100 Things

 We have way too much STUFF!
 A few days ago Willie told me about an article he read about what makes people happy. The article spoke of a couple who sold their home and most of their belongings, including their cars, and now live in a 430 square foot apartment. Wow!! So cool!
I also read a blog called guynameddave.blogspot.com. He decided to start a "100 Things Challenge". He owns 100 things. These are his owns personal belongings. No shared items. His furniture, dishes, or other things he shares with his wife and kids don't count. Anyway, you should check it out. Very cool!

We have such an overabundance of "things" in this country. We are extremely blessed. We neglect to sit back and look around and realize how much we have. I am guilty myself. As most of you know we have really downsized since moving to California. We don't even own a home yet. Sometimes I wish a had more space or I miss my brand new fancy houses from Arizona, but the truth is, we don't need huge homes and more and more stuff to be happy. I still struggle with the fact that it is so expensive to live here, but overall our life is so good. We live close to grandparents and cousins, Willie has a stable job with a 12-minute commute(extremely rare in L.A.), our kids go to great schools and have made wonderful friends, and our ward building is one mile away. Pretty awesome!

I am now working on my "100 Things." It's not easy because I have many hobbies and like everyone else, I have lots of "stuff." The last few days I have filled up two laundry containers full of my clothes and I am getting rid of most of my scrapbookking supplies. I never thought that day would come, but the digital age has taken over. I blog way more than I scrapbook.

 Like Dave says, this is about "stopping the habit of unnecessarily buying things that inevitably caused me to be stuck in stuff." I will break free of this American-style consumerism!

I challenge you to declutter your homes. It's such a good feeling! I still have everything that I need and can see the floor in my closet.