"Minimalism Game Day 1: Among other things, these little glasses made their way into the growing Yard Sale stash in my garage. Now to pick a sunny weekend to sell our junk! #minsgame"
And shared this link: The Minimalist Game!
I am always up for getting rid of stuff. It's seriously one of my favorite things to do. I love it so much, I do it as a stress-reliever: my husband jokes that he can tell how bad my day was based on how many bags of stuff are sitting inside the door, waiting to get donated somewhere.
So when my dear friend gave me an opportunity to join her in a game that is actually getting rid of stuff? I was IN.
It's a simple game. You get rid of one thing on the first day of the month. Two things on the second, etc. It gets pretty fun (and maybe a little challenging?) when you're tossing 27 items on the 27th day. All told, you'll be rid of around 500 individual things by the end of the month.
You can donate it, you can give it to a friend, you can throw it away. It just has to leave your house. You're supposed to get a friend or two to join you, and see how long you can each keep up. Most days I chose an area of my house and found that many items to get rid of, although sometimes I just grabbed a few here and there to come up with the right number. Here's how my month went:
Day 1: 5 bags of clothes (I actually didn't even know about the game til the 2nd, but I already had donated all those clothes on the 1st, so I just counted them as my first day)
Day 2: 2 purses - one from each daughter
Day 3: metal recycling day! 2 rusty bikes and 1 cracked dryer drum
Day 4: 4 CDs
Day 5: 5 partial puzzles and board games - I finally accepted that we're never finding those pieces
Day 6: decorative junk - 2 glass dishes, 1 glass vase, 1 bag of potpourri (???), 2 throw pillows
Day 7: kitchen day: 1 old pot I never use, several bowls I didn't remember we owned
Day 8: 8 Baby-related items: 1 high chair booster, 1 crib mobile, 1 shopping cart seat cover, 1 Bumbo tray (don't have the Bumbo anymore, found the tray in the closet), 1 bottle, 2 crib sheets (I don't need a million anymore; I only have one baby in a crib) 1 box of disposable diapers (these I returned to the store - I'd already bought them ahead before I started using cloth diapers)
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| One of many, many bags of clothes that left my house this month. |
Day 9: 9 used notebooks - found in my kids' backpacks from the school year
Day 10: 10 old magazines
Day 11: 11 super old computer games
Day 12: 12 articles of clothing, mostly things my kids have no matches for - they have plenty of clothes!
Day 13: I rearranged my canned goods and came up with 13 empty cardboard trays
Day 14: 14 way-too-holey towels from my kitchen
Day 15: 13 items of clothing from my closet, and 2 from my husband's
Day 16: 16 books
Day 17: 17 assorted items from around the house including 1 xBox game that was way too violent for my kids, and way too stupid for my husband
Day 18: 18 rusty canning rings - I only have about 200 left...
Day 19: 11 plastic lids without matching containers, 8 plastic containers without matching lids
Day 20: I cleaned out the perennial "junk drawer", and threw out a grocery bag of garbage
Day 21: 21 random electronic cords
Day 22: 22 assorted items from the bathroom including 1 set of hot rollers - last used in 2003 - what the heck have I been keeping them for?
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| I don't store my jars with lids on - why do have so many then? |
Day 23: 23 things from my kitchen closet including 2 bags and 3 belts from a vacuum I no longer own
Day 24: 24 baby clothes
Day 25: 25 assorted things from around the house including 1 dead houseplant
Day 26: cleaned out the toy shelves - approximately 1 million odds and end of toys
Day 27: 1 box full of papers - there were hundreds of papers, so I feel good about calling it 27
Day 28: 28 items of clothing from my kids' dressers
Day 29: 19 completely random assorted items (I'm running out of obvious choices here!) including an old pair of hand-me-down golf shoes my husband never wore and a totally broken down beach hat
Day 30: 30 baby clothes - I "cheated" and saved these from day 24... I'm running out of stuff! :)
Day 31: I couldn't find more stuff in my house, so I went to the car - I didn't count all the pens, loose change, random lego pieces, hair bands, empty water bottles, etc, but I'm absolutely positive it was at least thirty-one
And a partridge in a pear tree...
Yikes. That was actually a little bit scary, letting all my "stuff" hang out. Some of it was actual garbage (cracked dryer drum, dead houseplant), some was stuff that I was just tired of (throw pillows), and some was things that had outgrown their usefulness here, but could help someone else out (vacuum bags and clothes). Some was hard to get rid of, some I was glad to see go. I actually did this in July, but didn't finish writing it up til just now. And I'm happy to report that I haven't missed even one of those 500+ items in that list up there.
If I can do it, so can you! It's a new month - who's in?
Kate
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