the austin citysphere

Could you live with fewer than 100 items? That's the question Jeff Glor tried to answer Tuesday in his piece for the CBS Evening News. As Glor walked through the spartan home of Everett Bogue, I wondered if I could do it. But a look at the bare walls really struck me - I like having pictures around, things to look at besides, well, the walls.

But I will admit, our family could definitely benefit from a healthy dose of decluttering. Even blogger Dave Bruno, who started the challenge, allows for some leeway. For instance, all of your underwear counts as one item. Glor points out in his reporter's notebook for Couric & Co. that minimalists are trying to avoid being wasteful, not to be gross. If I could get down to 100 items in each room in our home - including closets! - I think we'd be on to something. I recently got fed up with being unable to move around in our laundry room and threw away a bunch of stuff. I don't even remember what it was. It was just stuff that I thought I needed to save.

Austin-based kitchen designer Cindy Black suggests on her blog, Hello Kitchen, a way to declutter your kitchen. This sounds like something I really need to do before the next time we move (there will be a next time, trust me). But looking at the long list, the allowances for "specialty" items and her suggestion that anything not on the list should be added to your wish list, maybe I'd better not. I think I might end up with things I didn't even know I wanted or needed - which means, really, I don't need them.

Some people really swear by the Fly Lady - a woman who has built a benevolent empire of decluttering and cleaning the home to restore order to the family. She even offers, in her online store (everybody's got one), a De-Clutter Kit consisting of three collapsible bins for organizing the Throw Away, Put Away, Give Away items. I don't think a lack of bins is my problem.

As the holidays approach with the promise of more stuff coming into the house, maybe it's time to get a handle on the clutter we already have. How do you draw a line between the sentimental and just plan taking up space?