Sunday 20 November 2011

100 thing challenge

I am reading a book at the moment called "100 Thing Challenge"  haven't quite finished it yet, but so far it is very interesting.  It is about a bloke who decides to strip his life of personal possessions till he has just 100 personal items. It is not something I would personally be interested in doing, might actually be impossible for me actually because I probably have more than 100 things in my craft room alone!  However I do agree with the principals of having less stuff.  I quite often feel like all my belongings are a bit of a burden, plus having a small house means that we very quickly look cluttered if we don't keep a tight reign on our buying
I do feel that the society we live in places a great deal of value on having a lot of stuff.  People seem to feel that it adds value their person if they have expensive/lots of things.  Usually whenever I think about buying something new I try to ask myself a few questions:
Do I need it?
Is it beautiful?
Is it useful?
Could I make it myself?
Depending on my answers to these questions will decide whether or not I will buy the thing I am looking at.   Of course I am not always that virtuous and often give in to impulse purchasing!
As I have said before I am currently trying to have a bit of a clear out and make some space, but it can often be very difficult.  I have noticed that there are several things that stop me from getting rid of stuff I don't need. First being that I think I might be able to sell it, therefore I keep hold of it a wait to sell it online, often I don;t end up selling the item and at this point should probably get rid of it, of course I don;t manage to do this.
The second reason I find for keeping hold of things is if it was given to me.  We all receive gifts that are not always the thing we really want, they take up space we already have one, it's not quite the right thing, I know this has often happened to me, but it is very difficult to get rid of things you have been given, there is guilt attached.
And finally I am always thinking that "it might come in handy one day".  This is probably the worst of the three for me, it completely disables my ability to get rid of things, and as a result I have a house and loft half full of piles of worn out of too small clothes, broken bits of things and all sorts of scraps that just might come in handy for something.  I swear I have things in my possession that I have had for perhaps 15 years thinking they would be useful for something.
But at some point you have to decide that enough is enough and be ruthless, this is what I am going to have to be over the next couple of months to make space.
What are your thoughts and feelings on having lots of stuff?  What do you do with things you no longer need? Could you live with just 100 personal possessions?

Hope you have all had a positive weekend and are looking forward to the week ahead with energy and excitement.
Hels
x

No comments:

Post a Comment

I love reading people's comments on what I have written, but I am not in the business of debating, this blog is my space, so if you can't say something nice, the please, don't say anything at all. If you don't like what I have written then please don't read it.