If you’re thinking of adopting a more minimalist lifestyle for 2012, take a page from the playbook of Andrew Hyde, an itinerant blogger-cum-interface designer who owns only 15 items. Currently residing in New York City—he’s lived everywhere from Colorado to Rhode Island—Hyde sold most of his worldly possessions in 2010, when he set off to circumnavigate the globe by hopping from city to city. Although, to our immense relief, he doesn’t count socks or underpants, Hyde’s ability to pare down demonstrates remarkable and praiseworthy restraint. The average woman, after all, owns 20 pairs of shoes, 11 of which she never wears.

So what 15 things can a 21st century man of the world not live without?
-Arc’teryx backpack
-Nau shirt
-Mammut rain jacket
-Arc’teryx T-shirt
-Patagonia running shorts
-A quick-dry towel
-Nau wool jacket
-Nau dress shirt
-Patagonia jeans
-Toiletry kit
-Smith sunglasses
-Running shoes
-Wallet
-MacBook Air
-iPhone 3GS

“Once you get used to simplicity, the complex normality others have becomes the audacious thing,” Hyde says.

With only three shirts and a single pair of jeans to choose from, Hyde doesn’t need to ruminate at length on what to wear each morning. Nor is he likely to treat his belongings as carelessly as he might if he owned multiple versions of everything. “Minimalism is equally easy as it is boring to do,” he writes on his blog. “What shirt today? The one I didn’t wear yesterday. Once you get used to simplicity, the complex normality others have becomes the audacious thing.”