{Every week, I publish a small round-up of my favorite articles, books, photos, and other goodies. Enjoy!}

- Leave the Minivan at Home This Summer.

- How I Survived Auto Amputation.

- Always Leaving.

- Take a Tech Sabbath.

- Hitting ‘Reset’ on Your Career.

- The $100 Startup — Video Trailer + the book.

Be well,
Tammy

I’ve been in and out of way too many stores this week because my mom, Logan, and I are prepping the house for my dad’s return. Over the last few days, we bough a ramp to get my dad’s wheel chair in and out of the house, grab bars, a shower transfer bench, shower curtains, and other odds and ends. Buying so much stuff to meet my dad’s new needs has been stressful because everything is so expensive. Luckily Medicare is helping with some of the stuff my dad will need, including a hospital bed, a commode, and a wheel chair.

In addition to buying lots of stuff we’ve rearranged the furniture in my parents home. Couches, books, desks, beds, and an odd assortment of knick knacks have been rearranged and piled up in my mom’s office. Later today we’ll be pulling my old room apart to make space for my dad’s hospital bed. Moving around so much stuff makes me very happy we’ve downsized.

In between all of the running around, I’ve been trying to breathe, write, and take photos. Self-care is important, so today my goal is to slow down, finish prepping the house, and to go on a long photo walk with Logan. I love going on photo walks because it forces me to observe life’s lovely details. Plus, all I need is a camera, a notebook, pen, and a good pair of shoes.

Micro-action: If you’ve been busy running around all week, I’d suggest making a list of activities that encourage relaxation. For example, consider going on a photo walk this weekend and send me an email of your favorite shot. I’d love to see some of your creative work and hear about how you relax.

Be well,
Tammy

“Where is the lid to the coffee mug?” Logan asked.

I looked at Logan, shrugged my shoulders and said, “I don’t know. It was on the counter a few minutes ago. Let’s look for it.”

I pulled open the drawer where we keep our forks, knives, and other cooking utensils and found it on the top of the forks. I looked up at Logan with a surprised look on my face and he rolled his eyes.

For the last weeks, I’ve become a clutter busting machine. If something is out of place, I put it away immediately and I have a feeling I’m starting to get on Logan’s nerves.

We’ve been living in the little house for two weeks and one of the things I’ve noticed is this: If I don’t pick up my stuff the house looks like a bomb went off. I don’t have a lot of stuff, but it’s still easy to create clutter piles with my limited belongings.

Typically, when I get home I unload my bike bag, which contains my camera, computer, journal, wallet, iPod, and a plethora of power cords. I’m always tempted to leave my stuff on the counter and make a cup of tea instead of putting it away. Rather than procrastinating, I use a few simple strategies to keep clutter to a minimum.

First off, when I walk in the door I immediately put my stuff away. For example, shoes aren’t allowed to be worn in the tiny house, so they either stay on the porch or sit by the heater to dry off (It’s been raining lately). The same goes for my wet rain coat. I hang up my coat above the heater to dry and then it goes into the closet.

In addition, each of my belongings has a designated home. I have a spot for my computer, power cords, clothing, and books. Putting stuff aways saves me time because I don’t spend 15 minutes looking for my keys or iPod every morning.

If I don’t follow these simple steps, I can’t seem to find what I need and it’s frustrating to constantly look for the same belongings over and over again. The trick is forming a ritual of picking stuff up and putting it away.

Share your clutter busting tips in the comments section.

{Way back in November, I wrote a post about diamonds and debt. At the time I was still trying to decide whether or not I should sell my wedding set. For the full back-story, read the article.}

“What’s the barrier to selling the ring, Tammy?”

I let out a huge breath and told my friend Michelle, “Well, it’s laziness. It seems easier to leave it in my jewelry box, instead of selling it. In addition, I don’t want to spend hours calling consignment shops or jewelry stores. But it’s time to let go of the ring because I never wear it and I feel like it represents the ‘old Tammy’  –  a woman who seemed to value diamonds rather than relationships.”

“What if you hired Andrew to help you? He sold a few pieces of jewelry for me when we moved to Portland and he already has some connections. You could give him 10% of the sale price.”

“That’s a great idea, Michelle! Let me talk to Logan and see what he thinks.”

Michelle and I moved on to another topic of conversation and gawked at the breathtaking view. Soon happy hour was over and I was biking up the hill toward our apartment. The air was cool and crisp and I wondered what Logan would think of the conversation I had with Michelle.

Over vegetable stir fry, I told Logan about the plan. I was a little nervous because I figured he would want me to sell the ring myself. But he was supportive of the idea!

Logan said, “I think this is great! I’m happy to support Andrew, since he’s a friend. Plus, he has contacts in the jewelry world. And it’s obvious that you aren’t going to sell it. You’ve been sitting on the ring for the last 8 months and I don’t want to sell it from underneath you. I feel like you might hold it against me.”

“I wouldn’t hold it against you because the ring isn’t important to me anymore. Besides, hiring Andrew is such a great option. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before!”

///

Whenever I have a hard time letting go, I do the following:

1. I ask friends for help and advice. If I hadn’t brought up this topic with Michelle, my wedding set would still be sitting in my little jewelry box.

2. I mull the problem over. Reflection is essential to my well-being and by doing yoga, taking long walks, and writing I can sort through any issue.

3. I try to remember what I’ve read about loss aversion. Even if something costs a lot of money, there is no shame in letting it go. For example, I’m not going to recover the cost we spent on my wedding set. Diamonds don’t hold their value over the long-run and I’m okay with it. I’m not going to let loss aversion hold me back.

Do you have a hard time letting go of stuff that doesn’t serve you? Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Joshua Millburn of The Minimalists. He also writes fiction and his first novel, AS A DECADE FADES, will be published soon. Follow him on Twitter.

***

My mother died in 2009. It was an incredibly difficult time in my life, it goes without saying.

She lived a thousand miles away and after she passed it was my responsibility to vacate her apartment in Florida. It was a small, one-bedroom place, but it was packed wall-to-wall with her belongings. My mother had great taste—she could have been an interior designer—and none of her stuff was junk. Nevertheless, there was a lot of stuff in her home.

Mom was always shopping, always accumulating more stuff. She had antique furniture throughout her apartment, a stunning oak canopy-bed that consumed almost her entire bedroom, two closets jam packed with clothes, picture frames standing on every flat surface, original artwork hanging on the walls, and tasteful creative decorations in every nook and cranny and crevasse. There was 64 years of accumulation in that apartment.

So I did what any son would do: I rented a large truck from U-Haul. Then I called a storage place back in Ohio to make sure they had big enough storage unit. The cost of the truck was $1600. The storage facility was $120 per month for the size I needed. Financially, I could afford this, but I quickly found out that the emotional cost was much higher.

Memories

At first I didn’t want to let go of anything. If you’ve ever lost a parent or a loved one or been through a similarly emotional time, then you understand exactly how hard it was for me to let go of any of those possessions. So instead of letting go, I was going to cram every trinket and figurine and piece of oversized furniture into that Lilliputian storage locker in Ohio. Floor to ceiling. That way I knew that Mom’s stuff was there if I ever wanted it, if I ever needed access to it for some incomprehensible reason. I even planned to put a few pieces of Mom’s furniture in my home as subtle reminders of her.

I started boxing up her belongings. Every picture frame and every little porcelain doll and every white doily on every shelf. I packed every bit of her that remained.

Or so I thought.

And then I looked under her bed…

Among the organized chaos that comprised the crawlspace beneath her bed, there were five boxes, each labeled with a number. Each numbered box was sealed with packing tape. I cut through the tape and found old papers from my elementary school days from nearly a quarter of a century ago. Spelling tests, cursive writing lessons, artwork, it was all there, every shred of paper from my first five years of school. It was evident that she hadn’t accessed the sealed boxes in years. And yet Mom had held on to these things because she was trying to hold on to pieces of me, to pieces of the past, much like I was attempting to hold on to pieces of her and her past.

That’s when I realized that my retention efforts were futile. I could hold on to her memories without her stuff, just as she had always remembered me and my childhood and all of our memories without ever accesses those sealed boxes under her bed. She didn’t need papers from twenty-five years ago to remember me, just as I didn’t need a storage locker filled with her stuff to remember her.

I called U-Haul and canceled the truck. And then, over the next week, I started donating all of her stuff to places and people who could actually use it.

Lessons Learned

Yes, it was difficult to let go, but I realized quite a few things about our relationship between memories and possessions during the entire experience:

1. I am not my stuff. We are more than our possessions.
2. Our memories are not under our beds. Memories are within us, not within our things.
3. An item that is sentimental for us can be an item that is useful for someone else.
4. Holding on to stuff weighs on us mentally and emotionally. Letting go is freeing.
5. You can take pictures of items you want to remember.
6. Old photographs can be scanned (more on this below).

It is important to note that I don’t think that sentimental items are bad or evil or that holding on to them is wrong. I don’t. Rather, I think the perniciousness of sentimental items—and sentimentality in general—is far more subtle. If you want to get rid of an item but the only reason you are holding on to it is for sentimental reasons—if it is weighing on you—then perhaps it’s time to get rid of it, perhaps it is time to free yourself of the weight. That doesn’t mean that you need to get rid of everything though.

Giant Leap or Baby Steps

When I returned to Ohio, I had four boxes of Mom’s photographs in my trunk, which I would later scan and backup online. I found a scanner that made scanning the photos easy. Those photos are digital now; they can be used in digital picture frames instead of collecting dust in a basement somewhere. I no longer have the clutter of their boxes laying around and weighing me down, and they can never be destroyed in a fire.

I donated everything else. All of it. Literally. I donated every piece of furniture and all of her clothes and every decorative item she had strewn throughout her home.

That was a giant leap for me, but I felt as if it needed to be done to remove the weight—the emotional gravitas—of the situation from my shoulders.

You see, I don’t need Mom’s stuff to remind me of her. There are traces of her everywhere. In the way I act, in the way I treat others, even in my smile. She’s still there, and she was never part of her stuff.

Whenever I give advice, I tend to give two options. The first option is usually the giant leap option, the dive-in-head-first option (e.g., get rid of everything, smash your TV, throw out all your stuff, quickly rip off the band-aid, etc.). This option isn’t for everyone, and it’s often not for me, but in this case, that’s what I did. I donated everything.

The second option is to take baby steps, and it works because it helps you build momentum by taking action. Look at it this way: what sentimental item can you get rid of today that you’ve wanted to get rid of for a while? Start there. Then pick one or two things per week and gradually increase your efforts as you feel more comfortable.

Whichever option you choose, the important part is that you take action. That is to say, never leave the scene of a good idea without taking action. What will you do today to part ways with sentimental items that are weighing you down?

***

Editor’s note: Corey from Simple Marriage and Mandi from Life…Your Way are putting on a huge ebook sale this week! The sale started on Monday (March 21) at 2pm ET and ends on Friday (March 25) at 2pm ET.

If you’re interested in simplifying your family life, the ebooks in this package are extremely helpful. The collection includes information on cooking, parenting, relationships, money, and more.

Click here to purchase your collection today!

Recently, a reader told me via email that “simplicity has gone mainstream,” so there is no need to discuss the topic. I don’t agree with that assertion. Sure, the topic of downsizing and stuff is addressed in the media. But that message is usually viewed as “extreme” and typically flanked by commercials prompting you to buy more stuff.

The majority of people, corporations, and the government aren’t proponents of “simple living.” All you have to do is look at our economic model to see that isn’t the case. At the policy level, we’re more obsessed with growth, rather than well-being. Put another way, our culture is so focused on “more” we never ask: “what is enough?”

And that’s why it’s important to keep talking about stuff. For the sake of our health and the future of our planet, we’ve got to rethink our model of “more is better.”

Let’s examine two problem areas, advertising and waste:

Advertising is part of our cultural identity. In Branded Nation, James Twitchell says, “Much of our shared knowledge about ourselves and our culture comes to us through a commercial process of storytelling called branding.”

Advertising has bombarded people with so many messages about products that “ten percent of a two-year-old’s nouns are brand names.” No wonder so many Americans are depressed and in debt. From an early age, we’re taught that stuff will make us happy. But happiness research shows us that’s not the case. Our human needs for community and strong personal relationships can’t be bought.

Richard Layard, an economist, talks about this issue in his book, Happiness. He says, “The current pursuit of self-realization will not work. If your sole duty is to achieve the best for yourself, life becomes just too stressful, too lonely – you are set up to fail.” He goes onto say that it is “a deep fallacy of many economists to think of human interaction as mainly a means to an end, rather than also an end in itself.”

Second, analyzing consumption and waste at both the individual and societal level is important because our landfills are overflowing with consumer waste, leaching toxins into the landbase.

Let’s take a look at a few statistics, from The Story of Stuff.

• Industries (like steel, glass, concrete, food processing, textiles, plastics, chemical manufacturing, and water treatment, etc.) waste prolifically. These industries generate between 7.6 to 13 billion tons of waste per year.

• Each day in the United States, we use more than 150 million single-use containers for beverages, plus another 320 million takeout cups.

• About 400 million electronic products are chucked in the United States each year. In 2005, it amounted to 4 billion pounds of e-waste . . . And rather than segregating and handling it carefully and responsibly, we still dump 85 percent of our e-waste in landfills.

• The Basel Action Network revealed that about 80 percent of e-waste is exported overseas to developing countries, where much is simply dumped.

These statistics show the urgent need for real policy solutions, particularly, when it comes to the extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of stuff. And as Layard argues, we need to consider the issue of well-being and community building, not just the constant accumulation of stuff. The U.S. is one of the wealthiest nations on the planet. We have enough, yet we aren’t happy because we still want more.

One of my favorite writers, Derrick Jensen, says that writing alone won’t change the world. And he’s right on target. Writing is one way to shift perspectives. But any type of long-term change must be paired with activism and that’s a good thing because helping others makes people happy. However, becoming active requires getting off couch and disconnecting from screens.

***

Micro-actions: If you’re overwhelmed by stuff, read the following books and watch a few films:

• Minimalist Freedom by Nina Yau

• Head over to Minimalist Adventures and get a copy of Conquer The Clutter by Dusti Arab

• If you want to learn more, check out The Story of Stuff from your local library.

• Watch the films on The Story of Stuff website.

• Read: Our Great Sin

***

A great way to spread the word about my posts is to use the Retweet button or click on the “Like” Facebook button. Thanks for your support!

Note: Statistics are from The Story of Stuff

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Melissa Gorzelanczyk. Melissa writes about simplicity and finding beauty in everyday life at Peace & Projects.

“Instead of trying to improve our relationship with our stuff, we settle for simply cohabiting the same space.” -Laura Crawford, The Path Less Pedaled

Question for you: Who decided it made sense to store unused stuff in plastic bins?

Somehow many years ago, I caught the plastic bin epidemic that swept our nation. I had a basement full of stuff – photo frames, books, fabric remnants, 4-H plaques, candles, random kitsch. To wrangle my cluttered landscape, I made a simple plan. First, build several rows of wood shelves. Second, fill plastic bins with excess stuff. Third, place bins on shelves. Applause! I did what any sick bin-aholic would do and bought close to 30 plastic bins for my mission.

Bin-aholic goes to rehab

It wasn’t until I started reading about minimalism that my forgotten stuff began to haunt me. The problem was that my relationship with stuff was broken. Until I fixed it, no amount of plastic bins would solve the chaotic clutter that always took over my basement storage room.

I knew it was time to take action. Bin by bin, I started to revisit my intentions for all that stuff. I decided to break up with the unwanted and unneeded things in my life. It was officially over. I was done with stuff.

And that’s the key.

If you want to have a healthy love affair with your stuff, you need to change the way you keep it, treat it and spend money on it.

Here are some ways to fix your relationship with stuff and create a calmer environment at home.

Try life on the minimalist side

One way to do this is by focusing on a specific area of stuff, like many did by joining Project 333. This minimalist fashion project encouraged others to wear only 33 items for 3 months. Impossible, you say? Not so fast. I was able to put some of my newly emptied plastic bins to work by loading most of my wardrobe into storage. Give yourself permission to let minimalism be a learning process. Find out what feels right for you. After all, becoming minimalist isn’t a contest, but a collaboration of inspired people.

You can be bold without throwing away all your clothes. Drastically minimize a category of your stuff for 3 months. Move the rest of your things into a holding area. How does it feel? What do you miss? Will you take the rest of your stuff back … or break up with it?

Love the item now or never

If an overstuffed closet makes you cringe, can you admit that this is not a healthy relationship? Sometimes we hold onto stuff for reasons we don’t fully understand. For me, the emotions surfaced while whittling my wardrobe for Project 333. It was surprising to realize I was emotionally attached to items I rarely wore.

To help get past emotional attachments that don’t make sense, take items out, one by one, and ask yourself these questions:

• Why do I keep this?
• Is this beautiful?
• Is this useful to me right now?

If you struggle with the answers, kick the item to the curb, literally. Acknowledge your emotions, but stay strong. Detach and see how you feel in a week.

Get rid of extra baggage

Our culture has become obsessed with disposable. Even items that aren’t disposable – like hair dryers and tank tops – are kept around in bulk “just in case.”  This is a wasteful mindset that will end up costing you money, not saving it. Get rid of the duplicates – donate them to those in need. If your hair dryer breaks, use the time you would have spent digging through bins of stuff to buy a new, quality dryer you’ll totally love.

Ignite your passion to shop local

Put your money to work in your community. Support local artists, woodworkers, knitters and purse makers. Don’t make the cheap, made in China items your first pick. If there is something you want or need, plan ahead and make it a pleasure instead of pointless consumerism.

It’s really like putting your relationship with stuff in reverse. Shift gears and go in a new direction. By experimenting with minimalism, appreciating quality workmanship and focusing on community, you can invite stuff to have a place in your life.  You can start defining who you are by the things you do, and not the stuff that clutters the path.

How about you? Do you feel like your relationship with stuff is broken? Tell me more in the comments below.

* * *

Editor’s note: Check out Melissa’s blog Peace & Projects. While you’re at it, follow her on Twitter. She rocks!

Also, if you’re a blogger consider signing up for this course: “How to Write Like an A-List Blogger”! The first week is free and the course contains information on:

• The little known power of Story
• Coming up with great topics for posts
• Advice on writing posts
• Style
• Headlines
• Getting your posts to a wider audience

Photo by stephenvance

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Katie Tallo. Katie writes about simple, joyful life change at Momentum Gathering.

My father-in-law is 84. He lived in a three-bedroom bungalow for the last 30 years, filling every nook and cranny with a lifetime’s worth of stuff. When his wife died last year, he found himself alone with no one to cook for or sit beside. All that was left was a house full of memories and stuff.

The memories just reminded him of his loss and the stuff he couldn’t maintain. He decided to move to a small apartment in a retirement home – to simplify life. Someone else would now cook the meals, wash the dishes, clean, shovel the snow, rake the leaves and put out the garbage. He could make new friends. He took a few pieces of furniture, his stamp collection, his favorite pictures, books and a few dishes. He has ended up where he began – a bachelor with just a few essentials. The rest?

Well, the rest was a ton of odds and ends, nicks and nacks bought, made and received over the course of eight decades in the life of two people. It took months to sort, box, trash, give away, sell and disperse. In the end, it was just a mountain of stuff.

I found myself wondering what the point of it all was – all this accumulating. Here was all this stuff that no one really wanted – that had little value in the end. It wasn’t what made his house a home – his marriage was.

Why do most of us amass so much stuff? Stuff that’s often boxed and packed in the basement, stacks in closets, piled in attics and teetering on the rafters of the garage, rarely opened. What is it that makes us surround ourselves, fill our spaces and continue to want more stuff even when there’s no room or need for more? We envision hoarders as crazy people, but most of us are hoarders. We’re just neat about it. We hide it well. We tuck it away where no one can see it, but likely we couldn’t count the number of things we own. Likely we have a mountain of stuff.

So why did we build this heap in the first place and why do we continue to pile more and more stuff on top of it? The answer lies in the word S-T-U-F-F.

S is for SALES

We’ve been sold on the idea that something is missing from our lives. It’s pointed out to us daily in a barrage of ads, billboards, banners, jingles, pop-ups, TV shows, and movies that make us look around and realize we’re not living like everyone else is supposedly living so we better hurry and upsize, go big and buy more – and the mountain grows.

T is for TRADITION

Our traditions have become gift giving extravaganzas. We rack our brains to come up with a Christmas list every year just so Aunt June can buy us something that never gets taken out of the box. We buy gifts for every occasion imaginable from Father’s Day to Valentine’s Day and end up with a drawer full of vases and soaps – and the mountain gets out of control.

U is UNIQUENESS

We believe our stuff defines our uniqueness, our style, our taste, and in some cases, our status. The car we drive, the fashions we wear, the laptop we display at coffee shops, the way we decorate our homes – all of it tells the world something about us – that we’re upwardly mobile, trendy, savvy, hip, cool, classy, or smart. We come to love our stuff because we think it’s who we are. We start to believe that the more we have, the more we are. And the mountain towers over us.

F is for FILLER

Stuff is filler that feeds the emptiness, anxiety, and loneliness that pervades the human condition. Shopping, buying, redecorating and busying ourselves with our stuff is a means to reward, comfort, treat, excite or give ourselves a sense of purpose. Without new stuff we feel dull, without lots of stuff we get bored. We try to fill the void instead of looking at it’s root cause – and the mountain gets higher.

F is for FRUGAL

When we can’t bare to throw out anything or pass up any deal, frugality just leads to more stuff. My father-in-law had over twenty jars of olive oil in his basement. Why? Because it was on sale. Misguided frugality means we’ll end up with enough oil to fry a small nation.

But how do we begin to see past our mountain of stuff to a place called enough? We do it by stepping back and taking a good look at ourselves, our stuff and our triggers. We limit the onslaught of ads, avoid malls and turn down noise so we can hear our inner voice screaming over the din for us to stop buying shit! And the mountain will begin to crumble.

We lead ourselves by the scruff of our Armani shirt towards a life of our own definition. A life we’ve decided makes sense to us, not necessarily to The Desperate Housewives. We recognize how much we already have. We honor our stuff, are grateful for our stuff, but stop worshipping our stuff. We alter our traditions, shift gears, make gifts, repurpose, or skip gift-giving altogether and create new traditions of sharing stories not gifts, hugs not presents, and excursions not excess. And the mountain will get smaller.

We begin to see ourselves apart from our stuff. We connect with each other instead. We free ourselves of our attachment to pretty fabrics and fancy cars and we reclaim our attachment to each other and our planet. We stop eating away at it’s very fabric. We reward, comfort, treat, excite or give ourselves a sense of purpose through soulful, simple actions that have nothing to do with bargain hunting or olive oil. Okay, maybe we can use some of that oil to make a kick ass spaghetti sauce and share it with some good friends.

I don’t have all the answers. I’m still grappling with my own stuff and I’m not suggesting that stuff is evil or bullshit. I’m just saying that awareness can lead to rethinking and change — and change can feel really good.

In my new e-book, The 7-Week Life Cleanse, I try to spark this kind of awareness. I ask questions and offer solutions for creating more space and time in which to examine how you move in the world, what you can let go of and where your soul might like to venture next. If I’ve convinced you not to buy anymore stuff then don’t buy the e-book. Go to my blog and grab the Life Cleanse Starter Kit for free.

Either way, I encourage you to begin to chisel away at your mountain of stuff so that you can see clear across to a place called enough. The view is spectacular!

***

Peeps: Go check out Katie’s wonderful blog Momentum Gathering. And consider purchasing her new ebook The 7-Week Life Cleanse! It rocks!

“I believe that examining the hidden impacts of all the Stuff in our lives is a way to unplug, which is the first step toward changing things.” ~Annie Leonard, The Story of Stuff

Going through my stuff again helped me reevaluate what I need in my life. As a result, I was able to donate a number of items that were cluttering up my closet and bookshelf. I also reconsidered why I’m participating in the 100 Thing Challenge and its importance.

The more I mull it over, the more I think the 100 Thing Challenge is less about counting up stuff, than it is about asking ourselves larger questions like:

• Where was my stuff made?
• How was my stuff processed and where does it all go when I’m done with it?
• Why do I shop so much?
• Do material things really make me happy?
• If I have less stuff to worry about, will I have more time to give back to my community?

Being aware of how stuff affects our physical and emotional health is empowering. More importantly, making small changes in our own lives leads to a greater awareness of the connection between environmental, economic, and social justice issues. With that in mind, here are a few tips to help you unplug from your stuff.

1. Slowly sort through your stuff.

Go through your home room by room and create piles of stuff you want to keep and stuff you want to donate. This process takes time. Undertaking a gradual transition will help alleviate emotional guilt associated with trashing possessions and promotes a routine of minimizing that is more likely to outlast quick lifestyle fixes.

I get a lot of emails that ask for a magic solution to the problem of clutter. There is no magic solution. If you have a house full of stuff, there is no weekend solution for responsible decluttering.

And I’m serious, be responsible. Don’t throw your stuff away! Give it away or repurpose items so you don’t need to buy something new. We don’t need more stuff in the landfills, toxins seeping into our water supply or more garbage shipped to developing countries.

2. Avoid lifestyle creep.

Lifestyle creep is when we try to keep up with the mythical Joneses and end up unhappy and in debt. Participating in the 100 Thing Challenge is a great way to avoid this phenomenon. For instance, I take care of what I have instead of constantly buying the latest clothes or shoes. It’s helped me become more mindful of my consumption choices.

3. Save rather than shop.

If you take on the 100 Thing Challenge, I guarantee you’ll save a lot of cash. One of the main reasons I’m participating in this challenge is to keep clutter out of my life and to save money. I’m now much more thoughtful about my purchases. I know what I already have and what I may or may not “need.” The end result has been an increase in savings and time. And that makes me happy.

4. Get your counting groove on.

Consider participating in this challenge. If you think the task is too difficult and you are not sure where to start, then begin by reading The Story of Stuff, The Art of Being Minimalist, Simplify, and The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life. These books will help you unplug from your stuff and consider its hidden costs.

Please note, this article was originally published in April. Since the New York Times piece, But Will It Make Your Happy?, was published I’ve received a lot of inquiries about the 100 Things Challenge. I hope this answers some of your questions.

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