100 thing challenge
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<mention-date start="2026-05-13"/> Clothes reduced to essentials<br><mention-date start="2024-11-18"/> luggage to backpack 🎒
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<mention-date start="2024-02-21"/> 2 luggages → 1 luggage due to [leaving the US](/7833376a2df24d2ea876f8f0164e2a88?pvs=25)
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!Packed into 2 luggage bags
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!All possessions that I have. Plus 1 iPhone taking the photo and 2 luggage bags
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Background
Life never gets boring. Recently I decided to [move out of California](/0cb4a1b055c446e0be9de31df899881a), which is my 5th relocation within the last 4 years, 4 out of 5 are cross country moves. One of the lessons I’ve learned since was that I don’t want to own *shit**. *And* *it seems a natural move for me to take the 100 things challenge, which I initially got introduced by reading Pieter Level’s blog post.
Motivation
Since we all like telling stories to rationalize our behaviors, here are a few reasons I gave to myself
- Embrace a minimalistic lifestyle. It frees me from the burden of possessions so that I can literally pack and move at anytime. Meanwhile, to avoid being trapped into endless consumerism, I need to make conscious effort in differentiating what’s necessary, what’s nice to have and what’s not needed.
- Just for fun. Trying things out is fun especially when those challenges may stretch ourself in certain ways.
- Relocation and decluttering. Relocation is always a good chance for some decluttering and readjustments.
Embrace constraints
I’ve been trying to stick with some constraints listed below to avoid going viral with my possessions
- One in one out. I would buy something if I have something else to give away unless I really need that thing. E.g. I bought a new MacBook after I traded my old MacBook, I bought a new headset only after the old one was lost etc.
- Differentiate between necessity vs wants. Avoid buying unneeded or unwanted stuff (worse) by setting a cool down period, and only buying them when the same impulse pops into my head again and again.
- Go prime for things that I do need. I would buy things with best quality at a price that I can afford rather than wasting time hunting for the best deal.
- Embrace the Lindy Effect. Books or clothes that I kept for a while are more likely to continue being carried around with me.
Suggestions
This challenge might actually raise a lot of questions, such as whether you count this item or that, or whether you count a bunch of things as one item or not, or whether this item is considered “personal” or not. Decide it for yourself. This isn’t a competition, and it’s not a way to show off. It’s just for fun, and it’ll be different for each of us. https://zenhabits.net/minimalist-fun-the-100-things-challenge/
The Rules (I set for myself)
- Get my possessions under 50 items
- Collections count as a single item
The Challenge
I have (40 things, \~60 in quantity)
<database url="https://app.notion.com/p/b61ff51da9104414bf80f4bb2b61b579" inline="true" data-source-url="collection://7c6e9da2-f3e7-4d63-a9f2-2989bbfc9ccd">Possessions</database>
I sold
- Surface Pro 7
I gave away
- Kitchenwares
- Clothes that I don’t wear (to homeless)
Conclusion
- Most of stuffs that I decided to keep with me are things that I've at least used a few times in the last couple months, some of them I use everyday.
- I keep extra clothes (thicker ones) with me in case of weather changes among seasons. I'm not assuming that I'll stick to places (e.g. California) with mild weather all year around.
- I also realized that, as always, there's room for improvement. For example, I haven’t used the projector for quite long time. Or I can challenge myself a bit to fit everything into one large size travel bag like many digital nomads do. Continuous refinement is part of the journey.
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