Can you live with just 100 items?

**alaskaguy** · 06-12-2008, 04:09 PM

As my wife and I weighed all the pros and cons of a move 3900 miles away we had a nagging worry: How on earth were we going to sort, pack and ship, all our stuff? Even after selling our snowmachines, four-wheelers, furniture, and tons of other things we still have 5,000 pounds of household belongings to ship. And its not cheap when your only shipping option is air freight (there are no connecting roads from Western Alaska to Anchorage).

This ordeal has got me thinking about living a less cluttered lifestyle, owning less stuff. A recent Time magazine article analyzes living such a lifestyle......

How to Live With Just 100 Things - TIME

So what do you think? Can less be better?

And as a side note, my 5,000 pounds of household belongings arrived in Anchorage three days ago. However, I'm still waiting on my truck to be air freighted. So I'm living in a house, where the telephone has been turned off, no television (its in Anchorage), cells don't work in the area where my house is, no computer or internet (my computer is in Anchorage), and I have no transportation (my truck is in the possession of the air freight company).

I hitch rides from my residence to town and return to my residence the same way. In the interim I hope an air cargo company will send a large enough plane that will accomendate my truck (a Tacoma King Cab 4 X 4). This has been my routine for the last few days.

**ISUFan22** · 06-12-2008, 04:12 PM

Is the family still with you or are they relocated already?

**alaskaguy** · 06-12-2008, 04:17 PM

Originally Posted by ISUFan22

Is the family still with you or are they relocated already?

The family is still with me. The family is just me and my wife.

**IcSyU** · 06-12-2008, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by alaskaguy

The family is still with me. The family is just me and my wife.

I can't decide if I feel bad for you or not?

**Psyclone** · 06-12-2008, 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by alaskaguy

As my wife and I weighed all the pros and cons of a move 3900 miles away we had a nagging worry: How on earth were we going to sort, pack and ship, all our stuff? Even after selling our snowmachines, four-wheelers, furniture, and tons of other things we still have 5,000 pounds of household belongings to ship. And its not cheap when your only shipping option is air freight (there are no connecting roads from Western Alaska to Anchorage).

This ordeal has got me thinking about living a less cluttered lifestyle, owning less stuff. A recent Time magazine article analyzes living such a lifestyle......

How to Live With Just 100 Things - TIME

So what do you think? Can less be better?

And as a side note, my 5,000 pounds of household belongings arrived in Anchorage three days ago. However, I'm still waiting on my truck to be air freighted. So I'm living in a house, where the telephone has been turned off, no television (its in Anchorage), cells don't work in the area where my house is, no computer or internet (my computer is in Anchorage), and I have no transportation (my truck is in the possession of the air freight company).

I hitch rides from my residence to town and return to my residence the same way. In the interim I hope an air cargo company will send a large enough plane that will accomendate my truck (a Tacoma King Cab 4 X 4). This has been my routine for the last few days.

I can relate to this post. When I bought my first house over 30 years ago, it seems as if there was a never-ending stream of things that you needed to buy to operate and maintain your home. Considering that I basically started from scratch, buying that home about a year after graduating from ISU, and starting out on my own with basically nothing.

As time has gone on, I have accumulated so many things that it has begun to take a choke-hold on me. The electronic gear and lawn equipment have been primary staples. I think I inherited some of this from my dad who bought his first TV before there were broadcast stations in Iowa, cut some records before I was born, bought a tape recorder when they first came out, etc.

I have since slowed down my chasing of the latest electronics, simply because I am saturated and the rate of introduction of electronic gadgetry has accelerated. I have no more room or time for the wealth of things that are being introduced. I need to be less of a pack rat. I make inroads occasionally, but not often enough. If I'm not willing to throw stuff away, I need to utilize eBay or Craigslist and purge myself. If a flood hit my home, it might be a blessing in disguise as it would free myself from my unused possessions and allow me to start over from scratch.

**JHudd** · 06-12-2008, 05:24 PM

Originally Posted by alaskaguy

As my wife and I weighed all the pros and cons of a move 3900 miles away we had a nagging worry: How on earth were we going to sort, pack and ship, all our stuff? Even after selling our snowmachines, four-wheelers, furniture, and tons of other things we still have 5,000 pounds of household belongings to ship. And its not cheap when your only shipping option is air freight (there are no connecting roads from Western Alaska to Anchorage).

This ordeal has got me thinking about living a less cluttered lifestyle, owning less stuff. A recent Time magazine article analyzes living such a lifestyle......

How to Live With Just 100 Things - TIME

So what do you think? Can less be better?

And as a side note, my 5,000 pounds of household belongings arrived in Anchorage three days ago. However, I'm still waiting on my truck to be air freighted. So I'm living in a house, where the telephone has been turned off, no television (its in Anchorage), cells don't work in the area where my house is, no computer or internet (my computer is in Anchorage), and I have no transportation (my truck is in the possession of the air freight company).

I hitch rides from my residence to town and return to my residence the same way. In the interim I hope an air cargo company will send a large enough plane that will accomendate my truck (a Tacoma King Cab 4 X 4). This has been my routine for the last few days.

I may be missing the obvious here, but is CF being hosted in Alaskaguy's head?

**linkshero** · 06-12-2008, 05:25 PM

I could probably get by with one less wedge and no 3 iron..........

**alaskaguy** · 06-12-2008, 05:26 PM

Originally Posted by JHudd

I may be missing the obvious here, but is CF being hosted in Alaskaguy's head?

I'm posting from a friends house that lives in town.

**balken** · 06-12-2008, 08:01 PM

Necessary Items:

Laptop
Leif Garrett poster
NKOTB CD - Hangin' Tough
Best of Mork & Mindy DVD
Protractor
Oversized foam #1 hand
Corksrew
Rick Springfield 45 single of Jessie's Girl

Good to go...

**CyclonesRule** · 06-12-2008, 09:01 PM

Originally Posted by balken

Necessary Items:

Laptop
Leif Garrett poster
NKOTB CD - Hangin' Tough
Best of Mork & Mindy DVD
Protractor
Oversized foam #1 hand
Corksrew
Rick Springfield 45 single of Jessie's Girl

Good to go...

That's only 8 you got 92 to go...... unless you only need those 8 items.

**balken** · 06-12-2008, 09:15 PM

Originally Posted by CyclonesRule

That's only 8 you got 92 to go...... unless you only need those 8 items.

Any man should be able to get by with those items. Anything above and beyond would be purely a luxury..

**CyclonesRule** · 06-12-2008, 09:34 PM

It is a great list, I would only have to add a gryoscope.

**dosry5** · 06-13-2008, 07:11 AM

Originally Posted by linkshero

I could probably get by with one less wedge and no 3 iron..........

Which wedge? There's a gap between my pitching wedge and my gap wedge I need to fill.....I'll help you out and take it. My clubs are 2 years old and my 3 iron could be sold as brand new....

**dosry5** · 06-13-2008, 07:14 AM

My wife and I moved from a small 930 sq ft condo a couple of years ago. A couple who was retiring bought it. They were moving from a large house. They had a huge sale to sell off most of their belongings. The lady was crying everytime she came over to the condo after the sale closed. The man was content. I can't imagine getting rid of truckloads of my stuff. Worked out for me though--I got his lawnmower, weed whacker, and couple pieces of furniture for free!

**Cyclonepride** · 06-13-2008, 07:23 AM

My wife and I are condensing two households into one, and man, has it been a chore! We have two of almost everything, and even though we bought a larger house than either of us had before, it's almost impossible to fit it all in.

Unfortunately we also have a finished basement, so little storage other than the garage. We have had to condense/ unpack stuff in the garage three times, and now I think we finally have enough room to get the last few loads into the new garage.

And we only moved about 8 blocks, so I cannot imagine shipping it all somewhere. I'm guessing all the condensing would have had to be done at the old place in that case.