Could you live with just 100 things?

After a week's vacation, I'm wondering why it feels so good to reduce my needs to the amount I can fit into a small suitcase. Maybe I need to downsize.

Dave Bruno set himself a challenge to pare down his possessions to only 100 things. He wanted to fight American-style consumerism and live a life of simplicity, characterized by joyfulness and thoughtfulness, as he says at his blog, GuyNamedDave.

The challenge, which lasted a year, is chronicled in a paperback book, The 100 Thing Challenge: How to I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade my Life and Regained my Soul.

Most readers loved the book, but some found it disappointing, according to Amazon reviews. I found it enjoyable, since I like personal stories of transformation.But it does feel padded in spots.

Part of the fun lies in counting. Are socks one thing or two things? What about cutlery and dishes? What about books?

Dave decided to count some items in groups, not individually, and to include only his personal stuff, not his wife's and children's stuff.

The challenge gave him many opportunities to practice humility, he says.And learning humility doesn't have to be humiliating.

"I was able to get a better grip on what's possible. After all the fancy pens, the trains and the woodworking tools were gone. After all the phantasmal things were purged from my life. After I got used to living without much stuff and was able to rest without buying new things. After all that, I got a better view of a more realistic life than the dream life of American-style consumerism."

No longer a slave to stuff, no longer striving for perfection and satisfaction at the mall, he hopes to inspire others to try their own challenges, using their own rules and his three-word framework: Reduce. Refuse. Rejigger.

If you wish you had more time to devote to downsizing, you'll enjoy his saga of radically shrinking his stuff while juggling a business and a day job and a family of three young daughters. His blog lives on long after the 100 thing challenge ended in November 2009. He also runs stories of Not-A-Lot that readers send in.

As for me, I'm filling up green garbage bags to take to the Goodwill store. It's time to declutter, especially after a vacation makes me realize I can happily live with less.