How To Live With Just 100 Things
Excess consumption is practically an American religion. But as anyone with a filled-to-the-gills closet knows, the things we accumulate can become oppressive. With all this stuff piling up and never quite getting put away, we’re no longer huddled masses yearning to breathe free; we’re huddled masses yearning to free up space on a countertop. Which is why people are so intrigued by the 100 Thing Challenge, a grass-roots movement in which otherwise seemingly normal folks are pledging to whittle down their possessions to a mere 100 items.
I like the idea of getting rid of possessions that I no longer use, especially if they can be of use to someone else. But I have a really hard time getting around to culling my stuff. Especially clothes. I try to use the old rule of ‘if you haven’t worn it for two years then out it goes’ except that I often find after a couple of years I rediscover how much I liked wearing something and it gets a lot of use once again.
I could certainly never get down to 100 possessions unless things like books, CDs and DVDs were counted as a collective unit. As well as stuff like dishes and cutlery.
Could you do the 100 Thing Challenge? Would you even want to?
casa azahar 
I am constantly culling things out because I’ve moved so many times in the past three years that it’s a matter of practicality. I’m much more ruthless with what I acquire and keep nowadays, too. Especially when it comes to books and clothes. I don’t know if I could get down to 100 possessions, though; I have so much kitchen gear that I cannot part with because I actually use it lots.
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I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t rise to that challenge, nor that I would want to.
I would have the same sort of difficulties as you az – books alone would blow it by miles unless I could count them as 1.
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What?!! One hundred things? I have well over one hundred pieces of art, which nurture my soul and remind me of friends and places I have been. Cull it?
What about the empty wine bottles in the root cellar, patiently awaiting wine from our vineyard to fill them? There are dozens and dozens of them! Not to mention beer bottles and canning jars.
Even when Jim and I were moving every three years we never got culled to 100 things. I suppose if we were going to move into an RV or a sailboat, we would cull. Until then, I intend to wallow in my excess. So to speak.
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I was going through my box a few weeks ago, looking at so many pieces of memorabilia I’ve schlepped around the world. Why hang on to them? They’re soaked in memories.
One hundred also seems like such an arbitrary number. Why not 93? 144?
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And every item you sell on Ebay or in a Garage sale simply adds to the “clutter” in someone else’s home. You are not r3educing clutter but simply re-organising it!
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not even close. i’m considering a move soon – from the large family home to a smaller townhouse. the ‘reduction of clutter’ shall be forced. i need to get started. the second hand stores shall feel as though the heavens opened once i start the purge…
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Moving is an excellent way to get rid of excess clutter. And especially when you change countries, which I’ve done twice now.
When I moved from Canada to England I shipped over clothes, some books and music, photos, and my serging machine. Though I did store some things in my sister’s basement, which later all got destroyed when it flooded.
When I moved from England to Spain I could only take what would fit in the back of my friend’s hatchback. I also stored some things at my friend’s mother’s house, that mysteriously ‘went missing’ when I tried to have them sent to me a year or so later.
But ‘out of sight out of mind’ does actually work. Sure I missed some of the possessions I lost at first, but now I can’t even remember what most of them were.
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So if we discount temporary belongings like food and drink (including wine) what do we need to live?
Clothes are likely to make up the majority of the things, so does a pair of socks or shoes count as one or two thing?
If we made most of our books and music digital that would clear up a fair bit of stuff, in fact all printed matter could go digital – so we need a laptop and scanner.
If we converted to a raw food diet, and shopped fresh daily, all we’d need is one cup, one glass, a cutting board and a really good knife.
You know this reminds me of an excellent site called The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company (google it you lazy sods). Perhaps if we could slim everything down to 100 things we could live happily in one of their 100 sq.ft. houses (I kid you not – take a look).
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Perhaps we could also move this onto:
– what would you take if you had to carry it all?
Anyone like to create a list for a social nomad?
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Wow, my mind just goes totally blank with that one, Craig.
I mean, I reckon that toiletries could also be categorised as a collective unit but the reality of them would be quite a burden to carry around.
Also, being a social nomad suggests (eep!) camping, which I loathe with a passion.
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When I moved here to Sydney last year, I packed up almost my entire life into storage and arrived with just one suitcase. Admittedly, it was a pretty bloody enormous suitcase…
Anyway, for a while it was liberating having so little ‘stuff’. But then I wanted to go camping and I didn’t have my gear, and although I had some of my scuba gear, I found I’d left a couple of vital bits behind. I’d also left all my books and art and photos and mementoes from my travels. As well as my winter clothes (blithely assuming the sun always shone here).
So now I’m slowly rebuilding my accumulated stuff – trying all the while not to duplicate anything I already have or buy things I’ll never really use.
Great post!
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Hmmm, having had to do just this little exercise about 8 months ago, I don’t recommend it voluntarily! I had a great book collection (mostly SF, science and cookbooks), a lifetime’s worth of albums, some really great collected kitchen gadgets, and some photos and…let’s just say, I went from a 660 square foot apartment to eight cardboard boxes, two suitcases and a couple of cats.
You know what, though? While I find myself thinking I still have some of those things, I don’t miss them. I’d now prefer to live with just a few selected things I loved, rather than my old pak-rat stash. 🙂
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