The WordPress daily blog prompt asks what you would do if you lost all your possessions. This is not something I have come across in coaching, but potentially could, so it is interesting to approach as a thought experiment.

I feel I have some bias I must address before exploring this topic. Over the last two years, I have become interested in Swedish Death Cleaning – a decluttering process of the home to make it easier for others when you are gone. It was popularized in the book ‘The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning’ by Margareta Magnusson. Although a way to make things less stressful for others when you are gone, it can make your home easier to manage and make life simpler and easier for you and your family right now according to some practitioners. For me, it has helped me look at a lot of ‘stuff’ I have accumulated over many years, what is important to me, and what may be more useful for others. I have been able to donate or sell a lot of items that were just gathering dust and it has increased my enjoyment and use of the things that are important to me at present.

So considering what I would do if I lost all my possessions (but assuming I still had my job and income) I know that there are only a few key things I would need to replace for ‘wants’, but quite a few tools, utensils, and appliances for growing or cooking food. A quality bed and quality shoes would be a priority also. However, there will be the irreplaceable. I guess I like to think that some treasured photos that I have backed up digitally would be spared, but I know from living in a rural area if the power goes down you can lose access to anything on a ‘cloud’, and the internet (although Starlink has just been introduced which may get around that issue). If they were lost forever, I guess it would become important to journal everything I could remember of family photographs and heirlooms I want to remember or to pass on.

Now, assuming I lost all possessions and also my job and income. Then I would have to look at asking for help – something that can be difficult, but would be necessary in this case. I am picturing family and close friends and feel I am lucky enough that I do have a handful of people I would be comfortable approaching. If this was not an option, then I would look to aid agencies. If government and non-government organizations have broken down due to some natural or man-made disaster, then the priority would be sourcing shelter, food, water and appropriate clothing for the environment and I am starting to picture Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. Although I would not have possessions I would have skills and knowledge that would hopefully aid me. This raises the question of the value of skills and knowledge compared to possessions. Is it wiser to invest in acquiring knowledge rather than possessions?

Finally, even if I had excellent survival skills and knowledge, at some stage I would want to obtain some possessions. I feel I would like to source a knife, paracord, a tarpaulin, and a flint. However, if it was a disaster situation and society had broken down, I do wonder what I would do to source these items. I like to think I would keep my values, morals, and ethics which are other things that seem more important to invest in than possessions … but perhaps this is easy to say on a full stomach in the comfort of a house. I look forward to reading the responses of others to this daily blog prompt.