I recently read an article in The New York Times- But Will It make You Happy? and I was inspired. The gist of the article talks about consumers wanting more experiences and less materialistic things in their life. Years of research shows that things are short lived in our world of happiness but experiences have a longer shelf life and therefore consumers want that longer shelf life. I grew up in a world of a lot of things. My family loves to collect things and this goes back as far as I can remember starting with my grandmother. That woman had toaster after toaster piled up in places around her house. She was always a neat person but had a lot of stuffed. I assumed it was because she experienced the Great Depression and valued the items she had. There might have been an emotional connection to that experience and therefore she felt secure in keeping what she had or collecting stuff. I never really understood it.
Within a few days of reading an article I get a fortune on a cookie that says -Those things that are most important are not things at all. Is this synchronicity or what? Something is telling me to pay attention here. But back to the article, it begins with a couple that decided to live with a 100 personal items. Now I thought about it and honestly I do not have a lot of stuff compared to others but could I live on 100 personal items. And how do you define an item? I decided that I loved the idea but I would start with getting rid of 100 personal items. I could think of 17 items off the top of my head- 2 pairs of shoes I have never worn, the extra cookie sheet, my croquet hat as I bought a new one anyway, wiffle ball bat, current silverware since I had a new set I bought a few years ago that I never use, TV since I don't honestly use it, my beautiful Guess jacket as it looks great on but I have never worn it, the 3 pair of skis I don't ski on anymore as well as the microwave and a few others.
The adventure began with those items I stored at my parents house. I found notebooks from college classes and my text books- they all went. Eight yearbooks- 4 from high school and 4 from college- I kept only senior years. I kept notes from friends, items given to me from my travels around the world. Do I really need a water bottle from North Dakota and a pin from South Carolina? What was I going to do with all this stuff? They brought back great memories but that left me with hours of living in the past and not being in the present. I was missing out on the life right in front of me. I got rid of almost everything at my parent's house and was left with one container. I was surprised at how good I felt about it. I felt free!
Next stop was my house!
