Tuesday, June 17, 2008

100 things

Have you seen this? I know I have more stuff than I want, I am sure I have more than I need, and I am absolutely sure I will never own just 100 things, but, oh! the liberation! Can you imagine? Not being owned by your possessions? I probably have 100 things in my car that I'd never miss if I just threw them away.

But realistically, I can't keep just 100 things. It's not something I can do, and not something I even want to do. But I can simplify a little, I think. It's like the stash diet thing, and the scrap busting thing, and the UFO challenge thing. It's the FlyLady 27 fling thing. So, here's my version. For every new thing that comes into my life, for me personally, two things go. Like for like, if possible, like two articles of clothing in exchange for a new t-shirt. Two items from the junk drawer for a new battery. Two containers of leftovers for an ice cream bar. If I run out of things to get rid of, but have something I need (or want), I can make those two things two pounds. Ha! I'll simplify and skinnify at the same time! If nothing else, it will make me consider if a purchase or acquisition is a want or a need. And a want isn't always a bad thing, but it has to be real - not just a whim. Maybe I'll even save a few bucks. To keep myself honest I'm going to keep a running tab in the sidebar. Will I pro-rate my tosses to allow myself a little extravagance? No! Will I limit myself to only two things for each new one? No! Will I reward myself with something new because I got rid of something else? No!

This could be fun. Let's see.

3 comments:

Rian said...

I was watching Clean House yesterday and this reminds me of that. How in the world can people live in so much clutter! And when the crew comes in to help "release" them from their stuff, they find ways to sneak it back in. But maybe that's scripted, I don't know.

Tanya Brown said...

This is a great post, and it really resonated. I've seen a couple of other posts which have similarly spoken to me in the past couple of days. It seems like a stage many of us are at, not wanting to be owned by possessions.

Anonymous said...

Move to an apartment that is less than 300 sq ft. Worked for me.