One in One Out

I'm an avid fan of Leo Babauta author of zenhabits. I admire his work to pair down his worldly things because in the end, they are the things that own you. While I may not be ready to cut down all of my possessions to 100 items I do have a practice of one in, one out.

Any time I get something new, I get rid of something old. At first this seems rather difficult, as you may think "I need all of this stuff" but you start to realize it isn't true. One of the easiest things to cut is books, with so many being open-sourced or reaching the public domain every day it is easy to trade out the paper for the digital. (Not that I advocate becoming an archive of everything digital)

Another great place to purge is the paper you collect; a friend of my father's used to run under the rule "what is the worst that can happen if I don't have this?" and that kept her office neat and clean. Chances are that you don't really need most of the paper you keep around.

The simple guide to removing clutter is this:

• Have I used the thing in the past year? (if no, chances are you don't need it)
• Can I get the thing digitally for free, or transfer it to digital easily?
• If I donate this thing, will it help someone else?
• Will this thing become mostly obsolete before I use it again?
• Do I already have one of these?

Being this is one hour hacks, give yourself a one hour challenge to get rid of 100 things, even if they're small (small things still take up room in your brain!)