I'm sorry, what? 10 things or less.

I have this article by Red Magazine that is pinned up in my sitting room called 'Your life in 10 items.'  The articles writes around the idea that owning less stuff not only makes us more efficient in the activities we do, but also calmer, mentally, and more intuned with ourselves.  Less distractions means we have less things stopping us from working on what is most important.  It, of course, brings up Gandhi, who could count the number of possessions he had on his two hands, and also highlights a number of bloggers and book writers who have taken up the challenge of reducing the number of items they own, either to 10 or 100.  Though not with out a few cheats I've noticed.  One individual reduced their possesions down to 10 items, but didn't include essential clothing or household items, a slightly open ended idea  There's quite a few things that you could easily tell yourself was 'essential' for a number of reasons.  The other reduced items by storing a number of things digitally instead of physically.  But, to me, that still the same as before. You're still having to make the same decisions, you've just moved it to another space.  You could do the same by sticking everything in a box and counting that as one.

But, despite these little anomalies, I do agree with the main theme of the article.  With the downturn in the economy and many of us earning less and needing to save more, removing the need to be buying, buying, buying all the time can only be a good thing.  Do we really need all the things we purchase, do they really make us happy?  In most cases, after the initial 'Yay, look what I got!', we're no happier than we were before we brought the item, we just have less money. And I have to admit, I feel uneasy with being told by the Government that I should be spending, because the past has shown that me spending is good for the economy.  But with two crashes in this country's economy in the last 20 twenty years, you have to wonder if carrying on with the status quo is really a good idea.  And if the loss of money wasn't enough to make you think again before you buy, Organise My House has a great blog on the cost that clutter has on a number of areas in our lives, from money to time and happiness.

I'm lucky in the fact that I'm not a big spender, and I very rarely see something and have to have it.  But, I do wonder if I could ever get everything I own down to just 10 things.  For starters, there's all the clothes I have to own to deal with the weather here in Scotland.  Even just a single of each item runs as hat, gloves, scarf, waterproof top, waterproof bottoms, coat, fleece, sunglasses (weird I know when added to the others, but the sun gets really low here)..... that's eight items already and I'm no where near underwear.  So, living with only 10 items is probably a little bit unrealistic in this case, but I could definitely live with less. There's so many things that I keep but never reach for, whether its games or cds or even books, which I have loved but know I will never read again. So, while my attitude to buying new things is healthy in a sense, my attitude to holding onto things is not.  There really isn't any reason to keep them sitting there collecting dust, and a very good reason to get rid of them..... I'm allergic to dust.  Its time I started going through my stuff and getting rid of the items that have just been sitting there un-used and unloved for many years. And maybe someone else can get use and enjoyment out of them instead.

The need to own stuff is an odd one.  I think in our heads, if we can afford to buy something we don't really have any use for we must be in a good place.  We must be happy.  But this really can't be the case, as why would we then need to keep buying over and over again, and many people can't even afford the things they keep buying.  Its highly unlikely that I will ever be able to get everything I own down to just 10 items, in fact even 100 might be a push.  But I would like my home to fit what William Morris says and 'Have nothing in (my) house that (I) do not know to be useful,, or believe to be beautiful.'

If you're looking around and are a little sure what things you could actually get rid of you might want to look here.