A few months ago I decided to take on the 100 Thing Challenge during this school year, but once I decided to count both household and personal possessions, I knew my number would be bigger. As I finished Inventorying & Packing Up, I decided 200 was a good number. I’m currently at 198 things. Here is My 198 Things List.
I scratched my head for a while about how to count the things that I own but am not currently using and how to count the things that I’m currently using but don’t own. For instance, I own a house in Walla Walla that I’m renting partially furnished, so I'm well acquainted with the Joys of Home Ownership. I’m not living in my house right now, but it is mine. Meanwhile, I am living in a partially furnished yurt. I’ve decided to just count the things that I'm living with right now. I'll include the things I'm renting or borrowing on my list since they are in my possession. However, for the record, I do own a house and the furniture in it as well as four totes and a food dehydrator that are currently stored in my friend’s basement.
I’ll admit that my loophole is that in some cases I counted a container rather than all the items it contains. For instance, if I’d counted every ring, earring, bracelet, and necklace in my jewelry box I would have had 34 things, but I counted my jewelry box as just one thing. I love jewelry because it’s a way to quickly change my look with pretty little details. Besides, most of my jewelry has a story: it was a gift from a friend, I inherited it from my grandmother, I found it in the night market in Chang Mai, etc. But tend to I think of my jewelry as a single thing, so I decided to count it that way. The trick, I’ve decided is to not overflow the handful of boxes I’ve allowed myself. (For the sake of honesty, I did actually inventory everything that I would have to purchase separately, so I have two counts. For instance, if my bike was stripped and I had to replace my water bottle, lights, helmet, rack, paniers, etc. it would be more than one thing. My true count is 577 things, but by my practical count it’s 198 things.)
So I plan to live this next year with 200 items or less. I’ll try to adopt the mantra from the Non-Consumer Advocate website: “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” Moving Day is Sunday so the challenge begins then. Here goes!