#3thingsless every day

Andrew Edlin
Jul 20, 2017 · 3 min read

Not a story of success……yet.

The first #3thingsless July 1st 2017

All my life I have been a good consumer, educated with the millions spent by advertisers when I was young. My Christmas list was always extensive. As I became an adult I hated to shop, but loved a good purchase. An expensive purchase.

So, I liked to buy this stuff and it made me feel good. I bought a new thing, got my high and my ego took a little tickle because I owned it. I got to tell a story, name drop a brand, I got to humblebrag or just outright brag. It helped I had a good job and disposable income. It never became a financial burden, a debt crisis like many people suffer, but it was a crisis of a different kind. Because I was missing any connection.

I had things, but missed people. I bought whatever I wanted but none of it mattered. When I moved home this year I left most of my things behind, but still had a lot with me. All these commodities, everything I could want, but not the relationships. Most of my friendships in the last decade have been fleeting. But I kept buying things to get my fix, and the crisis grew stronger.

Because like drugs, it just stopped feeling as good. The high was shorter with everything I acquired, and my buyers regret was bigger and more profound each time. I knew it didn’t make my life better, but I still did it.

My background and education is as an environmentalist and sociologist. I work in sustainability and ethics. I once developed a values driven career process that was used across a multi billion dollar business. I knew every impact of what I was doing and why it was against everything I was about. But it got me high. Consumption junkie. That’s me.

In 2017, I took a long hard look at my values, my anchors and what I stood for. What I had, what I wanted to do, wanted to be. What mattered to me? Where were my connections to people and the world? Why did I have a life full of things but not of people? Where was the real me? Authenticity is a great buzz word but one that fits here. I was not being an authentic me.

In June 2017, I decided to make a change. To spend more time with people, focus on experiences, less time with things. To reduce what I had to allow me to focus on what mattered. Living alone again made it the perfect opportunity. More me, less things. #3thingsless was born as a slow and steady way to ease me in to the process.

I decided to de-clutter my life to try and understand what mattered to me, but would have to do it bit by bit. Identify what was loved, change my life around it and remove things and obstacles that got in the way. Every day for the next 12 months I will remove three things from my life. That’s 1095 things to go out of a single man’s life. When I described this to a group of friends in the pub after Day 1 they laughed, discussed what I had they would like and told me I would have to start buying things to throw away. Somehow, I don’t think so.

This will be my story about how things go. It will start being about things, but hopefully evolve to be about what I learn. In the year, I need a new home, new relationships and new adventures. I will hike more, run more, dive more. I will do Jiu Jitsu, ride my bike and explore more. I will be more of me.

Part scared, part excited!

)

Environmentalist, Minimalist, Explorer. Living with #3thingsless every day for at least a year.

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