Diction

One of my friends asked me when I was going to start the “challenge.” After I gave my response, another friend said something along the lines of, “Challenge? I thought you were just trying to do this because you wanted to live more simply.” (Again, what I’ve just written is not what she said verbatim. I have a pretty bad memory when it comes to certain things.) Somewhat startled at what this second friend said, I quickly clarified (or tried to, anyway) that no, I’m not doing this to see if I can live with only a hundred items, and that she did have it right and I am trying to live more frugally. Then we started talking about something else. I really don’t remember that much aside from the fact that I found it enjoyable. I love my friends.

Being the type of person that I am, as soon as I was left to my own devices, I started thinking about this short conversation and didn’t really stop until I sat down to write this post. Hello.

I don’t think of getting down to ninety-something or so things as a game, a fun challenge that I, total daredevil extraordinaire, want to face for the hell of it. And I really hope that no one has gotten that impression from my poorly-written explanations. I thought a lot about what Dave Bruno was doing before deciding to commit to something similar. I guess I should have specified that though our “projects” (my mind is blanking and I can’t think of a better term) are similar, they are not interchangeable. There are several key differences between them, the greatest being that while he plans on abiding the rules he set out for a year, I think I’m just going to try to maintain this number of possessions for a while. Hopefully at least through college.

Yeah, I’ve provided a link to his rules, but that was more out of urgency and wanting to get something written down than anything (I had midterms that week). I will sit down and write my own set of rules before I officially “start.” Right now, what’s posted is meant to give you a general idea.

Some Answers to Some Questions

Why are you doing this?
Well, for a lot of reasons that I’ll probably get deeper into as I continue writing this blog. The main one, I guess, is that by focusing less on the materialistic, I hope to live a simpler, more fulfilling life.


When did you first decide to do this?
I read this short interview with David Bruno and thought it was kind of a cool concept that I might want to look into later, so I cut it out of the newspaper, left it on my messy desk, and proceeded to completely forget about it. A week or so later, I was zoning out in the middle of my room (this is your brain on sleep deprivation) when I realized how much of my stuff was just lying around, taking up space. Then, I noticed that, resting on top of one of the numerous piles of randomly assorted items covering what had once served as my desk, was the now yellowing interview. I cocked an eyebrow and thought for a moment. Maybe this guy was on to something.


When are you going to start?
I hope to have reduced my total number of possessions to x (where {x | x ≤ 100}) by the first of February. The list that I’ve posted is of what I plan on keeping. As of now, I still have a bunch of stuff I have yet to donate to charity or give to a friend. However, thanks to the numerous clothe, school supply, and toy drives that popped up around my school this past holiday season, I’ve been able to easily whittle down my number of things. Letting go of so much stuff felt great.


How hard was it to give away so much stuff?
It actually wasn’t very hard at all. I did get kind of scared when I realized that going through with this meant dramatically reducing the number of t-shirts I owned (compliments about how funny some of them were were not uncommon). Then I remembered that other people needed them much more than I did and realized how petty and idiotic I was being. Ew.


Were there any other sources of inspiration besides that short interview?
I felt pretty terrible after watching Meeting for Worship fall apart this one day in November. I left and headed into the school's the main building. I didn't really know what a teacher would do if he or she were to see me and didn't particularly care, so I ended up sitting on the field in the rain for a while. My jacket was suprisingly more weatherproof than I'd thought and my friends and peers were great, but I ended up skipping the rest of my classes anyway. I was in the library at one point and stared at one of the book cases until I decided to pick up one of the several copies of A Quaker Book of Wisdom. It was really interesting.

The Items

1. Notepad
   
2. Pencil
   
3. Pencil
4. Pen
5. Moleskin notebook
6. Sketchpad
7. Mechanical pencil
8. Sharpener
9. Scissors
10. Library
11. USB flash drive
12. Messenger bag
13. Backpack
14. Backpacking backpack
15. Camera bag
16. Digital camera
17. Lens I
18. Lens II
19. Tripod
20. Battery charger
21. Lens cleaning kit
22. Aperture subscription
23. Cellphone
24. SD card for cellphone
25. Cellphone charger
26. Headphones/adapter
27. Desktop computer
28. Laptop computer
29. Tablet
30. Printer
31. Portable hard drive
32. Box o' memories
33. Bike
34. Helmet
35. Bike lock
36. Watter bottle
37. Swiss army knife
38. Flashlight
39. Wallet
40. Change bag
41. Lanyard
42. Watch
43. Sleeping bag
44. Suitcase
45. CD collection (might give this away)
46. Toothbrush
47. Button-making machine (epic)
48. Fair-trade shoes
49. Black chucks
50. Running shoes
51. Dress shoes
52. Hiking boots
53. Sandals
54. Socks
55. Underwear
56. Bandana
57. Belt
58. Dress
59. Cornell hat
60. Jeans
61. Jeans
62. Black jeans
63. Black slacks
64. Sweatpants
65. Athletic shorts
66. Athletic shorts
67. Athletic shorts
68. Athletic shorts
69. Underarmor leggings
70. Shorts
71. Shorts
72. Shorts
73. Pajama bottoms
74. Weather jacket
75. Sweater jacket
76. Maroon jacket
77. Jacket
78. Underarmor
79. Longsleeve shirt
80. Button-down shirt
81. Button-down shirt
82. Button-down shirt
83. T-shirt
84. T-shirt
85. T-shirt
86. T-shirt
87. T-shirt
88. T-shirt
89. T-shirt
90. T-shirt
91. T-shirt
92. Pajama top
93. Desk
94. Lamp
95. Swivel chair
96.  
97.  
98.  
99.  
100. 
     

The Rules

1. I may own no more than 100 personal items.
Pretty self-explanatory. Dave defines a personal thing as something “entirely or mostly mine,” which leads us to the next rule.

2. Work- (or, in my case, school-) related items don’t count.
So, no, I will not count my graphing calculator as one of my hundred things.

3. Something without which another item could not work counts as part of that item.
For example, my camera cannot take pictures without a memory card, so I count them as one thing. On the other hand, my cell phone would still function as both a cellephone and a music player (albeit one with a very limited audio selection) with or without its memory card, so I count them as separate.

4. Must get rid of old thing before getting a replacement.
Dave donated his running shoes to Goodwill before getting a new pair. It sounds (reads?) weird to me whenever I refer to this guy as Dave, and I’m afraid of getting mauled by the plagiarism police, so I’ll just post think link to his post on the rules: [link]

Yeah.
I'll probably update this post several times.

The Basics

Hello!

I've started this blog to document my progress as I take on the 100 Thing Challenge.

What is the 100 Thing Challenge, you ask?  Well, basically, it's this thing that this guy started doing in an effort to fight the man through anti-consumerism.  Then he started getting some attention from the media, which is how I first heard about the whole ordeal.  The idea is to live with only one hundred personal items.

So, yeah.  I decided to maintain a blog so that I could keep myself on track with respect to the challenge, and also so I could have somewhere to write about whatever post-worthy thoughts come to mind.