My buddy Dave has started a new blog talking about his mission to simplify and declutter his life (and yours) called Stuck in Stuff. And over the weekend he did the most amazing thing:

But I have an idea. A spontaneous idea that might change my life forever. I’m calling it the 100 Thing Challenge. And I’m taking it. Here is how it goes. I’m going to only keep 100 things. All the rest gets purged. Sold. Given away. Traded ;-) Some how, all the other things will no longer remain in my possession.

Could you live with only 100 personal possessions? What would you keep? What would you throw away? Leave Dave a comment with your thoughts.

Comments

1. guynameddave on 2007-07-30 12:52:34 wrote: Oh crap. Accountability!

2. DaveTheWave on 2007-07-30 13:09:35 wrote: Good luck…

3. Elaine on 2007-07-30 15:37:41 wrote: Wow. Trying to purge 100 things is difficult, I cannot imagine only keeping 100 things!

4. fyngyrz on 2007-07-30 18:04:03 wrote: Personally, now that you’ve brought the issue to my attention, I think I’ll order some more stuff. Stuff doesn’t scare me; stuff is fun. Stuff ranges from entertaining to convenient to life-saving. Stuff can make for good gifts, make use of time more effective, and even enhance your sex life. It provides the cats with things to knock around late at night. In my opinion - which I readily admit was formed from my experiences and so I can only surely apply to myself - the thing that one wants to rid one’s self of, and then stay absolutely clear of, is not “stuff”… it is debt. For the last few decades, I’ve avoided debt like the plague. If I can’t pay for something out of pocket, I don’t get it. But on the other hand, once you’re not paying interest, it turns out you have a lot more money than you think you did, and getting “stuff” isn’t much of a problem. I even bought my home out of pocket. Mind you, it was inexpensive. We are doing all manner of creative things to it (it was a church, so it was an empty box) all out of pocket. Our only recurring bills are utilities and taxes. I am fairly sure that our active program to eliminate existing debt and then intentionally refuse to enter into new debt provided us with more of an actual advantage than any program to reduce stuff could ever do. But again, that’s just us. I suppose if for some personal reason, “stuff” is an irritant, then it should be dealt with. Trading, however, seems like it would not help. Give up something you already have for something you want more, and you’ve not decreased your stuff-count, it is still the same, but you’ve just ratcheted up the value to you. Ooops?

5. John C on 2007-08-02 20:07:43 wrote: 100 is arbitrary and cool-sounding. So a stamp collection is definitely out of the question.