I’ve been seeing a lot of posts recently about people trying to pare their “stuff” down to just 100 things. I first saw it over on Stuck in Stuff, and then again on Zen Habits (which also talked about The Rucksack Life, a blog I hadn’t yet heard of).

I’ve been considering paring down my “stuff” (I have way too much of it) to 100 things. My husband and I are on vacation for the next 11 days, and I’m considering getting a small dumpster to start getting rid of things. I have boxes in my attic that have moved with us twice now and never been unpacked (and we’ve lived in our current house for almost four years). I’m going to make three piles - dumpster, charity/friends, and storage for anything we’re not keeping in the house.

We’re planning on putting our house on the market sometime in the next 6-10 months (probably in the spring), and I know that I need to clean out all of our clutter to improve our chances of selling. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to get rid of 75% of our stuff, put another 15% in storage (mostly personal, sentimental things), and keep only about 10% of our stuff in the house while selling. A huge benefit to this will be that moving is going to be that much easier and that much less stressful if we only have to move 1/4 of what we currently have into a new place. FYI: I plan on using Martha Stewart’s technique for moving, which should also make moving much less stressful (I absolutely love Martha!).

One thing that might surprise a lot of you is that we’re not really planning on downsizing when we move, and in fact will probably (hopefully) be getting into a significantly larger place. I have my eye on a beautiful historic home about 20 minutes from where I currently live that’s probably around 4,000 square feet (just a guess, it could be bigger). I’m thinking that while all that space is going to be great for entertaining, if I don’t make my life a bit more minimalistic, it’s just going to end up incredibly cluttered and hard to keep clean!

So, back on topic, I’m thinking about trying to get down to only 100 things during this vacation. But, it’s a bit complicated. Do I count my Moleskines as one thing or a bunch of things (I currently carry four with me and have three more at home that I use)? What about the legal pads I use for my creative writing (I just started a novel earlier this week and have written 14 pages so far!)? And my pens (I carry 7 in my bag and have a bunch of others around the house)? I’m definitely thinking that my books should only count as one thing, otherwise I’d easily exceed my 100 things by 200 or more things! Should I count furniture? Bedding? Is a set of sheets one thing or four (flat sheet, fitted sheet and two pillow cases)? I use two pillows and so does my husband, is that four things, two things, or one thing? Do each of my dogs count (I have two) and my cat? Or are they considered family members? And if they’re family, do each of them get 100 things? If they do, can I use that to cheat and say that all of the furniture counts as their things instead of mine (after all, they’re on the furniture at least as much as I am)? Do vehicles count? Tools?

It’s a lot to think about. I guess before I actually start getting rid of stuff I have to decide what’s going to be included. I’ll keep this updated, and would appreciate anyone’s opinions about what should or shouldn’t be included.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

I hate adding recurring daily tasks to my daily to-do list. I like to keep my to-do list kinda short, and try to only put things on that are really necessary for that day. But, at the same time, I’d like to be able to track how often I’m actually getting all those recurring tasks done.

I have a number of things that I try to do every day: exercise, post on this and my other blog, write for other blogs that I contribute to, and eat something healthy (eventually that goal is going to convert to eat nothing unhealthy).

Well, I came across a site called Joe’s Goals the other day (I can’t remember where I saw it, but I believe that it might have been in the comments of another blog, if anyone else came across it, let me know so I can add some attribution). It’s a simple to use habit tracking app that lets you track both positive and negative goals. I think it might be just what I’ve been looking for.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

A lot is said nowadays about setting goals. You have to have goals in order to get ahead in life, and if you don’t have goals you’ll never amount to anything.

But, are goals really necessary? If you don’t set specific goals, will your life simply stagnate where it is now? Will you ever get ahead?

The short answer is ‘yes’. Not having specific goals does not mean that you’ll never do anything. In fact, having loosely structured goals, or no goals at all can actually make it easier to get more out of life. If you aren’t constantly making decisions with your long-term goals in mind, you have the freedom to do things you want to do. If you simply do the things that make you happy, at the very least your quality of life will improve, and in a best-case scenario, you’ll be incredibly successful on top of being happy.

If you do feel that you need to set goals (I generally do), try to set goals that are somewhat loose for the long-term. If you insist that you have to have specific goals, limit them to one or two weeks in the future, and anything beyond that should be more loosely defined.

Let’s say that you’re unhappy at your current job, and decide you want a new one. If you know that your long-term goal is loosely defined as being “get a new job”, then you can simply set a goal for the current week of “apply for three new jobs”. The biggest advantage to this is that if you don’t have an entire plan set out, you can easily change your strategy at any time without feeling like you’re abandoning your plan.

Being able to change your strategy quickly is important in any project that you’re working on. By not having a complete structured plan, but instead just a general direction of where you’re going, you can adapt as new challenges crop up (which, face it, they always do), and you can better react to new opportunities.

Learn to set goals that enable you to get more from your life. Don’t set goals just for the sake of having goals. When you do set goals, only make them as specific as they need to be. You don’t have to have a plan for your entire life, and you’ll probably have a lot more fun if you take things as they come!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!