I think that's great if it works for you. Do you have any other stuff you'd like to sell cheap? ;)

Dang...I could have used the studded 20" tires :(

Aaron :)

I would probably sell my Dahon Smooth Hound with the front Q fork for just $400 plus shipping. I've got the original box. I stopped using it over a year ago. My neck hurts too much to ride bent over these days so I'll buy something else next spring as my spare bicycle.

A picture of a Smooth Hound is on my MySpace page in the photos section. The link is in my signature.

Yes, still here. Glad? Absolutely! I would make the same move again if I went back in time. We would have bought more land if we knew what was going to happen to land prices. Wow. Since we wouldn't go into debt, we built and expanded as we could afford to with cash. Started a business on that fancy new fangled internet thing and here we are.

Worn down and built up, both.

Electricity and Power. Glad I have them now. A well and pump that delivers clean water to the "house". So nice. Being able to shower, be clean and be warm, great. Laundry in a washing machine instead of a 5 gallon bucket, heaven. A warm comfortable bed. Mmmmmm.

Not quite right. Sprouting the stuff and eating the sprouts is done. Good stuff.

About this "owning only one hundred things" stuff. Can I plse count my tools as "one item"? If not I am doomed..:innocent:

It's a bicycle forum, therefore yes. :) And you can count all of your bicycles as one item too. :lol:

SWEET! :thumb: I have a few more bikes than I really need, but they keep accumulating. I think I do have 2 sold though.

Aaron :)

the guys who started the 100 things challenge said that there is plenty of lee-way of how you want to do it. You can count every individual thing in your possession or you can group it. Such as, you can count all of you socks individually, or a pair as 1 item from your 100, or All of your socks in one group as 1 item of the 100. Everybody comes to simplicity at their own pace on their own level. The one important thing is the continual looking at why you own something and judging on if the time to take care of it is worth keeping. There are even things that he does not include with the 100 (tools are included). Here is the article
http://zenhabits.net/minimalist-fun-the-100-things-challenge/


He also runs a minimalist blog at http://mnmlist.com/
I have read every post and they are all great. I am not completely into some of his views of simplicity but that is the point of simplicity in that we all come to our own part of it. The thing that bring us together is the fact that in some manner (Great or Small) we want to simplify our life. Some people are ok with having "Just in Case" items some completely do not understand the thinking, neither are wrong. That previous thought stems from his post: http://mnmlist.com/in-case

As I have already said, all of his post are pretty good and early on, in a specific post (within the second month) he decided that the post on that blog would be no more than 400 words to keep the theme of minimalism going.
Just my 2 cent.

I've decided this week that I should give away some things that I previously wanted to sell. During my week off I'll go through some of the accessible things I have and package them into a few boxes. A friend of mine has a hatchback wagon and can take them to a thrift store or perhaps a charity that can sell or give them away.

I decided that having the extra room and the feeling of moving towards my goal of having less stuff will be worth it.

What I wonder about is whether it would be worth it to package my older series of "how to" and "how things work" books and sell them on Amazon. That's about twenty books from an old set of encyclopedias. It would be a shame for me to donate them to a library system and just have them thrown away. I know that is what they do with books they don't want to put on the shelf. Annual library book sales dump the ones that don't sell.

I'm at that point as well. My thoughts are that since the advent of eBay and CL, people seem to be looking for "deals" and aren't willing to pay the price that something is worth anymore, making it easy to decide to throw (or give) away something instead of going through all the trouble for a few dollars. Just my two cents. :o

Since September, I've been working hard at getting rid of most of my possessions (most are car-related) and I've noticed that even though I'm bringing in more boxes from the storage locker to my bedroom, the pile in my bedroom is getting smaller and smaller. It feels great. I'll organize a garage sale right before leaving on tour for the smaller items that cannot easily be sold on craigslist or recycled.

Another resource is freecycle.org. I'm sure it's been mentioned before but it's so convenient I'll plug it again. I have used itboth to receive stuff and to give them away.

http://www.freecycle.org/

Freecycle requires membership. I don't really like that. I can give stuff away on Craigslist too. I don't consider myself a member. I just have an account. I don't need to go to a message board and sign up there too.

The local Freecycle message board has only twenty-eight messages this month. I can't read them since it requires membership. So I don't know how many people are actually using it locally. There could be just three people chatting with each other for all I know. Maybe Freecycle works better in larger cities just like Craigslist does.

You don't need a membership in Freecycle, but yuo do need a membership in Yahoo Groups to view the posts. But yeah, if you'd rather have an account than be a member, go with craigslist. (Of course people have been murdered for using craigslist.) :lol:

I haven't used freecycle in a few years, so there have probably been some changes. I see that posts on my local group has gone down some, but they'r still in the range of 400 to 600 per month. I 'm not endorsing freecycle, but people are free to look into it and decide for themselves.

My experience with Freecycle has been that people give away stuff that belongs in a dumpster.... moth-eaten clothing, a bike that didn't even rise to the level of scrap metal, etc. It seemed a mammoth waste of time. Craigslist wasn't much better.

I dunno. I've never tried to get anything on Freecycle, but I have given a number of things away. None of them were dumpster-worthy or even close. Examples: A perfectly functioning recumbent lifecycle that I didn't have space for and wasn't using, unopened, unexpired inkjet cartridges whose corresponding printer (not obsolete) had just bitten the dust, wine and beer making equipment that I wasn't using anymore, kids bicycles that had been outgrown but were still in good shape, etc.

I've had excellent luck both buying and selling from Craigslist, including furniture, musical instruments, clothing, ...

Freecycle got me a $80 cordless phone, still sealed in the box. The lady even drove it to my house in the ghetto--in a Jaguar! She said she received it as a door prize and didn't need it. I also got a very nice vacuum cleaner that I've been using for 4 or 5 years now.

But what's the worst that could happen if you got something you didn't like? It's not like you're out any money...

I'm out the time to engage in the correspondence to obtain the item, and the time and effort to pick it up.

As for Craiglist, too often I had to jump through hoops to get rid of things. The attitude was that they were doing me a favor. For instance, I tried to give away an aquarium, pump, filter, and stand, and even though I explained in the listing I couldn't deliver it I had people insisting I do so. (I wound up giving it to a friend.)

I lost everything I owned a year ago in a fire except. A backpack full of cloths and a toothbrush. When I lost everything I thought that I didn't really use much of it anyway. Sence then I've only bought a new bike and acc. A few pots. Alsoought some cloths. Starting over was kinda nice. Except for losing my sport hill running pants and patagonie jacket. :( . Also stuff like a tv chair and bed were free. Lucky me.

That is interesting. This isn't permanent for him. It is just while he's traveling that he keeps his possessions to such a small number. Even so, it is interesting that he has been doing if for over a year.

He must be spending a fortune to live on the road without being able to cook his own meals and paying for places to sleep.

Here is a link to an interview he did about his situation: http://www.scottberkun.com/blog/2010...wns-15-things/ .

What a cool thread. I've definitely enjoyed reading through it all.

As for myself, I feel I live pretty simply. I'm a collector of things and lover of stuff by nature, so I've had to fight that urge, especially as I've gotten older. My wonderful girlfriend has taught a lot about getting rid of stuff I don't need and being realistic about things I will or will not ever use again, so I'm really thankful for that.

When I left home and moved in with her, I had about ten small boxes plus a couple guitars and that's it. She already had plenty of furniture and kitchen essentials. We're not really minimalists by any means, but we certainly work to keep our home clutter-free. We regularly go through our clothes and donate those we don't need or that no longer fit. We also go through dvds and books as well. Books are probably my only weakness. I'm a writer and a student and I cherish my small personal library. I constantly use my books for my work and reread them quite often so I don't think I could ever pare my books down to a handful.

How do you feel about e-readers? Could you love books just as much with all of your library stored on one? There are now color versions that can store cover art and pictures. Soon there will be versions with very sharp images so that the text looks as good as a paper page.

You guys are making me feel guilty that sometimes I go out to eat

Guilt Is In The Eye Of The Beholder
 

You can only feel guilty if somewhere inside yourself you really want to change your situation. Take a look. Change what you want to change. See how it feels. If you like it then great. If you want to change back or continue making new choices do so. Have fun with it.

I'm preparing to sell a bicycle I really like but can't ride. Leaning forward hurts my neck too much. This summer I'll make a choice about replacing it or foregoing it. This might be the year I switch to roller skates as transportation. They would certainly take up less space. :)

Its all good. As far as things I own that aren't bikes I can fit everything in one medium sized box.
I would like to spend less on food and things however especially now that I've just started commuting 30 miles 7 days a week, I spend a lot on food.
Better spent on whole vegan food than gas!!