In 2008 I read a blog post by Mark Pilgrim which made a profound impact on me, although I didn't realise it at the time. It was

  1. Stop buying stuff you don’t need
  2. Pay off all your credit cards
  3. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit in your house/apartment (storage lockers, etc.)
  4. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit on the first floor of your house (attic, garage, etc.)
  5. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit in one room of your house
  6. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit in a suitcase
  7. Get rid of all the stuff that doesn’t fit in a backpack
  8. Get rid of the backpack

At the time I first read it, I think I could see (and concur) with the logic behind the first few points, but not further. Revisiting it now I can agree much further along the list and I'm wondering if I'm brave enough to get to the last step, or anywhere near it.

Mark was obviously going on a journey, and another stopping-off point for him on that journey was to delete his entire online persona, which is why I've linked to the Wayback Machine copy of the blog post.