Comments on: 100 items, can it be done?

By: The 100 Items Challenge revisited, it’s all about your Mindset

The 100 Items Challenge revisited, it’s all about your Mindset — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:51:28 +0000

[...] long time ago I wrote about the 100 items challenge and as you might know it’s one of the things on my “Freedom list [...]

By: Living on a small footprint, minimalist living. «

Living on a small footprint, minimalist living. « — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:09:07 +0000

[...] advantage of small living is that you’re limited in the amount of things you can own. The 100-items challenge I wrote about earlier would almost be vital to keeping a tidy home. Yes, I see this as an [...]

By: Mind the Beginner | Closing Thoughts on 2009 and the Freedom List for 2010

Mind the Beginner | Closing Thoughts on 2009 and the Freedom List for 2010 — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:18:41 +0000

[...] minimalism goals are next. A long long time ago I blogged about the 100 items challenge and I must confess that I’m still not there. Why would I want to do this? I want less [...]

By: ann

ann — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:24:14 +0000

Barry, you are my hero!

I read your utility charges to my little girl and she sat there open mouthed for a moment, then made the comment – “With bills like that Mommy, you wouldn’t have to work so much! Can we do that?”

So now my daughter is coming onto the simplicity bandwagon in hopes that Mom will be able to work less and spend more time with her.

Thank you for such an inspiring post! Time to put some more things on Freecycle!

By: Barry

Barry — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:17:34 +0000

I’ve succeeded in this–in fact, I’ve superseded it. I own a total of 76 things. I just moved into a 6′ x 10′ house which I built myself on a trailer. I honestly love it.

The hardest thing was selling my massive book collection. It wasn’t hard to let go of the bestsellers and such that’d I’d picked up over the last ten years, but the books from 1800’s/early 1900’s hurt so very badly, I once even convinced myself to keep them in my car but knew I should sell them.

I use the Sony eReader now. Cell phone. Laptop doubles as TV. Mp3 player w/FM radio. Small solar charger for small gadgets/hand crank charger for winter time.

Monthly electric bill = $6 – $8 in winter, $20 – $30 in summer (AC!)

I use a wood burner in winter for heat, since at least one tree is blown over each summer here, cook food on the porch with a small grill, get water from well/rain, burn my paper trash in stove, recycle cans/plastics, use compost toilet–

Basically, I can afford (accommodation-wise) to live off a minimum-wage paycheck of working one day a month.

I love it.

By: ann

ann — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:14:41 +0000

I have read your challenge. As for books, movies and music I have discovered the computer to be a godsend! I do most of my reading digitally these days, all of my music is digital, and I am slowly converting what videos I have to a smaller digital format.

With a computer, I have not only managed to eliminate a television, stereo, books, video players and game machines, but items like a phone as well with Magicjack.

I don’t know if I will ever be able to meet your 100 item challenge, but thinning down and outsourcing life more is a wonderful project!

By: Christiaan

Christiaan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:53:56 +0000

There are severals ways to view this.

On the one hand consuming/staying updated results in a bigger footprint. On the other hand newer things (cars in particular) are better for the enviroment and so you get a smaller footprint.
Reducing the number of items you have also reduces the amount of storage space you need. This way you can live smaller, which is always better for the enviroment as well. (Less central heating for instance)

This being said I don’t feel the need to update. See my “ode to the old” blogpost.

My personal reasons to be interested are getting rid of attachements and being more mobile. I don’t want things to have power over me so I’d better get rid of them. Also, I aspire to become location independant and that’s something that won’t work if you own en entire house full of stuff.
I like minimalist living, I’ve written about the benefits of minimalist living before. A few of them are easy cleaning, and less stress.

I do believe that reducing my posessions to 100 things will reduce my footprint, but this is not my main motivation.

I hope this does answer some of your questions, if not please do stay in touch and we can discuss this further.

By: EJ

EJ — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:36:26 +0000

Why are you interested in the 100 things?

I try to cut down on (buying, new) stuff to lighten my ecological footprint. It seems to me that getting rid of used books and buying new, need to be updated electronics (iPhone, Stanza and Amazon’s Kindle) is a way to go “smaller” but not necessarily “lighter”.

Your thoughts?

By: Ramona

Ramona — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 02:11:59 +0000

Books = 1? Hate to argue that, but I don’t think so!
Books are my bane at this point, too! So far, I am in the process of clearing out and choosing through the 1000+ books I have in my collection.
It is so very painful to me, as I have taken the time (not to mention the money) to choose them for my needs. I am only keeping what my children have chosen for themselves and precious books handed down to me from my grandfather that were in the early 20th century. I will also keep those that define me, and still weed through them further, though it feels like self-amputation!
I realised that it is very selfish of me to keep this
trove of knowledge just for my family. I have found several foster parents for my ‘babies’ in study centers and a pre-school (for the children’s books I had been keeping while my youngest has already grown to 10!) An architect friend has offered to adopt any stray design books and magazines I am letting go of since she uses it for design research.
I am letting my ‘babies’ go out and do their job – educate other people and kindle ideas and creativity.
However, I do hate to admit, if we were not faced with the prospect of having to live in a much, much smaller house, I would not even have dreamed of doing this at all!

By: Christiaan

Christiaan — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:56:07 +0000

Thank you for this quote from Epictetus. :) Those Stoics never cease to amaze me.