A Thousand Things (Each)

A while ago I read a blog about someone decluttering their house / life by challenging themselves to get rid of a thousand things. The idea has percolated away for some months now (I’ve even got a spreadsheet created ready to list/keep a record of my progress ).

Enough procrastination, I’m going to give it a go. Let’s crack on with this experience, experiment, challenge. And, good news, Adrian is keen to join.

We’re going to take the challenge a step further by challenging ourselves to 1000 things each! We’ve combined our households so we see this as a great opportunity to pare down our individual stuff to only what we really want or need

We Need Some Rules and Guidelines.

Actually there are no rules really, but I want to set some so Adrian can’t just cheat, throw out the rubbish and bag a few hundred things (we’re not competitive at all!).

So…

Rubbish is not a ‘thing ‘; if I was going to chuck it anyway because it’s broken or past its use-by date, then, No Deal.

But what is rubbish? If I haven’t used, looked at, worn, or read a ‘thing’ for x number of months or years doesn’t that make it rubbish (in my world)? I figure that if I have no use for it but, someone else potentially will, then it’s not rubbish and is therefore fair game.

Food is not a ‘thing’.  

Size doesn’t matter; one small thing is still one thing. On the other hand, if I choose to get rid of the car (quite a big thing), that’s still one ‘thing’. By the by, I won’t be getting rid of the car. It’s old and not-so-pretty but keeps on keeping on so will be sticking around.

Pairs and sets. A pair or a set that would not be usable split up, for example shoes, earrings, a porcelain toy tea-set (yes, I have one), is one ‘thing’; a unit. If, however, we had a set of four towels to go, this would be four ‘things’.

Who’s stuff? My ‘things’ are fair game for me, and family ‘things’ need consensus from those with any vested interest. Other household members ‘things’ are not up for a permanent vacation.

As Adrian is keen to give this challenge a go as well, who will get the tick of an item when it’s a shared ‘thing’? Maybe we’ll go turn-about on these. It’s definitely up for discussion.

Getting rid of one thing in order to replace it with another is a bit iffy. It’s my birthday today and I know I’m getting something that will replace a ‘thing’ that is still going well. 

I’m going to allow this to go on my list of a thousand things. The temptation is to keep it as some sort of backup, but getting rid of it (hopefully to a good home) will be one more thing out of the house.
On the other hand, getting rid of a perfectly good item in order to replace it with something newer and shinier doesn’t seem to fit the ethos of this little adventure.

Adrian and I might have to be the judge of each other on this one.

Areas For Potential ‘Things’

• Cooking Books
• Reading Books (Adrian struggles to let go of books so this will be a particularly challenging area for him)
• Clothes and shoes (I’m not a shoe person but I am a coat and jacket person, there may be some wailing and gnashing of teeth in this area for me)
• Games
• Crockery and Glassware
• Knick knacks
• Stuff in boxes still unpacked from when we moved into this house in October 2017
• What’s lurking in the hall cupboard
• What’s found in the garage
  

Timeframe

A thousand things (each) is rather a lot! We’re not going to do this in a week or a month. My plan is to check in after two months to see how we’re tracking and if an adjustment is needed (to the plan, the progress,  or my (or anyone else’s) attitude). But I think a year,  at the outside, is what we’re going to aim for.

What To Do With All These Things?

Some will go to the rubbish pile I know but, where possible, we’ll sell on bidding sites, offer to the local community through their social media pages, or give to the opportunity and charity shops.

Starting Is The Hardest Part

I have started, this last weekend, and it has been hard to take that first step, but I think this wee challenge may have a kicker finish. I can see that right now I’m only getting rid of things I know I really don’t want and won’t miss. What about when I’m faced with something I know I don’t use, probably won’t ever have a need for in the future, but, for some reason, I’ve been hanging onto for too long. How am I going to talk myself into letting it go? I’ll update you on how this goes; what I succeed with and what I fail on.  

As I mentioned in the list above, Adrian will struggle on the book front. We were going through a bookcase and, while I came up with over ten books to get rid of, he came up with one. 

He seems to think the garage is going to be a treasure trove for things of his that can go. After seeing him wringing his knuckles over a few books, he might find it harder than he thinks.  Time will tell.

I’m sure I’ll be the same in some other area. We’re going to see where our emotional ties are concerning material objects, that’s for sure.

The Tally So Far

Does 53 sound like a fair start? That includes 32 books of varying type (novel, craft, cooking), glassware, an unused gift, and memorabilia from a show I went to Melbourne to see. There’s been a bit of a funny hitch with the 32 books. I was on my way to drop them to a community Little Library https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kapiti-news/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503789&objectid=11857801 and stopped in to see my Mum, an avid reader and crafter. The result is that the books are having a stop-off on their way to the Little Library. But they will get there, and they’re not in my house so I’m still taking that as a win. 

Adrian has put a few things aside, but none have made it off the property so I’m saying his tally is zero (what a hard-arse!).   He needs to pull finger.

As with the Hugelkultur post (an update is coming shortly on this) I’ll update periodically with how we’re going, our respective tallies and any gotcha’s, revelations, or particularly tricky obstacles we encounter.

Any idea’s, new rules to consider, or comments (maybe you’ve done, or are doing, something similar) we’d love to hear.