50 things
Why 50 things?
We’ve been told by society that buying stuff will make us happy, this isn’t true for so many reasons. The reality is that you can live a much freer life if you decide to opt-out of consumerism.
Because I live with less, I’ve been able to relocate several times in the last year at minimal expense. I also have to earn less money to survive, and this allowed me to develop an online business so I can live and work from anywhere in the world.
For more see my e-book The Art of Being Minimalist, or subscribe to my blog via RSS or EMAIL.
Other people with 50 things:
Leo Babauta, author of A Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life.
Colin Wright, author of Networking Awesomely.
Henri Junttila, blogger at Wake Up Cloud.
Honorable mention: Tammy Strobel (64 things, almost there!), author of Simply Car-free.
Rules that I’m following:
- Shared things aren’t counted. My girlfriend and I share a couple of basic necessities for sleeping, food preparation and bathing (Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap). This is just a list of my personal things.
- Books aren’t counted. I’m always reading (see my reading list), but I gift any purchased books after I read them to people who can benefit from them.
- Underwear + socks are grouped, because everyone currently with 50 things is grouping them.
- I can get new things, but I have to keep it under 50.
Here are my 50 things:
- Macbook Pro
- iPhone
- Cloth for cleaning Macbook Pro and camera lens
- Frye motorcycle boots
- Tom’s shoes
- Backpacking bag
- Laptop backpack
- Camera bag
- Canon Digital Rebel XTI camera body
- 18-35mm lens
- 50mm lens
- Jeans
- Belt
- Black jacket
- Army jacket
- Tweed jacket
- Gray V-neck
- Gray V-neck
- Purple V-neck
- Blue V-neck
- Black V-neck
- Gray T-shirt
- Gray T-shirt
- Purple Tank
- Purple Tank
- Coffee Tank
- Purple long sleeve
- Gray long sleeve
- Gray long sleeve knit
- Gray hoodie
- Pink hoodie
- Gray super-soft and somewhat transparent t-shirt
- Gray sweatpants
- Brown sweatpants
- Hat my girlfriend knit for me
- Swim shorts
- Toothbrush
- Deodorant
- Disposable Razor
- Travel towel
- Minimalist “wallet” (small paper-clamp) containing credit card + debit card + ID + cash.
- Keys to current house + bike lock.
- Yoga mat
- Sewing kit contains some basic needles and string
- 1TB hard drive for backups
- 500GB hard drive for backups of backups
- Bike lock
- [Spot for bike that I do not own currently but will buy when I get to San Francisco (see how I buy and sell bikes)]
- Socks, counting as group, probably 10 pairs
- Underwear, counting as group, probably 10 pairs

