Cheryl Miller, a Lawrence life coach, feels that removing clutter from your house and purchasing used items rather than new are two simple ways of taking a proactive role in a greener lifestyle.

One day last year, Dave Bruno looked around his house and realized that for a man who had spent years trying to live simply, he had an incredible amount of “stuff.”

“It got me motivated to come up with this harebrained idea. Is it possible to exist in American suburbia and truly not have a lot of excessive stuff?” he said.

And so the great purge began.

Out went the yoga mat, train collection, Harry Potter figurine and countless hats, shoes, shirts and jackets.

The challenge was to whittle down his belongings to 100 possessions — and then to live off those possessions for an entire year.

He didn’t count items that were shared by his family, and some things, such as his cook set and library, were grouped as one.

He held on to six T-shirts, one tie, a pair of sneakers, brown shoes, flip-flops and about 90 other things.

The simple life

Six months into the experiment, the San Diego Web editor is surprised at how simple it is to live without.

Sure, he misses the jacket he discarded, and others miss his photos that came from a camera that didn’t make the cut.

But he doesn’t miss the guilt he would feel when looking at the woodworking tools he never got around to using or the bike derailleur he held onto for years as a memento.

Since the challenge began, he’s made about 10 personal purchases. The rule is he has to get rid of something before adding anything new to the list.

“We’ve changed our perspective on what the good life is,” he said.

Bruno, who has blogged about his experience and plans to publish a book on his year of 100 things, is part of the backlash against Americans’ surging consumerism.

And in a world where living green is often coupled with the idea of buying new and improved “environmentally friendly” products, some rank buying less and changing consumer habits as among the most green things you can do.

“(An issue) people who are really pushing stewardship of the Earth will have to address is, ‘Do we really want to call people to simply buy hybrids and change lightbulbs or do we want to call people to consider having just a very different lifestyle completely and find ways to support that kind of lifestyle?'” Bruno said.

Tie to mental health

Lawrence life coach Cheryl Miller said that once people learn how to clear out clutter, there’s a sense of peace that comes with it.

A lifelong pack rat, Miller declutters her belongings once or twice a year.

“Every year I get better. Every year I realize there is less that I need,” she said.

Miller, who counsels people on how to organize their homes, first recommends removing anything that doesn’t belong in the room. Then, decide to throw those items away, give them away or just move them to another room.

For those who have the urge to redecorate, she recommends opting for the more environmental-friendly version of rearranging furniture and updating pillows or curtains instead of buying new furniture.

To the adage, reduce, reuse, recycle, Miller adds refuse (or in other words, don’t buy), repurpose, rethink, recover, restore and repair.

“The less we consume, the less goes into landfills,” she said.

‘Buy Nothing Day’

Lawrence resident Carla Tilghman hasn’t gone to the extreme that Bruno has, but over the years her family has tried to consume less. Each year she gathers with friends the Friday after Thanksgiving to celebrate “Buy Nothing Day,” which coincides with the country’s biggest shopping day of the year. The family buys local produce, uses mugs made by Tilghman’s husband and doesn’t have cable or a dishwasher.

“I think more about what I’m buying. And, I’m not doing as much impulse purchasing,” she said.

The family gives away old clothes, either to donation bins or cousins in Norway, and goes online to post items for free. Tilghman, a weaver and artist, once cleared her studio of projects she never had time to do and supplies she didn’t use. She made $1,000 from the unused items.

Now, when she starts losing track of the stuff she does have, she knows it’s time to purge.

“That’s at the core of the bad side of American consumerism, if I have so many possessions that I can’t even remember what I have, much less put it to use,” Tilghman said. “I just think that is wasteful. If I’m not using it, someone else should be.”