The challenge of owning 100 things

Feb. 26. 2009

Dear Patty,

During my most recent haircut, a man who wishes I'd allow him to put mousse in my hair just once asked if he'd told me about completely changing his life. I didn't think so.

Race had read a Time magazine story titled "How to Live with Just 100 Things." The 100 Thing Challenge is the brainchild of another man who wanted to unclutter his life.

In November that man began trying to live one year with just 100 personal items. His possessions now include nine button-down shirts, one tie, two pairs of jeans, one pen, one sweater, one suit, one pair of brown shoes and one computer. Among the items he has discarded is a pair of black shoes, Crocs, a yoga mat and nose hair trimmers.

The idea intrigued Race. "I felt like I was drowning in material things," he said. A numerologist might know why when Race counted he had 40 pairs of jeans, 40 pairs of shoes and 40 sweaters. Race didn't.

This also was a chance to do something good for the environment, he reasoned. On Jan. 1 he began giving away things he didn't need.

Race gave his parents his big flat-screen TV. He wouldn't need it in the 24-foot travel trailer they gave him to live in. That's right, Race moved to an RV park where he pays a much smaller flat fee that covers utilities, cable TV and Wi-Fi.

He gave away his mobile home and lots of books, though more than 500 are still stored beneath his bed. Many of those who have taken this challenge realize that reducing their belongings to 100 categories of things is more reasonable than 100 things.

Race now makes do with fewer than 10 pairs of jeans, a saucepan, a soup pan and a crock pot. He cooks on an electric grill and kept only the soup spoons and a salad fork from his silverware.

He once had many sets of sheets. He figures two sets are all he can use.

Hardest to part with was the retro furniture he had collected in weekly forays to antique stores and flea markets. He thought his retro furniture made him who he is. "I felt like I was losing my identity," he said.

The question of why we collect clutter probably has to be answered before anything can be done about it. Much of it seems to be emotional and sentimental. Getting rid of perfectly good but long-outgrown jeans may be difficult but they belonged to a person we no longer are, in most ways for the better.

Race is still Race, but he likes the way having fewer things makes him feel. He feels as if he is having a smaller imprint on the planet. And it has relieved him of the pressure of too many things, he said.

"I feel like a big burden has been lifted off me."

Love, Sam

Sam, Blackwell is a former reporter for the Southeast Missourian.