I've been interested in decluttering my life for a while, and in spurts I give it a try (though often not getting beyond one room). It turns out that some people are willing to try taking this to the extreme in the "Olympics of decluttering" and reducing their personal possessions to 100 items. Gulp! My family had an interesting conversation about it over lunch today, and decided that it would have to be 100 items per person, and jointly owned family-stuff wouldn't count. But still, getting down to even 200-300 items would be an extreme challenge. I'm not sure if I'll give it a try, but at least it give me great inspiration to work on decluttering my life more. By the way, did you know that ancient Buddhist Law of Possessions allowed a monk to have only 8 possessions? Interesting.... I believe that is roughly what Gandhi owned when he died.
If you want to read more, try the Zen Habits web site article here. ( The Zen Habits site is an incredibly wonderful site in general when it comes to decluttering you possessions, your mind, and examining your priorities.) There is also a guy blogging about his efforts. And finally, surprise, there was even a recent Time magazine article about this movement.
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2 comments:
I'm going through that, too. But I refuse to give up all my girl-stuff, history-stuff, cat-stuff. So I use www.FLYLady.com as an organizational guide. It's for housewives and others who find themselves trying to balance too many things with too many other commitments, while keeping a home nice for self and others. FLY stands for "For Love of Yourself" but it also shows her core belief that if you do a little bit every day in a systematic way, the house will eventually maintain itself habitually.
I first heard about it in a blog. I think I might try it. Thanks for the info!
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