They are what they own

Characters can own things. They have houses, condos, apartments, shacks, campsites, backpacks, castles, towers -- in short, they have places where they live. Try writing a story that describes the character(s) only by the things they own. Feel free to simply create a list, or join the descriptions of the objects themselves with descriptions of where those items are or how the character came to posses them.

For example:

I cursed aloud as the boiling coffee burnt my lip. Dropping my navy mug, I spilled the instant coffee I'd just made onto my computer's keyboard. The blinking LEDs quickly winked out; the keyboard was certainly wrecked. Black coffee wet the shoes and socks of my Tiny Spongebob plushy and stained the screen cleaning cloth I sat next to the monitor. I grabbed a dirty t-shirt from the floor and kept the liquid away from my accumulated collection of Kinder surprise toys and Starcraft CD case.

Condemning the desk, I grabbed each item already swimming in coffee and wiped them off. The leather case of my glasses, the engraved pen my sister had bought for me as a Christmas gift, my brother's measuring tape, the camping knife I use to open letters and scare off visitors, the coffee mug from yesterday, the coffee mug from the day before that and the spoon I had used to stir them all each had their turn being carefully dried and stacked on the bookcase next to my desk. I walked off the grab a towel from the bathroom hamper, leaving the coffee and my desk time to get acquainted.


In case you're wondering: no, that didn't actually happen, at least not today; and yes, that is essentially my writing desk.