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My 100 Personal Possesion Challenge

By Mike ⋅ September 19, 2007 ⋅ Post a comment

suitcasecourtesy of Bob AuBuchon

A number of years ago my simplification fascination began with a simple book, simply titled, Simplify Your Life. This book was given to me by a person who I admire for their organization so I read it great care. Since reading this book I constantly question “stuff” and the impact it has on my life. I am coming to the conclusion that most “stuff” actually deters from my life instead of enriches it.

Once you get in the mindset of “simplicity” ideas tend to pop in your head that are definitely not the norm. After a while of thinking “simple” you realize that everything around us is telling and convincing us to do anything but simple. Everything in life is getting more and more complex for good one reason, consumerism.

Anyway, one idea that I got a while ago was the idea of living out of one bag, or having all my possessions in one bag. This idea initially came to me after packing a bag to go on a short trip. I got frustrated at the time it took to round up my important stuff and clothes. I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if I just had one bag with all my stuff, so that I could be ready to go at a moments notice.

Well today I was happy to find that there are others out there that share in my desire to have one bag with all all their possessions. Furthermore, there are people that desire to have no more than 100 personal possessions in their quest for a simplified life. There is even a 100 Thing Challenge and today I joined up with zenhabits.com to work on this challenge for the next month.

As I work on getting down to 100 possessions I will not include furniture, house decorations, and shared items, so basically I will just work towards 100 personal belongings. As I work on my list of 100 items I will take pictures and notes to show and explain what makes the list and why. Furthermore, I will try and keep some notes about what items get purged and why.

Follow or join along with the fun.

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Discussion

3 comments for “My 100 Personal Possesion Challenge”

  1. Hi, I found your site following a comment on Stuck in Stuff.

    How’s the challenge going? I’d love to know what process you’re following to sort your stuff into important and chuckable.

    Posted by Emma | October 2, 2007, 5:01 am

  2. Hi emma,
    My process so far has just been to think of everything in terms of “it all has to fit in X bag”. Even though I don’t have a physical bag just the thought of a constricted amount of space mentally helps me get rid of the clutter.

    I have just been slowly going through all my stuff and asking, would I pack this for a month long trip? Using the travel mentality it is easy to understand the root reason for holding on to things. I have realized that a huge amount of stuff is just something I am holding onto because it was important or means something about my past, or it is something that I may need, or think that I may need at some point in the future.

    To handle stuff that has a certain sentimental value I have utilized a simple tip of taking pictures. For most all of my sentimental items this little trick does the job as I don’t have a lot of priceless family heirlooms, etc. For things that I am holding onto for the future I just have to start being more honest with myself and asking if I am ever really going get use or need said item.

    Posted by Mike | October 2, 2007, 6:45 pm

  3. […] few posts back I talked about starting a 100 personal possession challenge. To shortly recap the goal is to get down to 100 personal possessions in 1 month. Well a little […]

    Posted by miketheory.com - 100 Thing list | November 5, 2007, 9:38 pm

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