A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone. -- Henry David Thoreau

We're entering that glorious holiday season when we both give and accumulate.

I'm looking around at my house thinking, "I have so much. What more could I need?"

We live in a consumer society and spend much of our time managing all the glorious stuff we have amassed.



I had a friend in Miami who lived in a small condo the same size as ours. Over the four years we lived there, I stacked and reordered and rearranged until I felt as if I were living in a Rubik's Cube -- just moving one thing to replace it with another.

Meanwhile, my friend's condo stayed airy and open. She just didn't allow things to accumulate. If she didn't need it or use it, she got rid of it. While I scurried around cleaning and cramming, she spent her time reading books and making lifelong connections with her neighbors. It's a good way to live.

We've all had that experience of moving, of pulling open closet after closet and thinking, "What is all this stuff?" But because we don't have the time or willpower to get rid of it, we wedge it in a box or a closet only to reassess it five years later.

So, in honor of the coming year, I am hereby making a goal: to rid myself of 90 things before the year 2009. I invite you, MormonTimes.com readers, to do the same. Join with me in clearing out and simplifying your life. These are the rules I've made for myself:

1. Trash doesn't count, if it was headed that way anyway. Neither does the daily newspaper.
2. If I can, I'll donate rather than throw out. No need to add to the mounds of trash we already produce each week.
3. If I get rid of it, I can't replace it. No shopping sprees to replace donated shoes or clothing.
4. Single Legos don't count. (Though there are days I would happily throw the whole lot out the window.) Neither do small things like paper clips or thumbtacks.
5. There have to be at least five things from each room in the house, closets included.
   

Here are the areas I want to focus on: stained, outdated, or abandoned clothing. I hold onto baby shoes like they are gilded in gold, but none of my babies even wore shoes before they turned 1 (one of the blessings of living in a mild climate). If an article of clothing has spent more than a year hibernating in a box or on a hanger, I must get rid of it.

Books: We have seven bookshelves in our house and each of them is full to overflowing. Many of the books are dear friends of mine. Others, like "How to Get Over Your Fear of Speeches" (never had that fear, never will know how that book got on my shelf) have a sturdy future on a bookshelf at Goodwill. Others I can hopefully re-gift.

Crafts: I hoard crafts, with the grand ambition that someday I will become the super crafty mother I've always wanted to be. But most of my creations never see the light of day, or they languish half-finished in a closet basket. Here I will have two choices with crafty materials: either use them up or junk them. One only needs a certain number of Popsicle sticks in one's house, even in times of famine. I can probably make do with 10 balls of yarn, not 30. Toilet paper rolls, however ... well, I can never have enough, so those will stay.

Bags: I'm not a purse person, but we have a bag from every major conference or function we've ever attended. They're garish and impractical. Sure, they're great for 72-hour kits, but unless we plan on having 15 more children, we can afford to purge a few.

Toiletries: My cupboards are full of half-empty lotions and sprays, abandoned hair products, and old medicines. Time to pare down.

Miscellaneous: We actually don't accrue that many toys, but I’ll take a look through the toy closet, as well as the utility closet and the garage. I know there is a healthy assembly of half-empty paint cans just waiting to be properly disposed of.

I am not by nature a pack rat, so 90 things is going to be a challenge. But if it helps me live more simply, if it helps to refocus my time not on things but on experiences, moments with my children and my husband, then it's a good start for the coming year.

I invite you to take the clutter-busting challenge. E-mail me with your own ideas of what you plan to purge between now and 2009. To live simply and prudently, that is the goal.