DO YOU REALLY NEED IT?
A news report says that 47% of Americans admit to owning far more possessions than they need, and that a new clutter-free philosophy challenges people to get rid of anything superfluous to their lifestyle.
Learning of this “feel good fad” limited to 100 items, I decided to pare it down to only 12 of the most dearly loved objects I would keep, if moving home.
This is my list, and I wonder about your own?
19th century lithograph of the Ka’aba in Mecca.
A turtle skull picked up on a beach in Oman.
Chinese antique coffee table
Watercolour of a boat by a Scottish loch.
Burmese statue of the Buddha.
Two old cane chairs.
Indian drum table.
Metal bird from Zimbabwe.
Handwoven carpet from Iraq.
Wooden fetish statue from Central Africa.
Old Burmese puppet.
My personal library of books (counted as a single possession)
I really don't know what I would take. I think I'd be too worried in case any people were in the house! If I knew they weren't though I might take some family photographs, perhaps the computer (if I could carry it) and probably my old travel notebooks and my diaries (if I could carry them).
I'm not sure your extensive library of books counts as one object! If you could take only one book – what would it be? As for me with a house full of clutter, finding just 12 is a tall order. One would have to be my great grandfather's chocolate box complete with chocolate bar, issued to him at Christmas during the Boer War. Another a cuddly green hippo that has sat on my dressing table since university, my set of Lord of the Rings to read, and an early-ish edition of 'On the Origin of Species'
Honestly, too many books to single out just one- but.. A Child`s Garden of verses by Robert Louis Stevenson, given to me by my favourite aunt, when I was six.