklin Z gauge train collection.
He can't part with those trains. "I should probably just see a therapist and then make good money on eBay," he writes. "But for now I'm going to keep them but not open the box for a year."
Another rule: You can count a group of items -- like socks or underwear -- as one thing. "The idea of trying to manage laundry with a few pairs of skivvies and socks is both unrealistic and gross," Dave observes.
This challenge has many benefits. It's a way to make money, to simplify life and to reduce the grip of consumerism that causes us to overspend and waste resources.
Dave updated his list of things at the end of June and was down to 130, heavy on camping gear and clothes. We're glad to see he still has a toothbrush, razor, and a nose and ear hair trimmer, which he calls "a 'gift' from my wife." A lot of other things have been donated or sold.
We learned about the 100 Thing Challenge from Arduous at Arduous Blog, who has to reduce her possessions because she's moving from Los Angeles to London for a year. She got to No. 20 while making a list of items to keep, and then quit in frustration. The effort was harder than she thought, despite her anti-consuming ways. How can she part with her incredibly tacky margarita glasses or her complete facsimile of William Shakespeare's First Folio?
The truth is that our stuff tells other people who we are, she says. "Point is, my apartment says something about me. My stuff is me. I am my stuff."
