Guidelines

Before I embark on this journey Saturday, I want to establish a few guidelines. Here's what I've got so far:

1) Starting Aug. 1, 2009, and continuing until July 31, 2010, I need to identify one "item" every day that will be leaving my possession for good.

2) Each item should be something that wasn't headed out the door already. So, last week's Sports Illustrated and the little gifts I scoop out of the cat litter each morning can't count.

3) Once an item has been identified as "downsized" it needs to be gone by the end of that month. This will buy me a little time to deal with it. However, whatever I identify on the last day of the month needs to be gone by that night. This should make the end of each month rather interesting.

4) Items can be given away, sold, recycled, trashed, incinerated (whew, that wood stove might get a workout this winter...), or otherwise made to disappear. However, I can be held accountable for any non-green actions that may have world-wide consequences. Always assume Al Gore is watching.

5) I will aim to post blog updates at least once a week (right now I'm thinking Wednesdays). Whenever the blog update happens, it needs to account for every calendar day.

Those are enough guidelines for now. Honestly, I'm making this up as I go along. However, as Seth Godin recently commented in his blog, is there any other way to make it up?

Now, let's look around for something to toss...

The Challenge

Here's an idea that could get you to the top of the N.Y. Times bestseller list:

Figure out a way to alter your life for a year, preferably in a way that is topical and humorous, and write about the experience. A few examples:

Read the bible cover-to-cover and then live, for a year, following every rule literally. A.J. Jacobs wrote a hilarious and very compelling account of doing just this, The Year of Living Biblically.

Write down a list of your life's biggest regrets, and then spend a year trying to go back and fix them. Sound impossible? Joe Kita gave it the ol' college (and high-school and post-grad) try in Another Shot: How I Relived My Life in Less Than a Year.

This gig worked out so well for Kita that he's doing it again, this time making one small postiive change every month and blogging about it. I'm sure the book will follow.

Or, my personal favorite:
Make one earth-friendly change to your life every day for a year. We all want to be "greener," right? This idea is brilliant, and I'll admit that I wish I had thought of it first. Vanessa Farquharson's Sleeping Naked is Green makes environmental consciousness sound wonderful and horrific all at the same time.

I'm not shooting for a book deal, but I'm going to run with this what-can-I-do-over-the-course-of-a-year idea by challenging myself to get rid one thing every day for the next year. Why? Here are three possible reasons:

1) The simple life sounds romantic.
2) I've got an awful lot of stuff crammed into this little house.
3) This will force a little self-reflection on what is important to me, and what is expendable. Scary, huh?

Care to join me? Or, perhaps you'll create your own year-long challenge? Maybe you can parley it into a best-selling memoir...

My challenge begins August 1, 2009. If you create your own, let me know.