I stumbled across Dave’s blog a few weeks ago and learned about The 100 Thing Challenge. Dave is living with 100 personal possessions for a year to remove himself from consumerism. Reading about this project inspired me!
One of my New Year’s goals is to reduce my personal stuff down to 300 items. I haven’t made any progress yet, so I’m considering following Dave’s list of rules. I’ve downsized my life dramatically in the last year, but if I’m going to fit into a tiny house the excess stuff must go.
What do you think RowdyReaders? Should I do this? Check out Dave’s list and tell me what you think…
Rules: Remember, this is my 100 Thing Challenge. I get to set the rules and decide when a rule can be stretched or outright broken. Basically I’m going by the spirit of the challenge not the letter of the challenge.
1. “Personal Things” means things that are entirely or mostly mine. Clearly family-shared and household things (e.g. dining room table, piano, bed, plates, etc.) are not considered a personal thing. Right now my wife and daughters are curious about what I’m up to, but they prefer to observe rather than participate.
2. Memorabilia - I was going to keep a small box of memorabilia. But it turned out that I don’t have much. So I’m ditching this idea and just counting a few things.
3. Books – Ah, here’s the rub. We’re avid readers in our home. And even the books I don’t read thrice a year look so very attractive as they collect dust on the bookshelves. And many of my books are kind of work related. Strange as it sounds, I have a lot of history books that relate directly or indirectly to consumerism, and thus help me with the 100 Thing Challenge.
4. A few items are counted in groups. This includes underwear and socks. I’m not keeping a lot of either. We do, though, run a household. The idea of trying to manage laundry with a few pairs of skivvies and socks is both unrealistic and gross.
5. We are keeping some household tools: hammer, screwdriver, tape measure, etc. Just last week I needed some tools to put up my daughter’s gymnastics bar. I’m not using them for anything more than honey-do projects.
6. I’ve left myself some cushion in case I receive a gift or two over the next year. But hopefully everyone who might give me a gift knows that they shouldn’t! Anyway, once I receive a gift, I have 7 days to figure out what to do with it before it counts toward my 100 Thing Challenge. I figure that should be enough time to either graciously lose it or get rid of some other thing.
7. Finally, I can get new things. But I have to always remain under 100 things total. And also if I am “replacing” something, I have to get rid of the original thing first before I get the new thing.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I think it’s a good idea. For me personally, I’m really just looking around and seeing what I don’t use ever or don’t really care about and then getting rid of that. Like books that I bought but know that I will never read again. Or decorations that I’m not completely in love with. I’ve got a lot of crap for one person and instead of moving it with me every time, I need to get rid of it. That includes stuff from childhood.
This is a tough challenge, even for me. I don’t think I could get the whole household on it, but I wonder how close we can get?
Thanks!
@Robyn Downscaling is a freeing, but challenging process. The biggest hurtle for me was donating books to the library. But now I’m glad they are gone! I can’t count the number of moves and back aches I had as a result of dragging so many books around. LOL. Don’t get me wrong, there are still books around the house. Just not as many.
@Dave Thanks for leaving a comment! I love your website and I’m so impressed by all your efforts. Thanks for the encouragement. I’m going to try this experiment and see how it goes. Even if I can’t make it to the 100 mark, at least I’ll have less clutter in my life.
@James It’s going to be tough. I don’t think I’ll be able to get my partner involved in this experiment. So I’ll have to narrow down my personal items to 100. But this will force me to look at what I have and really need, especially since we want to live in a tiny house.
Thank you all for reading RowdyKittens and leaving comments.
I guess I’m biased, but I say, “Go for it!” Especially if you are aiming for a tiny house.
Hey Rowdy,
What has been the hardest thing to purge in your quest to get ready to move to a tiny house? For me, most things are liberating to get rid of – I haven’t quite gotten to the hard stuff yet. Wondering what’s been challenging for you but you purged it anyway. Any regrets?
“My” stuff is easy, as I’ve already done much downsizing of my own possessions. I’ve crammed music CD’s onto digital, working on scanning old pictures, getting rid of DVD’s. I have no furniture any longer, and pretty much have clothes, work stuff and hobbies/toys.
She has a bunch of furniture inherited, most of which is merely sentimental in value, as we don’t even use much of it. But it’s definitely a process and a path we’re on!
James – I’ve taken a similar approach with my stuff. But then I look at our kitchen and think, ohhh boy, where are we going to put our bulk food in a tiny house?
Most of our place is really minimalist, so when we move to the tiny house, the bed, furniture, etc. can be donated to charity. But like you, we’re on the path…it just takes a while to get there. I hope this experiment will help. And maybe I can convince my partner to do it too.
I think this is a brilliant idea! As I take a look around my room I see it would take a *lot* of work…but in the end I’m sure well worth the effort. I need to shed the clutter!
{ 1 trackback }