You may recall that I decide to participate in the Reverse 100 Things Challenge, which was to eliminate 100 items by the end of 2012. I didn’t finish by the end of the year, and I didn’t quite make it to 100, but I’m going to share the list of things that have been either already removed or earmarked for removal in the near future:
- DVDs – 10 – Tarzan, Up, Wall-E, and Atlantis have all gone to my sister. Hot Fuzz, Fat-Burning Kickboxing, Mrs. Doubtfire, Moulin Rouge, Stranger than Fiction, and Too Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar are all still available for adoption.
- Personal care items – 15 – Hair flat iron (given to sister), hair dryer, zipper pouch of hair ties, small bag of Burts Bees items (counting individually would get me more points, but I just counted this as one thing), brown eyeliner (which will be thrown away), shampoo, conditioner, Noxema face cleaner, Avon acne wash, moisturizer (all thrown out), pads and tampons (given away), two brand-new Ban brand deodorants, one unopened box of bar soap, compact folding hairbrush with mirror
- Pure Romance items – 13 – I haven’t divulged this tidbit previously, but I used to sell Pure Romance products. I’ll be posting a blog on one of the major reasons I stopped soon, but in any case, I have at least 13 products, many of which are unopened. Just in case your kids are reading over your shoulder I won’t say what they are.
- Clothing – 15 – three tee shirts, one sarong, one sarong coconut-shell tie clasp, four pairs of underwear, three pairs of gently used brown trouser socks, a four-pack of unworn black trouser socks (used to be a six pack but I wore two pairs!), one pair of pink polka dot socks, one pair of huge pink fuzzy socks
- Books – 8 – “Into the Wild,” “Privilege, Power, and Difference,” “Media Psychology” (given to sister), “Linking Workforce Development to Economic Development” (unopened text book… sigh), “The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook,” “Weight Watchers Cook It Quick!” “Weight Watchers Complete Cookbook,” set of two romantic/cute fill-in-the-questions books for a couple
- Kitchen items – 2 – Plastic container for snacks with a separate compartment for dip, iced tea maker (brewer and pitcher)
- Geeky nerdy items – 5- Star Trek UNO card set, Star Trek lunch box, Bat’leth Klingon sword (stop judging me), rubik’s cube keychain, shoebox of pokemon cards
- Miscellaneous – 12 – Coupon organizer, wallet, highlighter, bumper sticker (“Enjoy life, this is not a dress rehearsal”), Willow Tree ornament, booklight, small spray bottle (plastic, never used), UNO card game, personalized (and thus pretty much useless) “Class of 2006” photo album (and several pictures of High School Caitlin), throw pillow, roll of tickets, small pink and yellow box
For a total of 79 items decluttered (or to be decluttered in the near future).
Now for the fun part – I want to incorporate some of these items into a giveaway, but I’m not sure how. I can’t ship anything very heavy or it will be prohibitively expensive. Should I offer up a select few items and have people comment for a chance to win? Should I just let my readers pick through the list and say “Oh, hey, I need a wallet!” What do you think?
Caitlin Liz Fisher 
Nice progress! It certainly feels good to let go of things.
The giveaway is a good idea. Perhaps people can comment with an item they want and you can pick a name by a certain deadline. Or just first come, first serve. Whichever suits you.
Note: Just so you know, if you decided to give away the remaining DVDs, I would be happy to PayPal you a few dollars to cover shipping. I would only want the discs since I’ve decluttered nearly all of my media packaging.
I certainly appreciate your PayPal willingness! When I figure out how the giveaway will work I will remember that you want the DVDs and see what I can do 🙂 I’m inclined to just have people pick and comment, like you’ve done here… I think I might identify a select few items though, and then people can pick from those. Not sure yet! Thank you for your suggestions!
No judgements on your geekiness 🙂 I was a huge closet fan of Star Trek in my day as well. Pokemon not at all though. Are you one of those people who can actually solve a rubiks cube, I never could? I am amazed by the amount of items you found to purge this time around. Looking at the pictures of your home it looked pretty streamlined. I have a bag here almost ready to pass on myself, but I’m not finished. I have been so busy I haven’t gotten to each area yet. When I finally get pictures of what I’m giving away all the good stuff will already be gone. Friends and family have helped themselves.
I CAN solve a rubik’s cube! I used to have a collection of over 30 of them but it has been significantly downsized. 🙂
You truly amaze me, I’ve only ever met one other person who could solve any of the rubik puzzles, that was my son’s father.
I once solved one in under two minutes! Granted I am now out of practice and it takes me 5-10 minutes, but I get there eventually. I should do a cube every day to exercise my brain… Hmm!
Thinking of it as exercise for my brain, at my age I should probably start trying again not sure if I can handle the frustration 🙂
You could learn juggling! 🙂
I can teach you to juggle.
I don’t have a comment about the give away but I am excited about the upcoming post. I have tons of Mary Kay stuff from where I tried to sell it once but failed. Now I don’t know what to do with it!
You could always donate it, I suppose, or give it to friends who will use it. My issue is that I discovered that the products contained chemicals I was trying to avoid! So I could no longer in good conscience make a profit from the sale of items I would not personally use, so I stopped selling. I think I might give them away with the disclaimer that I don’t want them because of their potentially toxic ingredients and let people decide for themselves.
Congratulations on your successful purging.
The give away is not so relevant for me as I live in Australia.
My puzzle collection is a major challenge for me as I simplify. I have many Rubik’s cube variations, along with all sorts of wooden, metal and plastic puzzles, numbering over 300 pieces. I was quite obsessed for a while.
I admire you morality in stopping selling the products you were selling. So many people would not have that strength.
Wow 300 puzzles! That’s quite a collection. When I purged, I kept items that were multifunctional (I have a Rubik’s cube pepper mill and a Rubik’s cube clock), my first cube, and a plain old Rubik’s cube with nothing fancy. So I am down to 4 from 30 and I think that’s pretty awesome.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a collection of things if it makes you happy, but it depends on what you want from your simple life. If you want to be able to leave and travel at a moment’s notice, a big collection of anything will prevent that. Then again, if you just want to eliminate all the unnecessary stuff that you don’t use, I think keeping a collection of things that make you happy (and in this case, help you exercise your brain via puzzle solving) can be a good thing. Good luck simplifying, even if you keep the puzzles!
Thanks for your thoughts. I’m still undecided which way ill go.
And thank you for the comment about stopping my side-business of selling products I didn’t agree with. Once I discovered the facts about them, it was a no brainer! But I know people for whom selling those products is their only income, and they make good money at it. So there’s no way they would want to stop. It’s unfortunate 😦 I am lucky I have other means of income and I had the freedom to just quit something I didn’t agree with.
Rather than rid 100 things, decide upon 100 things you’d like to keep. Then discard the rest.
I do not feel that my personal brand of minimalism lends itself well to the “100 item” limit on belongings. I would rather pare down to what I feel is my personal “best level” of belongings and continually cull and maintain. Do you have a limit on your belongings? I am always curious to learn what’s in peoples 100 things!