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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Underwear + socks are grouped, because everyone currently with 50 things is grouping them.
  4. I can get new things, but I have to keep it under 50.

Here are my 50 things:

  1. Macbook Pro
  2. iPhone
  3. Cloth for cleaning Macbook Pro and camera lens
  4. Frye motorcycle boots
  5. Tom’s shoes
  6. Backpacking bag
  7. Laptop backpack
  8. Camera bag
  9. Canon Digital Rebel XTI camera body
  10. 18-35mm lens
  11. 50mm lens
  12. Jeans
  13. Belt
  14. Black jacket
  15. Army jacket
  16. Tweed jacket
  17. Gray V-neck
  18. Gray V-neck
  19. Purple V-neck
  20. Blue V-neck
  21. Black V-neck
  22. Gray T-shirt
  23. Gray T-shirt
  24. Purple Tank
  25. Purple Tank
  26. Coffee Tank
  27. Purple long sleeve
  28. Gray long sleeve
  29. Gray long sleeve knit
  30. Gray hoodie
  31. Pink hoodie
  32. Gray super-soft and somewhat transparent t-shirt
  33. Gray sweatpants
  34. Brown sweatpants
  35. Hat my girlfriend knit for me
  36. Swim shorts
  37. Toothbrush
  38. Deodorant
  39. Disposable Razor
  40. Travel towel
  41. Minimalist “wallet” (small paper-clamp) containing credit card + debit card + ID + cash.
  42. Keys to current house + bike lock.
  43. Yoga mat
  44. Sewing kit contains some basic needles and string
  45. 1TB hard drive for backups
  46. 500GB hard drive for backups of backups
  47. Bike lock
  48. [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)]
  49. Socks, counting as group, probably 10 pairs
  50. Underwear, counting as group, probably 10 pairs