Get Rid of a 1,000 Things Challenge - In a nutshell:
Challenge yourself to get rid of 1,000 items. You make your own “rules”. I do suggest setting a time limit to complete the purge. My experience is the purging can be an emotional process as well as very liberating experience. I believe what resides beyond the accumulation, care and feeding of stuff is a wellspring of unbridled creativity patiently waiting to be released. I am chronicling my experience of the elimination of 1,000 things and would also like to have other people take the challenge, chronicle their experience and tell their story as it relates to the emotional and creative processes. Hopefully this compilation of stories and the art and creative endeavors that are birthed will become the book, “Get Rid of a 1,000 Things Challenge – The Key to Unleashing Creativity.”
*Note” Everyone is welcome to join…there will be those who will just want to do the challenge and not be involved in the book project and there will those who want to do the challenge and also be involved in the book project.
Get Rid of a 1,000 Things Challenge – The Whole Enchilada
I must say hearing about the 100 Thing Challenge... http://www.guynameddave.com/100-thing-challenge.html ...really got my attention. Here is the gist of it:
“The goal of the 100 Thing Challenge is to break free from the confining habits of American-style consumerism. A lot of people around the world feel "stuck in stuff." They feel like their closets and garages are too full of things that don't really make their lives much better. But how to get unstuck?” Dave’s answer….
Reduce (get rid of some of your stuff) Refuse (to get more new stuff) Rejigger (your priorities)
When I read Dave's list of his remaining 100 things, I know I wasn't going to streamline my possessions that drastically. I decided to make a little game out of getting rid of stuff...purge of 100 things in 100 minutes. I set the timer and in about 85 minutes I had gathered 135 belongings for donation. The experience was liberating and actually quite emotional. I went through books from decades past and found a long forgotten journal about crisscrossing the country....life in a spiritual community...silent retreats...mime school in Boulder...(no mime jokes!!!) meeting awesome people all along the way.....the teary part was reading an entry about a trip home after a few years away and realizing how many people I went to visit then have since passed away....family and friends....yes, while I was working to make money to buy stuff and then launder stuff and clean stuff and sort stuff and insure stuff and fix stuff...life marches on. And that brings me back to the Rejigger phase of Dave’s 100 Thing Challenge...what are my priorities...and how does managing my "stuff" effect my quality of life and minimize time spend on what I truly value.
From this experience I decided to make my own challenge....get rid of 1,000 things and after my first purge there are only 865 things to go. I am giving myself six months to complete the task. The only reason I’m not doing it in 100 days is our art business, 3 Hip Chics, is booked big time for art shows…and also I want to enjoy the process and learn the lessons the challenge will surely teach. I am inviting others to join my challenge, chronicle their experience and tell their story as it relates to the emotional and creative processes….see tab “call to artist” for more details.
