One weekend Dave Bruno and his family did a major house cleanup and then donated several bags of unneeded items to the local Goodwill store.“After we were done, I looked around and realized that I still had way too much stuff,” says Bruno, “It occurred to me that maybe I wanted to live simple but in reality I behaved differently.” That realization prompted the 39-year-old father of three to try an experiment, “The 100 Thing Challenge.
某个周末，戴夫•布鲁诺与家人给房子来了一次大扫除，将几袋不需要的物品捐赠给当地的慈善商店。“我们清理完毕后，我环顾四周，还是觉得家里的东西太多了，”布鲁诺说，“看来也许我想过得简单一点，但是现实上却不然。”这个觉悟促使这位有三个小孩的39岁父亲进行了一项名叫“百物生存挑战”的试验。”
With the goal of breaking free of what he calls a “bad habit of consumerism,” Bruno vowed in 2008 to live for one year with just 100 personal items. He whittled down his possessions to 94 items, including a Bible, laptop, guitar, wedding ring, car and clothes.He created some guidelines for the experiment since his wife and daughters did not participate—family-shared and household items did not count as personal items. He also grouped together some basic things such as underwear and socks. Bruno began blogging about his new no-frills lifestyle and eventually wrote a book, The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life, and Regained My Soul.
以挣脱他称之为“消费主义的坏习惯”为目标，2008年，布鲁诺立誓在这一年里只靠100件个人物品生活。他将其个人所有物削减至94样，包括一本《圣经》、一部手提电脑、一把吉他、一枚婚戒、一辆汽车及衣服等。因为他的妻子和女儿们没有参与其中，他为这个试验制定了一些指导方针——家庭共享以及家用的物品不归属于个人物品。此外，他将一些诸如内衣、袜子等基本物件集中在一起。布鲁诺开始在博客上记录其极简的新生活方式，最后还写成了一本书——《百物生存挑战：如何丢弃几乎所有东西，重塑生活，重获灵魂》。
Since completing the experiment in November 2009, Bruno has continued to live by the motto of reduce (get rid of some of your stuff), refuse (to get more new stuff), and rejigger (your priorities) and maintains just 110 personal things. “Nearly two years of living with a minimal, though completely adequate, amount of personal possessions, I’m no longer in the habit of consuming for consumption’s sake,” he writes in his blog. “That’s freed me up for all sorts of better endeavors than shopping—like spending time with family and writing a book and scheming about business opportunities.”
自从2009年11月完成了此项试验之后，布鲁诺仍继续秉承下面的格言生活：减少（丢弃你的部分物品）、拒绝（购置更多新东西）、重新安排（你的优先次序），并保持只有110件个人物品。“我过了将近两年只有最低数量个人物品的生活，完全自足无憾，我再也没有为了消费而去消费，”他在其博客中写道，“这让我能够抽出身来做各种各样比购物更有益的事情——例如与家人共度时光、写书和发掘商机。”
Bruno’s project has also inspired others to live minimally, many of whom post their own 100 Thing Challenge updates on YouTube. “The reality is that the 100 Thing Challenge is surprisingly easy,” says Bruno, who works as an online marketing manager. “I’m not saying there were no challenges or disappointments. I miss some things. But not that much. Frankly, it’s far easier to live with less stuff than with excessive clutter.”
布鲁诺的试验也启发了其他人进行最简化生活，许多人都将他们自己的“百物生存挑战”过程发布在YouTube网站上，并及时更新。“事实是，百物生存挑战其实非常简单，”担任网络市场经理的布鲁诺说，“我不是说这没有挑战性或者没有任何遗憾。我也会想念一些东西。但不是那么多。坦白说，相比起过多的混乱，去繁求简的生活容易多了。”
In an interview with SecondAct.com, Bruno offers five ways to start simplifying your life, no matter how much stuff you have:
在接受SecondAct.com网站的采访中，布鲁诺提供了五种途径，让你开始简化自己的生活，无论你有多少东西。
1. Pick a number. Set a goal to limit the amount of items you can have. “As for 100, it was a good round number,” Bruno says. “Fifty things would have put me in the category of hermit, and 150 things would have been too easy.”
1.设定一个数字。定下一个目标，限制你可以拥有的物品数量。“至于100，这是一个很好的整数，”布鲁诺说，“50样东西会使我进入隐士的行列，而150样东西则没有什么难度可言了。”
2. Tackle your closet. “Everyone has more clothes than they need,” he says. He recommends choosing clothes for two weeks—14 different outfits—and then packing the rest away. “After a few weeks, you will not even notice the other stuff is gone.”
2.清理衣柜。“每个人拥有的衣服都比他们需要的多，”他说。他推荐挑选两个星期的衣服——14套不同的衣服——然后将其他的打包拿走。“几个星期之后，你根本不会留意到其他东西不见了。”
3. Break it up. Take a different area of the house each week or month and do the same as with your closet. Paring down items in the kitchen, bathroom and pantry in separate chunks will make an otherwise-daunting task much more approachable.
3.各个击破。每个星期或者每个月针对家里不同的区域，开展跟清理衣柜一样的行动。减少厨房、浴室及食品储藏室的东西并整理分类，会让本来令人却步的工作变得更加容易着手。
4. Get rid of things you “think you’ll need someday.” “It’s not until you start to purge those must-have items that the real benefits of living simply kick in.” If you really want to get something new, get rid of something first.
4.丢弃那些你“认为自己有一天会需要”的东西。“只有你开始清理那些你以为必须拥有的东西时，简单生活的真正益处才会开始显现。”如果你真的想要一些新的东西，那么先丢弃一些东西吧。
5. Be realistic and realize this is a process. Bruno says it took more than six months to get down to 100 things. “This isn’t a weekend activity,” he says. “But my life has changed. I’m no longer consuming irresponsibly. Give yourself the time you’ll need to change your lifestyle. It’s worth it.”
5.现实点，认识到这是一个过程。布鲁诺说，实现将个人物品缩减为100样东西的目标需要6个多月。“这不是周末活动，”他说，“但是我的生活因此而改变。我不再不负责任地消费。给自己一些过渡时间去改变你的生活方式吧。绝对值得。”