STUFF AND THINGS - The 75 Things Movement, Minimalism and Freedom

The 75 Things Movement, Everett Bogue and the Zen Art of Minimalism may change my life!

Stuff has been on my mind. Lots of stuff. All those things people collect around them! We behave like those little ocean crabs that don’t have a shell to protect them so they pick up little pebbles and pieces of shells and other ocean stuff as they go along and fasten it all onto themselves to provide them with some protection. They have to do this to survive. I think for most of us, our stuff is like a protective shell; we think we need it in order to survive. We identify with it as if all these things were part of our physical body! We actually use our things to help express who we are because we don’t feel we are enough without them! Somehow we think that without all our stuff we are really less, as people. I have come to realize that the amount of stuff I have and the way I use it is a direct expression of my own feelings of inadequacy. Inadequacy and lack of freedom, which, ironically are brought about by the burden of all the stuff I own and have to move around and take care of and store.

The statistics about stuff are really annoying. The huge “islands” of flotsam out there in the oceans - all stuff humans have thrown away. The huge amount of energy used to create and distribute all this stuff we don’t need. The amount we spend on things we don’t use even once before we throw it away. The amount we spend on packaging that gets tossed immediately. The huge collections people keep and have to store in a locked, rented space because they’ve run out of room for it. The time people spend “visiting” their stuff. The clutter in our attics, garages, basements, back yards and even in the trunk of our car! I think all of this is a manifestation of a huge inferiority complex we all must have that compels us to try to overcome an emptiness inside by filling up our lives with more things.

It is more than annoying to come to the realization that there is nothing I can do about all the unnecessary stuff out there, but I am the ONLY ONE who can do anything about my own personal stuff. This is kind of frightening, actually. I would like to try to ignore this stuff, ignore my realizations, ignore the fact that I know now what can be done about it. Still I know I have to take control of my own stuff.

OK, none of this is new to me, or to you, either. I’ve observed this and thought about it ever since I moved out of my parents’ apartment when I was 18 and had to decide what I would and could take along with me. My parents were incredibly upset by how easily I jettisoned so many “keepsakes” and “really good stuff” I had acquired while living in their home. It made me feel very good to do this, and they were literally aghast! I was amazed that they could care this much about my stuff! More than they seemed to care about me and where I was moving and how. Now, I seem to have forgotten how liberating that was and I often laugh when I compare myself to the end of the movie “The Jerk” when Steve Martin is trying to take along with him some of the stuff he and his now ex-wife have collected in the home they made together. “I don’t need ANY of this stuff! Well, but, I need this lamp! I need these snowshoes! I may need this coffee table! I’ll just take this candy dish, it’s small!”

What IS new in the world of stuff? Some people are actually doing something about their own stuff and therefore about the world! There’s a guy, name of Everett Bogue, who currently lives in Oakland, California, a young man, who came up with the concept of owning only 75 things. He chronicles his reduction of the things he owns in his blog “Far Beyond the Stars”. He has 50,000 regular readers. He is a “professional” minimalist; there are probably many more, but I have just begun my exploration of minimalism and stuff. He writes books and blogs about minimalism and other things like being jobless, as a lifestyle choice. JOBLESS! He is all about personal freedom.

I am very excited about all of this because it touches the real me. “This is ME!” I think when I read his blogs and descriptions of living a minimal lifestyle. “THIS is who I am, really!” This is the me I left behind back in 1973 when, after a few years out on my own, I started to feel incapable, stuck, unable to really make a living or really gain a reputation, a career or a space in life that was all my own. I feared I wasn’t good enough to live like everyone else! I didn’t have a clue about what I really wanted to do. Up until then I probably owned about 100 things, although I never counted. I had been carrying around a suitcase, two cardboard boxes and a small army trunk full of everything I owned. It was not that I didn’t accumulate things, but I moved around a lot and each time I moved I threw out and gave away stuff because I couldn’t afford to pay for moving much stuff or storing it. And then I started hanging on to stuff, afraid that parting with things would be giving up part of myself.

Now, all these years later, I have just started to look into the PHILOSOPHY behind minimalism and the freedom that motivates it. As Part 5 of my Fantasy Homes series, I wrote about Tiny Houses. Well, to live in one you can only have about 75 things. There just isn’t room to hang onto stuff. And I'm serious about wanting to live in a tiny house. That reminded me that there is a kind of movement toward owning only 75 personal possessions.

You don’t have to convince me that this is the way to personal freedom. I just need to find the resolve to start minimizing. Last night I dreamed up the phrase “my personal revolution” while lying there sleepless with an overactive brain. I can’t remember this morning where I was going with it, but I like the phrase. So as part of my “personal revolution” (a kind of do-it-yourself-makeover that involves changing the core of one’s self, ideals and motivations) I will begin my makeover with this quest towards freedom from TOO MUCH STUFF! This is probably the best place to start because the other things I will have to do to remake myself are going to be a lot harder, like reducing my physical weight, for instance.

I’ve come up with these motivating reasons to reduce my stuff and writing this hub is my first step. (actually, I’ve been eliminating stuff gradually for practical reasons for about 10 years, now I am down to probably 2,000 things! That includes clothing, a collection of craftwork things (this is the biggest part of all my stuff), household things (most of which I don’t need anymore), my truck, some paperwork, many books, cds, dvds, and all the other little nicknacks and gadgets I possess. It should be really liberating to reduce all this to 75 things. But even now as I type this I am thinking “75? Well, maybe start at 300 really good, necessary things and see how that feels!” See? It’s just so radical and weird to have only 75 things.

I’ve come up with these motivating reasons to reduce my stuff and writing this hub is my first step. (actually, I’ve been eliminating stuff gradually for practical reasons for about 10 years, now I am down to probably 2,000 things! That includes clothing, a collection of craftwork things (this is the biggest part of all my stuff), household things (most of which I don’t need anymore), my truck, some paperwork, many books, cds, dvds, and all the other little nicknacks and gadgets I possess. It should be really liberating to reduce all this to 75 things. But even now as I type this I am thinking “75? Well, maybe start at 300 really good, necessary things and see how that feels!” See? It’s just so radical and weird to have only 75 things.

I know this is going to take a tremendous amount of resolve. So here are the reasons, practical and altruistic, that are going to help me do it:

I have been living under a series of misconceptions about things which have made it easy to acquire all my stuff - and remember - ALL THESE THINGS I'VE BEEN THINKING ARE WRONG!

Things will make me happy.

Shopping for things is entertaining and fun.

The only things I can really control are my own possessions  - so having more possessions is going to give me more control.

I need to have the best and latest things, like my friends have.

Buying things means I am a person of substance who can afford to buy things.

When people see my things they know the REAL ME better.

Everyone has more stuff than I do.

It makes sense to store things because they are valuable and I may need or want them someday.

I paid good money for these things, I have to try to hold onto them. Forever!

I don’t have anything better to do with my life but shop and acquire and store and organize and move around all my things!

And here are some TRUE, real reasons I can and must do this:

Without all this stuff I will have FREEDOM to move when I need or want to, and I will be free from the need to care for all this stuff.

I can save MONEY on storage (about $750 a year!)

I will have huge amounts of TIME for other things (like writing, music, pursuing my long-held dreams) - time that I would have spent buying, storing, organizing and schlepping all this stuff.

Without the distractions from these things I’ve been carrying about, my mind will be better focused, I will have a SIMPLER LIFE!

It will be easier for me to spend time outside, exercising, walking, exploring and appreciating the naturl world.

It adds up to so much freedom and personal resources made available to me, its overwhelming! I may be able to actually travel to those places I’ve dreamed of. I will be able to work for myself doing the things I really love to do without having to have another job. I can finally make my decisions about what I do everyday based on reality, instead of basing my choices on fear of losing the THINGS I already have, or losing the ability to acquire more. I won’t need as much money or as large a space to live in. I may be able to have that tiny house I’ve been dreaming about, sooner than I had thought possible.

Writing all of this helps me believe I can do it. I need to do it. I want to do it. I am resolved to do it! I may be too interested in too many things and too complex in my head to become a total minimalist. But I have a feeling that just the act of diminishing my possessions will free me to be as complex as I want. The world is full of paradox!

I’ll keep you posted, and I’ll love hearing from you if you get interested in doing the same or have already begun a similar process in your life. I know many will think this is craziness but for me it is practical and realistic. I don't own a house, for one thing, and my work means that right now, until I come up with the way to support myself without this job, I have to move often and live in small spaces.

The funny thing is that there is so MUCH to know and understand about minimalism and yet it is the simplest concept there is for living with grace and responsibility in our world.