How Many Things Do You Own?

04.30.10

In the winter 2009 issue of yes! Magazine, there is an article about a woman named Dee Williams, who has simplified her life to fit into an 84-square foot home. That’s approximately an 8x10 foot room, like my dining room.  Her house looks like a little gypsy caravan, and is parked in a friend’s backyard.  It’s a much simpler home than most middle class Americans would tolerate – she has no running water!

But here’s the part that caught my attention: she allows herself to own no more than 300 things. She knows this because she once bet a friend she had less than he did, and has kept count ever since.  I was thinking about this as I was unloading my dishwasher, so I started to count the dishes.  I hit 100 before I’d gotten past the silverware and everyday dishes, and reached 300 well before I had included everything in the kitchen.  I must own thousands of things!  Many of my things are sitting inert most of the time, out of sight and out of mind.  If I pared it down to the things I actually use all the time, how many things would I have?