In November, I decided to challenge myself and played the Minimalism Game (created by The Minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus). The rules are that on the first day of the month, you get rid of one object...on the second day, you get rid of two items and so on for the whole month.
My husband and I have tried to reduce our belongings. We moved four times in two years, and seeing all of our belongings in boxes, and paying for those boxes to be stored and moved, really helped us to get rid of items not needed. We were doing pretty good at minimizing...then we had Layla. The amount of things that started coming back into our lives increased. How can someone so little need so much? The clothes, toys, books, bottles, things to be stored for later, just adds up. Of course, we have also accumulated other items for the house and ourselves since Layla's birth.
I wasn't sure how I would do, so I made myself accountable by posting on my Instagram account daily. Of course, the first few days were easy! "I could do this", I thought..."no biggie." As the days went on, it got increasingly difficult. Some days were more of a challenge than others depending on how busy I was and what area of the house I was looking at. The easiest things were Layla's old clothes that I could pass on to a friend who has a baby. The hardest things were books and my own clothes. Right towards the end of the month, just when I was worried I couldn't find anything else, I found a box of buttons! That helped for a few days. To be honest, I don't think I would have kept up with it if I wasn't posting on Instagram!
The minsgame really helped get things out of the door (465 items to be exact). The scary thing is I still look around and see others that I don't need. I can't even remember 99% of what we got rid of, and the only thing I regretted was a sudoku book that I hadn't used in over 3 years. I did replace that with another one.
This game is a great challenge and really showed me how much we have and how little we truly use and need.
Check out The Minimalists website (www.theminimalists.com) and their documentary on Netflix for inspiration!
