Minimalism Game

My husband and I did it. We successfully completed the 30-Day Minimalism Game. This game started with Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, a.k.a. the Minimalists. The object of this game is to get rid of stuff all month long. Starting on day one, get rid of one thing. On day two, get rid of two things. On day three, get rid of three things, and so on. If you make it to day 30 you will get rid of 465 things. My husband and I played in the month of June 2016. We each got rid of 465 things.

Our home is lighter by 930 things, and this is how we did it. First, we took the game seriously. We called it a challenge. My husband likes a challenge. Since I knew he wouldn’t give up, neither would I. We encouraged and motivated each other.  This was very helpful. If you play the minimalism game, I recommend doing it with someone who will not give up when the going gets tough. Take it from me, the going does get tough.

For me it got tough around day 23. At this point I still had to get rid of 212 things, but I didn’t let that get me down. I kept my eye on the daily goal. I did this by keeping a tally sheet. We wrote down each item we got rid of. It was easy to forget, and this helped us keep track. When I would read the list of items on our tally sheet, I would feel happy about our progress. It would motivate me to keep going. If you play the minimalism game, I recommend writing down everything you give away.

Keeping a tally of what we got rid of helped us in another way. It helped us keep track of what area we hadn’t tackled yet. It helped us be thorough and methodical. By doing this we noticed that we missed a few cupboards in the kitchen. When we went back to look through them we got rid of 15 more things. Going through every cupboard, shelf, nook, and cranny helped us complete the game. Even if we thought we wouldn’t get rid of anything in a specific spot, we checked it to be sure. If you play the minimalism game, I recommend going through everything in your home, including the basement, attic, and garage.

We realized early in the month that going through everything we own was going to take a lot of time and effort, especially if we counted paper. (That’s a whole other story.) Our tally sheet helped us. Setting up a collection spot also helped us.  Our collection spot was our dinning room table. We would place items on the table whenever we came across something we were ready to part with. Then we would write it on our tally sheet. On the weekends we would box things up and deliver them to specific donation locations. (Want to see where all the stuff went?) This process helped us complete the game. If you play the minimalism game, I recommend setting up a collection spot and donating stuff.

The 30-Day Minimalism Game was a challenge. It did take a lot of time. It did take a lot of effort, but to us it was worth it. We’re very happy that our home is lighter by 930 things. Everyone asks us if it’s noticeable that we got rid of all that stuff. I’d say, YES.

©July 2016  Janine Cavanaugh, Certified Professional Organizer,  All rights reserved