Stuff: By the Numbers

[windinthemaples]

I've spent about three hundred and thirty eight hours bedridden the past sixteen days, recovering from surgery, listening to the sounds of my family going out on adventures to the park, the grocery store, the gelato stand, the bathtub without me. If my LiveJournal output is any indication, it has given me a lot of time to think. This is, after all, a Hanged Man year for me. This year, 2010, has also been a lot about Earth. Gaia spoke and I heard Her for the first time. I started reading about our nation's garbage and that affliction of plenty, Affluenza. Sarah (mermaiden), Shaun (radshaun), and I talked about it a lot, our own issues with stuff, and it dredged up a lot of my unconscious assumptions and emotional connections to shopping and having. All that reading, all those late-night conversations crystalized what I've long found disturbing about the intersection between earth-based spirituality and a consumer-based lifestyle. (Does. Not. Compute.) I haven't done much about it, though, and laying in bed and watching the hours of my life disappear, literally, I figured out what I needed to do to boldly reinvent my life.

Dave Bruno is the latest in a company of bloggers and simple living advocates I've read who is addressing the issue of his own affluenza by counting (and then limiting) the personal items he allows to exist in his life. I read an article the other day in the NY Times about a couple in Portland who cut down their possessions to exactly 100 (including toiletries!) for the two of them. The accompanying photo of their down-sized loft apartment was sparse, to say the least, without window dressings and rugs and artwork and all that other detritus of shopping that I'm used to viewing as "normal".

For two years now, my 1800 square foot Chicago condo has been on (and off and on) the market. Personal possessions and clutter are sorta taboo in real estate, so we've spent two years keeping our material lives boxed up and penned into closets and a 10' x 10' storage facility two miles away. Every six months or so, we take a few more loads of acquired-but-not-necessary things (in our SUV, no less) to drop off and shamefully stash. Now, we've changed tactics and are looking to rent our place out and move to a larger, single-family home up in Evanston. That means, sometime in the next eight weeks or so, I will have to box everything I own up and then pay to have it hauled to our new home. The mysterious contents of our stuffed-to-the-roof storage rental will also be kindly dropped off at our feet and we'll be faced with the task of finding a home for all of it.

The idea of having only 100 (or less) possessions is so alien to me. My kitchen counters, where I'm set up with my laptop, currently have the following items upon them:

1) Bamboo coaster set. (Does this count as one whole or nine pieces?)
2) Marriott hotel ink pen.
3) Purple gel ink pen
4) MacBook Laptop
5) iPhone charger
6) iPhone
7) Bunch of bananas
8) Wooden knife block w/ kitchen shears, 4 knives, and steel. (Is this seven items?!)
9) Box of disposable tissue.
10) Legal-sized notepad
11) Daily planner
12) Copy of Witches & Pagans magazine
13) Toaster
14) Coffee Maker
15) Electric Tea Kettle
16) Bottle of wine
17) Glass floral vase.
18) Dish-scrubbing brush
19) Bottle of dish soap
20) Sponge
21) Sink Drainer-Stopper
22) White Bowl
23) Giant Candle
24) Plastic Microwave Cooker Cover
25) Bottle of Shampoo
25) & Conditioner (for those sink scrubbings since I haven't been able to shower since my surgery)
26) Bottle of hand soap
27) Dish towel
28) Small green plate
29) Divided tupperware container w/ lid
30) Butter Knife
31) Steak Knife
32) Dinner plate
33) Plastic water cup
34) Copy of Pretend Soup cookbook for kids.
35) Salt Shaker
36) Pepper Grinder
37) Unused Get Well Card
38) Marble Pastry board
39) Portable Phone Charger/Answering Machine Hub
40) Wireless Router

Now granted, it could use a little picking-up, but this is just the stuff that is sitting on my kitchen counters! This doesn't include the appliances or the mass of things hanging out behind all the cabinet doors and drawers or the little things magnetized to the fridge front. I've reached 40 without even having to get up and look around. How many items do I own? Thousands, certainly. Tens of thousands, possibly. One hundred might as well be one. I don't know how it is even possible to get there but I can sort of imagine how fulfilling, how freeing, how utterly transformational it would be if I could. So I've spent a few weeks laying in bed, thinking about it, and I think the first step for me is to really understand what I have. I need to count it, one little junk drawer at a time. I need to make a list and then start striking out those things that I don't absolutely love and need and cherish. Sentimental value isn't enough--I want to get to where the things I own are each beloved and life-enhancing. I want to get to where I could make a list of my belongings and know, without a doubt, that it would be impossible to forget any of them because they are such an enriching part of my daily life.

The limits, 50 or 100 or 150, I think are pretty arbitrary. But if I am playing, for real, that proverbial game of "You can only grab x things from your house because it is on fire" then I'm forced to prioritize what I think I need and what I think I love. Do I say, "Oh, but I love that!" because I *love* that object or because I am holding onto the myth of its importance? I say, "I had to buy it, it was so awesome!", so was it awesome enough to replace one item on my limit list?

So I'm not committing to a limit, yet, but I am committing to the counting. I will know what I have and I will face it and I will then have the power to start shifting items up and down the list until I know exactly what it is that feeds my soul and what only weighs it down.

I do not want my lifestyle to be a burden upon the Earth. Every last *thing* is the product of intensive agriculture, logging, drilling, and mining. It looks like a plastic doodad or an extra-cozy jacket or a bucket of fun Play-Doh, but it is made from the body of my Mother, at the expense of our world's finite resources. Who am I, to feel entitled to such a disproportionate, wasteful, silly amount of possessions, of owning? It is an artificial safety net--sapping my energy, my attention, and my finances away from the direct experience of my life.

Imagine the power for good I'd have in my hands if, instead of all this stuff I never use, I had the money it had taken to buy it all.

Pretty thrilling, huh? :)

Comments

[suzanna-o.livejournal.com]

I saw a mention of this project in the NYT yesterday...definitely food for thought. :)

This is probably the news link you're looking for:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/08consume.html?_r=1&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's the one. Thank you. :)

[mermaiden.livejournal.com]

You probably read the article in the Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/08consume.html?_r=2&src=me&ref=homepage) about one of my absolute heroines, Tammy Strobel (http://rowdykittens.com). :) I'm kind of obsessed with Everett Bogue (http://www.farbeyondthestars.com) and Tammy and Chloe (http://simplerabbit.com/) and a bunch of others. At this point, my Google Reader is anything but minimalist. ;D

The 100 Challenge evolved from the challenge of 50 things, which many of the bloggers I read have done. It's so inspiring and daunting, but I've been finding the courage to do a less extreme variation, slowly but surely. We're paring everything down in our house to the absolute essentials, and those things that make our hearts sing. It makes my OWN heart sing that you and I have been in the same frame of mind, mulling over the exact same things. Of course. :) <333333 Though hundreds of miles apart, we are on the same wavelength~ <3333

I miss you. I want to talk to you about this so, so badly--it's all I've been able to think about lately. *LOVE*

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

I know. I feel so distant from your life right now. {{{hugs}}}

Remember my not-buying things stand? And all the library books about anything-but-shopping? That was December/January. I mean, geez, it has taken long enough for me to consider doing something drastic. It's probably a lot like you and your debt--enough of this! Putting up with it is now, finally, worse than the fear of living without stuff. Bring it on!! :D ;)

[mermaiden.livejournal.com]

Can you access AIM? <333333333

[cloverdew.livejournal.com]

I love this so much. I really, really, really want to rid my life of "stuff". I want everything in my house to have a purpose. I may end up with books or dvds or cds remaining in my life, but I want to severely limit them. I want to rid my closet of all unnecessary clothing, only buy food I know I'm going to eat right away (getting better at this), and get rid of anything that doesn't serve an immediate purpose.

I can't wait until my mom and dad visit in September. I'm going to make my mom help me clean the entire house and rid it of STUFF.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

That'll be nice, to have help from your parents. :) I'm looking forward to September, too, as a month when I'll make a lot of progress in paring down my "stuff", too! :)

[radshaun.livejournal.com]

This so resonates with me right now. I'm having a difficult time separating things I WANT versus the things I NEED. And when it comes to the want items, I'm not sure how many of them I actually want and how many I've been programmed to want. I mean, I don't want to live a life where the only things around me are things I need for survival, but, for example, I have three objects on my desk that do the same things: my computer, my iPad, and my iPhone. Certainly the way I utilize them is different, but I think that I use them differently so that I can justify having each of them in my life.
I think that before I can begin to weed out and simplify my life, I have to be honest with myself about how I spend money and how much of what I want can be condensed. Books, for example. I love my Kindle. It has simplified my life in so many ways. Yet the books that I buy on them are locked to that device. I can't share them, I can't resell them, I can't donate them to a library. If I buy a book that I'd only read once, with a paper book I'd have the option to recycle it so that it serves more than once use, but with my Kindle, I've traded a small bit of convenience for a once use product that simply goes to waste when I'm done with it. It's easier to justify since it doesn't take up any actual space, but I think that philosophy--putting my ease before everything else--is what has confused my ability to tell what are things I want and what are things I only think I want.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you declutter your life so that I can pick your brain for tips. I think it would really be easier to simply have someone come in and do it for me. The sad truth is that I'd likely not miss anything that was tossed out. That's a really sad commentary on my life, I think.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

Fascinating. I think of you as being a pretty spartan character to begin with. :) Me, I have "stuff" hiding in every closet, every drawer, every possible little stash around home. :D

I'm not sure where I stand with the mental mathematics of electronics. Like, our 'entertainment center' takes about five or six remote controls to operate. I can remember a childhood without any such thing. So really, how much more convenient, how much more wonderful is our giant TV with the sound system and the DVD player and the premium cable channels and all the rest. Is it *actually* worth $165 a month to watch True Blood? And my iPhone, which the company pays for, has become pretty vital feeling in my life and yet I can remember a day, many of them, before the age of cell phones or even cordless phones. What does it cost me in life for all this handy-dandy electronic convenience? What does it bring me? I just don't know.

[radshaun.livejournal.com]

It's funny that you mention phones. I remember holding out on a cell phone for so long because I hated the idea that people could get me whenever they wanted. Then I caved and now I can't imagine life WITHOUT one. But I recently read an article about how people are beginning to see not having a cell as a sign of power, of a way of making other people work on their schedule. I don't necessarily agree with that, but, like you, I'm not sure what the cost is of the device. Sometimes it's great to have, but I'm not entirely sure the tradeoff is worth it.

Spartan? HA! Maybe but I think that if I'm being honest with myself, I could probably fit everything I needed and most of the stuff that would make me happy (minus my books) into one large duffle bag.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

I love throwing stuff out, but there comes a point, as an artist who creates 'things' where I can't limit myself to 100 things. I can't. I have over 100 originals sitting in this house that haven't sold, that are the possible foundation of a future career. And there are over 100 coloured pencils in my coloured pencil box.

So for me, the philosophy of minimalism still stands, but I can't limit myself to numbers. I like living minimalistically. Our kitchen table has nothing on it. Not even a vase. I don't like ornaments (which is why all of my altars will be very sparse, I suspect!), and if I don't use it, it gets thrown out (with the exception of books, which get re-read on a fairly regular basis). I would like to get rid of more, and will, and am, and it seems I'm throwing out something fairly regularly.

But alas, my work as an artist makes things difficult. Working in art is very much the production of 'things.' :/

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

I think it is telling that the people I've seen who have committed to something as extreme as a 50/100/200 personal item limit are writers looking to free themselves from the 9 to 5 job so they can commit fully to their own writing careers. They don't need a lot of materials to create. Their livelihood isn't "stuff" dependent the way an artist or artisan's is. That's why I think the number chosen is an arbitrary limit set to force you to rethink how you view what you own and what its true worth is to you. Everyone has their non-negotiables, I would think, that jump out at the very idea of this kind of decluttering project. Frankly, I think that's awesome that you have things you would passionately defend keeping. Those are the things that bring value to your life, right? Like, so much of what I have I wouldn't even fight if someone said, "I'm going to be taking this away from you." Some things, I'd rabidly defend, and so that mental exercise highlights what is actually important to me, what is worth keeping, and what hobbies bring me unquestioned enrichment.

It sounds like you've already figured this out--and I am only beginning on the path! :)

[astraea-sophia.livejournal.com]

Wow. What would I keep if I could only keep 100 things? This is such an intriguing thought. I have been planning on downsizing a ton lately, and I'm tempted to start making a list of my own after reading this post...

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

It *is* an intriguing mental exercise. The number, I think, isn't important at all. What is, in my opinion, is the concept that you have limited energy, resources, and time in your life and that you get to choose how to spend them. So you look and you see what things make your life more enjoyable and what things make your life 'heavier'. :)

[mrsbrewer.livejournal.com]

I would love to chat with you about this. I really like the basic idea of simplifying, but I question your approach a bit. For example, is it really worthwhile to catalog and rank every single item you own? It seems to me that taking that path really offers an opportunity to a) shame yourself repeatedly and incrementally and b) postpone the part of that is truly important--making the change.

I would love to whittle down my possessions even further than I already have, but I am getting to a point where I recognize the value in hanging on to a few things that I may not be using right away but don't want to replace down the road. I feel like I'm at a somewhat healthy level but that I can still improve. More importantly, I still want to improve.

Is Daniel on board with the idea of getting rid of stuff? Rob is a terrible pack rat and even getting him to let go of a torn, de-elasticized, hideous pair of underwear is a battle, so I can't imagine pulling him in on a project like you're proposing.

I wish you luck, and like I said, I'd be happy to talk with you about your ideas. I may very well be packing all of my belongings in the next couple of months, and my hope is to divert as much as possible to Craigslist, the charity thrift shop, a yard sale, etc. That said, we will likely be moving into a much larger house that will "need" additional things like furniture and art. Like you, however, I want things that enhance my existence, not weight it down.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

I understand your concern, I think. I am not going to count and catalog all my possessions. (I promise!) I'll do spot-checks, inventories, and mostly-mental counting from time to time, to highlight the reality of what I have, but it isn't my intention to be legalistic about my decluttering plans. :) I do think, though, the total number of items 50/100/200 challenge, is a fascinating mental exercise with a completely arbitrary limit.

The essence, I believe, of that 100 Challenge, is the realization that I have finite time, money, and resources in my life and that I might not be utilizing them properly. I've been blessed with the burden, at this point in life, that I am not constrained by budget. I have gone from an existence of picking through and repurposing other people's garbage to a life of plenty where I can buy just about anything that whim suggests I should. So the natural constraints on clutter and "stuff" aren't there. I'm no longer forced to sell off or trade away anything of material worth to buy food. As a result, every month of my life, my shell, the things I carry along with me, grows larger and heavier and more cumbersome. For me, by looking at what I own through the mental filter of a "limit what you have" perspective, I have the opportunity to figure out what is actually important and needful and enjoyed in my life and what is simply a distraction from what is important to me.

If I was doing a mental count of what I own, for example, I know that I have hundreds of (small) items for beading and jewelry making. I have not made jewelry since I was 16. It is something I did to fill a desire for pagan, crystal-based jewelry. Now, well, if I was really dying for something I could just commission and/or buy exactly what I wanted through something like Etsy. I don't enjoy the eye-straining, neck-aching work of beading and yet I have spent fifteen years hauling around the same boxes of beads and wire and clasps. That's an obvious place where I can reduce my total number of "stuff" painlessly--because it isn't important to me to begin with!

~

That said, you're not me. I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all solution. There isn't a number of items by which we are completed and over which we are saturated with stuff. I think it isn't about a number, it is purely about the quality of what we choose to carry with us. So I'm sure, when you read my post, that there were things that immediately sprung into mind from your home that are non-negotiables for you. Things that you would fiercely defend the right to keep because they are important to you, they are useful to you, they are beautiful to you--things that enrich your life in some measurable way. When I apply an outside constraint on my personal belongings, when I just participate mentally in the hypothetical "You have 100 things you can save--what are they?" challenge, I suddenly can see what I am passionate about, what is important to me, and what I've been lugging around and stuffing my closets with because I never considered my energy, my resources, and my time to be finite.

I'm an emotional shopper. I'm a recreational shopper. I enjoy shopping. I also enjoy saving useful things from the trash to be reused someday. I have a natural packrat mentality. It contrasts with my Libran desire for a serene, aesthetically pleasing environment, so I've been saved from anything like a hoarder's house, but I lean towards the 'hoarding' end of the normal spectrum in life. By my very nature, I need to rethink things and the amount of money, energy, and storage space they take up in my life. If I had less, considerably less, I wholeheartedly believe my quality of life would be higher. I would have the space--physical and mental--to focus my efforts on what I truly would enjoy most and not the latest distraction or stuff-filled hobby. So that's where I'm coming from--counting, or at least accounting for what I have, can be a useful tool for me to truly get a big picture of what I have and what its worth is to me. :)

(Oh, and Daniel is a natural minimalist. He has his non-negotiables, naturally, but overall he's happier the less he owns.)

[mrsbrewer.livejournal.com]

I hope I didn't come across as un-supportive or judgmental with my comment, as that wasn't my intention. I think the idea of paring down belongings and simplifying life is absolutely brilliant, and I wish you every success with whatever approach you choose. I really was looking for a deeper understanding and perhaps to offer an opinion about how to be even more successful, but once I read your response, I got worried that maybe I came across as a know-it-all or naysayer or something.

To the point: I think it's great!

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

Morning, Lorna! :) No need to fly the white flag! I was worried, when I got *your* response, that I'd overstepped myself and come across like I was proposing everyone needed to give away all the things they love and treasure, to restrict their lives to fit some arbitrary number of objects, when really I was just excited about the implications of it in *my* life.

So really, my reply to your reply was *my* white flag. :D

[sidheblessed.livejournal.com]

You inspire me to make so much change in my life. The idea of whittling my possessions down to only 100 is beyond scary. I mean, I own over 600 books! How could I even narrow that down to 100? It is so true, though, that we have too much impact on our Mother Earth. It's time we, as a human race, thought of her more and less of ourselves.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

I think the number is completely arbitrary and that one-size-does-not-fit-all. But, if you do the mental exercise and figure out what your 100 most important possessions are (without feeling like you have to get rid of everything else), I think it'd be pretty interesting and enlightening about what you value, what you *truly* value, versus what you own.

For me, if I think, "I can only have x number of things!", I immediately know the extremes of the spectrum. I know exactly what I feel I must keep and exactly what I know it would be painless to give away. So that's a good starting place for me--I can give away those things I discover I have no great need or emotional attachment to.

[willow-cabin.livejournal.com]

*HUGS* We're totally with you in this and support you in every way~ ♥

[whordorable.livejournal.com]

Hi, I found you via suzanna-o and and added you! I'm another red-headed 30-year-old witch with a husband and toddler son, but living in rural Kentucky instead. ;]

I skimmed through Affluenza lately and have been meaning to really sit down with it. I think our culture's addiction to THINGS, specifically the newest, coolest things, is one of the greatest obstacles we have towards being genuinely happy.

[sugarmaplelife.livejournal.com]

Oh, how wonderful! Welcome! :)