The 100 Thing Challenge

farnsworth%20house%20interior.jpg
Modern Minimalism

I always aspired to being a Miesian minimalist, but end up more Victorian clutter than the Farnsworth House shown above. That is why I love Dave Bruno's idea of the 100 Thing Challenge His goal: to whittle down the things he owns and needs to a list of 100 things by November 12 of this year, and to live with just those things for an entire year.

He is not completely doctrinaire; he has some memorabilia that he can't part with, that he is storing and not looking at for the year. He is not counting family-shared silverware and plates. Oh, and tools, "Some day I'd like to do more woodworking." And Books, can't get rid of the books. Oh, and most importantly, "I have a small collection of Marklin Z gage trains. This is kind of a personal thing. My father sold his collection of Marklin trains and I cannot bring myself to do the same."

victorian%20stuff.jpg
Victorian Clutter

But he does provide a list of what he considers his 100 essential items and it is not a long list at all, particularly when it includes everything from his mechanical pencil to his toothbrush.

Its not the hardest challenge we have seen; MiniHome designer Andy Thomson spent a year sleeping in a tent to learn how little he really needed to live, and Hugh Sawyer slept in a ditch. But it is an interesting and more realistic idea, an enforced minimalism, extreme uncluttering and voluntary simplicity all rolled into one. It will be interesting to see how it turns out, and also interesting to see if those things that were too important to part with mean as much after a year in storage.

::The 100 Thing Challenge via ::PSFK

More TreeHugger on Voluntary Simplicity
Living with Less- Extreme Edition
TH Update - Whatever Happened To Hugh Sawyer?
Techno-Urban Survivalism: Bauhaus Greenhouse Tomatoes For The ...
Wired: How To Be More Green?