Counting your stuff.

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Started 1 year ago by inga
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inga
Member

Has anyone tried inventorying or counting their stuff? Do you count everything, including spare lightbulbs, or even in-use lightbulbs? Spare batteries? Only if they are rechargable? How does it work? And if anyone has actually counted their stuff, how much did you have? I'm scared I likely have 20000 things and inventorying it will take years but I know some people have inventories for insurance and so on and some people have 100/500 thing challenges going on.

Some advice would be appreciated. :D

Posted 1 year ago #
Parsifal
Member

I think counting stuff on the way to minimalism is an example of what this self-help author named Ferris calls 'W4W' or 'Work-for-work'. It keeps you busy, but doesn't accomplish much.

If you want to take an inventory for insurance purposes, just write down or save receipts for the most valuable items and record everything else on video. In the very unlikely even you ever need it, you can go back and step through it item by item.

As for me, I have not started counting yet. I doubt I could count everything in my cleanest room (outside of the bedroom) in less than 10 minutes.

Posted 1 year ago #
inga
Member

tim ferris, love him. You're right of course. A totally pointless exercise.

I just looked up the 100 things challenge and was quite disappointed. He didnt have to count his office supplies, his plates or even his books. There was no mention of toilet cleaner, dishwashing liquid, soap or toothpaste. A nice idea perhaps, but not really real.

Posted 1 year ago #
remy
Member

I'm doing a 500 thing. What I'm defining as "an item" is something I'm going to have to deal with while moving. If it's easily replaceable (food, toilet paper) I won't count it. I do count my toothpaste, toothbrush, etc. but that's more just for accuracy. I wouldn't count lightbulbs unless they were super-special and I was taking them with me for some reason.

Right now I'm decluttering as I add things, it's been slow but fun. The 500 things just works for me since it's forcing me to consider how much pressure I'll be under when I move instead of delaying that until a month before moving day. I'd rather go slow and keep things I really like than risk throwing them out thinking I won't use them later.

Posted 1 year ago #
Ann
Member

Nope, don't count.

I am an advocate of uncluttering NOT minimalistic living.

I am currently sitting at my laptop (which is in a very minimalistic setting on the kitchen counter) looking across my kitchen and I see the cutting boards stacked against a cabinet on the other side. Now...we use thin cutting boards of recycled material (don't bash me!!!) but there are currently 2 large, 1 medium and 1 small waiting for use. There are at least 3 in the dishwasher.

So, we are talking 7 or so cutting boards which are constantly in use and take up, when all are clean and stacked on their sides by the ovens, maybe 2" of counter space. We keep them neatly stacked and tight. ARe they clutter? I don't think so. A minimalist might object to the duplication.

Who knows?

What do you think? I love the input.

Posted 1 year ago #
Jeri Dansky
Member

I did do an inventory, for potential insurance purposes, about 6 or 7 years ago - and I (mostly) keep it updated. I recorded everything in an Excel spreadsheet. I also have photos, and receipts for major purchases.

I didn't list every item individually - for example, I grouped books into four categories (paperback, trade paperback, hardcover, art books and similar) and counted the number in each category.

I know the amount of consumables like cat food and spare light bulbs will vary from time to time, but at least having them listed in the inventory will mean I don't forget them if I ever need to do an insurance claim.

I put an estimated replacement value next to everything (and what I paid, for major items where I had a receipt) - and that let me make sure I had the appropriate amount of insurance.

I never looked to see how MANY things were on the list - and I really don't care. I own the things that are right for my life, right now - and I keep evaluating that and making minor tweaks. That's all that matters to me.

Posted 1 year ago #
Mimi
Member

no, i don´t count the things i keep. seems senseless. for me, minimalisms means: "don´t have more than you need". and a need is not connected to a special number, but to my my life and my habits.
i think it´s interesting to _know_ the number of things to have a standard of comparison. but how do you count? if i buy paper for the printer, the smallest amount is a package of 500 pieces of paper. is it one package? or 500 pieces of paper? i took a look at the way, the 100-things-challenge-participants count. they all have different ways to count and i was really disappointed. some don’t even count furniture and kitchen supplies, just the things that they use exclusively for themselves. i mean, if you have six kids like leo babauta, you just _can´t_ reduce to 100 things, but i don´t know if someone would even see that one person in a household of 8 persons owns 1000 or 100 things.
for me, it´s also important not to have e.g. 30 different cleaning supplies and I has been an effort to reduce them and to stick to the few that I really NEED. after changing the habit not to buy a special cleanser for every room or kind of surface, now I have 3 or 4 cleanser in my cupboard and i´s a great difference and for me, an important step in the process of decluttering. so this belongs to my definition of minimalism.
in my opinion: if you count, count every piece of whatever that you own or that are in your place.

Posted 1 year ago #
Parsifal
Member

I'd go one step further - I think minimalism means two things. The first is not using more than you need. The second is thinking about what you really need. I think the latter part is actually the more important of the two.

I've tossed all but one pen and pencil several times over the past year only to buy more when I couldn't find the one writing implement I thought I needed. Anything can be taken too far, whether 30 items, 300 or 3,000.

Posted 1 year ago #
Laetitia in Australia
Member

Ann - food hygienists say that you should have several different colour-coded chopping boards for your different types of food. We don't eat certain things but we buy thin boards that come in a pack of four - red, yellow, green and blue. Every year we go to a conference where we choose to self-cater in one of the available sites. It's a commercial grade kitchen so it has at least 6 colours of chopping boards - red (raw meat), yellow (?), green (vegetables), blue (seafood), brown (cooked meats), white (dairy - or is that the yellow one?). We only care to use the green one as dh has an essentially vegan diet.

Posted 1 year ago #
Anita
Member

I don't have a home inventory, nor am I working towards any specific number of posessions, so I don't keep count of how many items I own.

However, I think a home inventory is a good idea, I just don't have the patience to do it. I keep receipts and warranty information for my important purchases (furniture, appliances, electronics, and especially any and all photographic equipment) and I have them well organized and up to date. Don't really need or want to keep track of how many pens and napkins I have, as long as they're organized, functional and accessible.

Posted 1 year ago #
RebeccaL
Member

I've inventoried the storage totes in my basement, which has been a huge help in finding as well as purging items.
(Two sets of fins when I scuba every other year? Get rid of one!)

Posted 1 year ago #
JuliaJayne
Member

My feelings about the 100 or 500 things challenges is that it's a competition with bloggers, at worst, or a way to make decluttering more interesting or motivating, at best. Too many of them make justifications for not including certain things in the challenge, as you have discovered, so the challenge is so watered down that it seems pointless to me.

Posted 1 year ago #
shebolt
Member

I think expending energy and time counting your possessions, just to prove something, is actually a form of clutter.

I'm always amazed at the people who claim to only own 37 (or whatever) things don't include a significant portion of their possesions. Personal hygene products, for example, are never on the list.

And the "10 item wardrobe" people often allow for unlimited accessories.

It's a gimmick, nothing more.

Posted 1 year ago #
xarcady
Member

I'm never going to get down to 100 possessions, or even 500. I have more than 500 books!

But I do get something from reading about other people's attempts to limit their possessions. It makes me think about what I own and what I use and how much time/space/energy/money all these thinks take up in my life.

What I do find useful is counting a specific type of item. When I first started decluttering, it was the change of seasons and I was putting away my summer clothes and getting out the winter ones. I counted my sweaters. I admit, I'm a bit of a sweater addict. But no one *needs* 34 sweaters. Counting the sweaters made me realize that I had too many. I could wear a different one each day and not repeat one for over a month!

So I put all 34 sweaters out on my bed and sorted them, absolute keepers down to clearly give-aways. Then I decided that I would store the sweaters in two deep dressers drawers, and I started to put them away. After I put those sweaters that would fit into the drawers, I was down to 20. Still a lot, I'll admit, but I was ready to give away over a third of them, which I didn't think was too bad.

I have thick wool sweaters for being outside in the winter. I have dressier sweaters to wear to work, and casual sweaters for evenings and weekends. I could search and hunt for exactly three sweaters--one for outside, one for work, one for casual. But a) that would take a lot of time, b) I don't like shopping that much, and c) I don't want to deal with the comments if I wore the same sweater repeatedly during the week at work. And I enjoy having a bit of variety in the color and weight and warmth and style of my sweaters.

In 2010, I got rid of over 400 books, a bookcase, two area rugs, a TV cabinet, a rocking chair, three trash bags of clothes, 2 boxes of kitchen gadgets, and a box of general household "stuff." Part of my re-evaluation of these things came from reading about people who *do* count their belongings. Part of it came from reaching a point in my life where I'm making different decisions than I did 10 years ago, because a lot has changed in my life since then.

Counting possessions is a tool. Like any other tool, how useful it is depends on how you use it.

Posted 1 year ago #
themusiclivez
Member

I count only when I am trying to take an inventory on things I need. For example, I have a rough idea of how many summer shirts I have (too many) so I know not to purchase anymore. I know how many pairs of shoes I have. But I don't keep a running total of how many items I have in my household as a total.

I truly love working my towards becoming a minimalist but I don't feel that counting my things will help me. Counting my items would stress me out which is the exact opposite of what I want to accomplish as a minimalist!

Posted 1 year ago #
chacha1
Member

I've gotta do some counting. I know I have areas (as does DH) where the total numbers are excessive. By excessive, I don't mean that they overflow their allotted space, but that we have more than we could ever use in a year (like movies - do we watch one every day? No. So why do we have over 400?). Collections of that sort can be said to have value - for one thing, we could easily do without any cable service whatsoever when we retire and are trying to keep expenses down - the fact that so many have accumulated is more a symptom of general laziness. We have room for them, so we don't think seriously about which ones we really love and want to have around for that moment when we MUST SEE THAT MOVIE AGAIN.

Insurance inventory is also more important than it may appear. For one thing, if you do it then you know what you have and what it would cost to replace. But you will also know, down to the flatware drawer, how much is really Stuff You Need To Live and how much is maybe not stored or accounted for in a way that would make re-starting your life after a disaster a little more possible. Like, how many of us really do have a grab-and-go box? I don't.

And you will look carefully at your stuff during this process, which means you will start to think about why you have it. So I'm kind of in favor of counting.

Posted 1 year ago #
Parsifal
Member

No one has mentioned it yet, but thinking about making a short list of vital possessions made me wonder if I might now be over-insured. When I started living on my own, I just picked a number that felt 'safe' and it has grown since. Has anyone else thought about taking out a smaller insurance policy after a major decluttering experience? I literally own less stuff than I did 5 years ago, and much of that I either wouldn't choose to replace - movies and gadgets - or literally could not replace - heirlooms etc.

Anyway, this has made me wonder if making an X-item list might not be a useless endeavor after all.

Posted 1 year ago #
vjb
Member

Yes, I have counted my stuff – my 'personal stuff', a la the 100 Thing Challenge. My challenge was a "150 Things Challenge", and I'm at 160. I might stay at that number, since I do love and use pretty much all of those things. Then again, there are some things I won't replace when they wear out (a couple of silk camisoles, some extra pairs of jeans, etc.), so I'll probably get to 150 over time just by attrition.

It's not for everyone, but I found counting things incredibly motivating and helpful. I was not so bothered about the number per se (being female and liking beautiful clothes and whatnot means I'm never going to get down to 50 things, and I don't want to!), but when I came to list all my 'personal stuff', it became pretty obvious that I had duplicates and stuff I really didn't like, that had somehow escaped decluttering up until then. And there were a bunch of things that I realised had been vaguely bugging me, but that I didn't feel like I had 'permission' to give away. Weird, I know!

I also found it super helpful to read other people's lists online. I know some people see it as competitive, and I think some bloggers definitely were (viz Everett Bogue, who has completely gone off his rocker since). But for me, it just made me rethink some of the things I'd been keeping, when I saw what other people had. For example, when I read Bea's (from Zero Waste Home) wardrobe list, I immediately saw a swathe of things I could give away from my own wardrobe... And I enjoy my decluttered wardrobe immensely! Or I would, if I hadn't put on weight over the last few months and could fit into everything. :(

I also have a household goods inventory, which isn't numbered, but very helpful for estimating insurance. It's handy to ponder when moving house, to try to work out where things will go in the new place.

Posted 1 year ago #
Parsifal
Member

Perhaps it is time for me to start counting. I thought I had about 200 computer games and music CDs, but by the time I was finished with the collection, the tally was almost 700! I haven't even started on the burned media yet, although I will probably toss much of it.

Of course, I wouldn't count individual CDs but in the final analysis I think 4 large binders of CDs and DVDs can count as 1 'item' each.

Posted 1 year ago #
habithacker
Member

I'm not a counter either, but every once in a while I use it as motivation. For instance, I did a count of how many pieces of clothing I had (no, I am not going to tell you; you'll kick me off this forum! ha) and then dedicated myself to getting rid of half of it. It was actually fun to have a number in mind when I made my giveaway stack.

Posted 1 year ago #

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