Episode 3 - The 30-Day Minialism Challenge

Organize Your Closet And Your Life Will Follow

Wow! We made it to January 1st, 2021!!! Congrats y'all this is truly amazing! What a fitting time to start this challenge! I spoke of the 30-day minimalism challenge in my last podcast and wanted to elaborate on it in this episode. My heroes, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, started the 30 day minimalism challenge as a way to motivate themselves to get rid of all their excess stuff. Try this out for yourself and see how you react to this exercise. I was extremely challenged the first time I did this in May of this year, but then I got kind of addicted to letting go and believe it or not, I did it two more times in July and again in November. As hard as the last one was I'm considering doing this a 4th time!!! That's how addictive and freeing this has become for me.
I will be sharing on my IG page the items that were decluttered. So feel free to check that out for ideas to help you during your challenge. Follow me on IG @rumaten8r1nk and on Twitter @mylifeinflow.

Here’s how it works.

On the first day of the month you eliminate one items Two things on the second day. Three things on the third day. Four things on the fourth day and so on and so on and so on. Find a friend, family member, or coworker who’s willing to minimize their stuff with you. If you can't find anyone, just do this on your own and really challenge yourself. Be your own accountability partner! There's nothing more empowering than keeping a promise to yourself. I know you can do this and you will feel so much better when you are done. I promise you that and as far as the items you are decluttering,

Anything goes!
Collectables.
Decorations.
Kitchenware.
Electronics.
Small appliances.
Furniture.
Bedding.
Clothes.
Towels.
Tools.
Knickknacks.

Whether you donate, sell, or trash your excess, every material possession must be out of your house—and out of your life—by midnight each day. In the vein of efficiency and small carbon footprint, I collected all of my items in a corner of the garage so I could disburse all at the end of the month. I pinned up signs above the piles that let me know if the pile was trash, donate or sell.
I jumped on some neighborhood apps here known as LetGo, Close5 and Nextdoor for the items I wanted to sell. I also sold clothing through ThredUp.com which is an awesome service. I also gave away a lot of items through my local "Buy Nothing" chapter which you can find on Facebook and then lastly I take the rest of the donations to GoodWill or Salvation Army. These two places have become last on my list because it's just better to try to recirculate your excess by resale or direct donations.

It’s an easy game at first and I try hard to get ahead of each day by finding many items at the beginning of the challenge. Soon enough, it grows considerably more challenging day to day as you get to week 3 and week 4. By day 20 I was struggling a little and realized that I have to start really getting rid of the "excess". Excess is all the extras you have of one type of item. Who really needs 20 pairs of jeans or 40 t-shirts or 28 pairs of sweatpants and leggings. Why would anyone have 8 frypans when you can only really use 4 at one time on a regular stove top ? It's things like this that add to the chaos in your kitchen for example. When you have less stuff to manage, it honestly saves you a lot of headache. It's time to downsize all of that.
You can check out my inspiration and my heroes here: https://www.theminimalists.com/game/
Consume less, live more!

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