100 Thing Challenge

This guy is really trying to pare down to the essentials:

Reader John points us to his buddy Dave Bruno’s blog in which the intrepid blogger has decided to get rid of everything except for 100 things. After a major house cleaning and purge, he just wasn’t satisfied:

It’s just that, in grand scheme of things, it does not seem like enough. We have a lot of stuff. And honestly, it is difficult to purge. What goes? That is a hard decision. 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.

He’s blogging his progress on the “challenge” and it should be interesting to track his progress.

Things John does not count in the challenge include:

• Clothes - will hopefully get this category down to 100 next
• Books, including maps - likely the stuff-vice I'll carry with me to my grave
• Tools - will hopefully get this category down to 100 sometime down the road
• And stuff I cannot claim as 100% mine, i.e. I'm not going to toss the Hobbit picture hanging in our hallway or chuck the one radio we own, though both happened to be a gifts given to me.  These things don't really belong to "me" so much as our home.  Someday our family might choose to take up the 100 Thing Challenge for home decorations, furnishings, and accessories.  But I'm starting this challenge realistic.

Here is the list of what's made John's cut so far.

I like the idea of this challenge.  If nothing else, it is a neat mental exercise to think of what possessions are important to you and what are not.  (Something Ali has recently been thinking about as well.)  I've often thought about what I would miss the most if I ever lost all of my stuff.  My list is surprisingly small.

If I were to undertake an endeavor like this, I would probably opt more for the challenge of limited space/volume rather than a certain number of items, at least as a first step.  (I think that would be an easier task and potentially accomplish a similar goal.)  For example, only keeping what could fit on my desk and bookshelves and/or inside a certain storage area and restricting my closet to storage only for clothes, linens, and maybe travel/camping gear.  (In a sense I've done this several times by limiting myself to what can fit into two pick-up truck loads.)  The second part of the challenge would be to do this in a way that was aesthetically appealing. 

If I were to do this, it would lead me down a few potential paths:

• Replacing my TV with a flat-screen TV, possibly a smaller one that could sit on my desk and serve double-duty as a second computer monitor.
• Restricting my computer purchases to laptops and/or iMacs that have small foot-prints and much less clutter.
• Working to digitize my complete photo collection.  Digitize as much of the rest of my life (documents, financial records, etc.) as possible and keep back-ups online in case my main computer and/or house is ever damaged.  (This would be a very time-consuming project.)
• Rethinking the layout of my room and keeping furniture to a functional minimum.  Concern myself more with less stuff than with less furniture and possibly add a few furnishings (file cabinet, more bookshelves) if it helps me organize and eliminate more stuff and/or enhance my working and resting.
• Ruthlessly getting rid of cables, old PDAs and electronics.
• Parsing down my camping gear to a minimum and only what will fit in my backpack.  (I like the idea of ultra-light camping.)  Same goes for my travel gear.  (I'm already almost there on both counts.)
• Slowly moving everything I have stored in my parent's basement to my place in Arlington.  Most everything there is in small, file-sized boxes.  As I sort through one box, I could move another over and repeat the process until it was complete.  (Before starting this process, I need to go through what I have here.)
• Create a digital inventory of my books and music and keep a copy of this online.  Most of these are replacable, but I don't have a good list of what I have.  (I've already started this process with my books.)
• Containerize.  It helps to get a better handle of what I own.
• Focus on more aesthetics, including strategic placement of artwork and a few items picked up during my travels around the world.  (Australian boomerang, Korean art, Indian carving, etc.)
• Keeping my space inviting to myself and welcoming to others.
• Buying a large, nice looking (stainless steel?) trash can for my room to encourage frequent and ongoing purges.
• Creating a great place to read, write, research, and work.  As long as I am in school, this is the equivalent of my job.  Anything I can do to improve my productivity in these regards is a strong candidate for consideration.  This includes setting up a good, ergonomic computer system and work area.
• Ruthlessly getting rid of various extra office supplies I've accumulated that I never use.

Ironically, when I think of doing reducing what I have, I am also led to thinking about new things I could buy to replace things I already own.  That may not be completely bad, but it may miss part of the point of this exercise.  On the other hand, there's nothing particularly pernicious about replacing an older item with something newer and more functional.  Life situations change and a reluctance to change with it is part of what leads to clutter accumulation.  ("I can't get rid of that!  I paid $$ for it!")  The bigger question is if a new item adds or subtracts from overall quality of life and accomplishing goals that you have.  That's an individual and subjective answer.

Every time I move, I seem to get on a purging kick, particularly as I work to get settled in and find myself living among boxes.  As long as I'm in school, I don't think I will be able to avoid accumulating books and paperwork, but other than that, it is a relatively easy time in life to live a fairly simple lifestyle.  If I'm ever going to try reducing my clutter and my possessions, this is probably the best opportunity I will ever have.

Question: If you could only own 100 things, what would you keep?