This summer, armed with blue painters tape and 250 numbered note cards I began the process of ridding myself of the excess. I had just finished diving into the world of minimalism and was reading Dave Bruno's book The 100 Things Challenge. Although I knew that only 100 things would not be a realistic goal for me, I found Joshua Fields blog post Everything I Own: My 288 Things to be a little more realistic. I love how Fields emphasized that the number of things is not important or the idea of "counting your stuff" but the idea of having less and appreciating the stuff you have.
As I walked around my room I found myself trying to pick my top 10, the top 10 things I could not live without. And strangely it was very difficult to decipher what those 10 things would be, let alone my 250 things2. After looking at all my material possessions for a good while I started putting numbers to objects.
1. My Grandmother old sewing box
2. A vintage camera
3. My favorite sweatshirt
And it went on from there. Every item was counted. Every item. There were a couple of exception to the 250 things, for example I counted all of my books as one item and all of my socks as one item. Also although I pared down on the amount of memorabilia from my childhood I still have a box of stuff of "childhood memories" sitting in my parents basement. Aside from that every article of clothing, every trinket, every thing.
As I walked around my room I found myself trying to pick my top 10, the top 10 things I could not live without. And strangely it was very difficult to decipher what those 10 things would be, let alone my 250 things2. After looking at all my material possessions for a good while I started putting numbers to objects.
1. My Grandmother old sewing box
2. A vintage camera
3. My favorite sweatshirt
And it went on from there. Every item was counted. Every item. There were a couple of exception to the 250 things, for example I counted all of my books as one item and all of my socks as one item. Also although I pared down on the amount of memorabilia from my childhood I still have a box of stuff of "childhood memories" sitting in my parents basement. Aside from that every article of clothing, every trinket, every thing.
I must have gotten rid of over 75% of my stuff from random antique vases to shirts I had not worn in years to stuffed animals I just could not let go of.
I want to emphasize that I do not hate things, I think that they are an important part of our lives. It is when they become the focal point in our lives or more important that we fall short and should take time to reevaluate.
I challenge you to pick 10 things that you do not need, 10 things that you can live with out. Put them into a box and donate them to Trinkets and Togs (In Waverly, IA) or check out Apartment Therapy's List of 25 Places to Donate Your Stuff.
Less is Better - HALES
