Nightstand light with marbles powered by a 9 volt battery

Find a friend or family member. Someone who’s willing to get rid of some of their excess stuff. This month, each of you must get rid of one thing on the first day of the month. On the second, two things. Three items on the third. So forth, and so on. Anything can go! Clothes, furniture, electronics, tools, decorations, etc. Donate, sell, or trash. Whatever you do, each material possession must be out of your house—and out of your life—by midnight each day.

It’s an easy game at first. However, it starts getting challenging by week two, when you’re both jettisoning more than a dozen items each day. Whoever can keep it going the longest wins. You both win if you can make it all month. Bonus points if you play with more than two people.

via the minimalists

What Did I Learn?

Finally retired the Tron Costume

Tron Costume

I just finished hauling out another days worth of stuff from my house, another load of things that I had been holding onto for quite some time for one reason or another but I didn't really need. It all just seemed to be clutter and junk in my life that I wasn't going to use but I had a hard time getting rid of. Last month I decided to play the Minimalist Game, for those of you that don't know the game I will explain the rules once again:Like it says in the description, it's easy at first, until it gets really challenging during the second week. I think it was somewhere around day 8 where I started thinking, oh shit, all the easy stuff is gone, I'm going to have to fall back on what I was "saving" for the end (old clothes), and I'm barely just beginning. The funny thing is, each time I got to a point where I didn't know what I was going to get rid of next I looked around and really thought about it and I could always find stuff I didn't really need. Sometimes the hard part was just figuring out how to get rid of it. If there was a decent monetary value to the item that's when it got tricky. I typically strayed away from those items since selling things on craigslist takes more time and one at a time was not going to get me far with my daily goals.I had a hard time throwing out the art supplies that I intended to make something with. So for this challenge, I counted the items that I used as things that were purged from my house even though they did not completely disappear. As seen in the picture above, I made a nightstand light made out of a cigar box and marbles, the box is filled with a hard resin coating so the marbles and the light inside cannot move. It is all powered by a 9 volt battery that is hooked to a switch that I fixed to the side of the box. Technically the marbles did not leave my house, but the bottles that were holding the unused resin were thrown out after so that counted as a purged item. When I started that project (years ago) I didn't know exactly what I would fill the box with, just that I wanted a light and a resin coating. I think the motivation of throwing out (and wasting) my supplies was the trick I needed to finally putting it all together.I still have a couple of items that I am counting as purged even though they are still technically in my house. I have a fish tank along with fish supplies that is awaiting a donation pickup.I learned pretty quickly that there's a lot ofthat I have that I just don't need. And most of it is stuff that I never needed and could have done without to begin with. I think that this game was a real eye opener for my consumption habits and I hope that because of this I will think about it more in the future when I am considering purchasing things.I also have a hard time getting rid of things that I think Iuse in the future. For example, I had an entire drawer dedicated to miscellaneous cables for electronics, perhaps 2 times in the past 8 years that drawer has helped me out, but for the most part it's just a place for stuff that I could have gotten rid of a long time ago. From now on I'm going to think before I store stuff for unknown periods of time.I also learned that I when it comes to clothes I have a hard time throwing things out. If it still fits and it doesn't have major holes in it, I will keep it because I can still wear it. What was once about 3.5 drawers full of t-shirts has been reduced to 2 drawers. This doesn't count the multiple drawers of "undershirts" that I have acquired for my work wardrobe over the years. I also came to the realization that each year my parents will buy me new undershirts whether I need them or not, and since I don't throw things out if I can still wear them... I had waaaay to many of them. This has been cut in half too.In case you were interested in what all I got rid of here is the full list:﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿4x Leftover Paint, 2x Leftover Resin, Bottle Pour Spout, Travel Waterproof Wallet, Elmer's Glue, rubber snake, glass dish soap bottle, backpack, watch box, automatic fish feeder, fish food, charcoal, giant gummy bunny, extra dresser hinge, water bottle, string of Christmas lights, dustoff, wi-fi antenna, dress shoes, travel book, paint brush, 18x pairs of socks, 6x pairs of shorts, 10x pairs of underwear, 10x beanies, 7x pants, extension cord, 3x art sketches, costume materials, 3 tie clip boxes, 7x needlepoint supplies, scarf, 2x art supplies, 2x old cellphones, 1 old charger, screen protectors, 11x old computer software, puzzle, card, bookmark, 12x under shirts, Tron costume (6 pieces seen below), old computer battery, planter, gnome lamp, 5x wood shelving, dead ecosphere, 2x dog brushes, dog harness, 2x shoe bags, 17x books, 25x college text books, Computer TV Card, camera, mousepad, wireless network card, 2x cigar boxes, 24x art supplies (used in project), 44x old copies of Vice Magazine, 4x pairs of shoes, portable DVD player, 6x CD's, 2x college notebooks, old pet insurance papers, 3x college posters, Elvis impersonator kit, address book, 4x old work notebooks, art from college, 2x misc. chargers, book, 3x packing tubes, earring box, incense holder, 3x travel alarm clock, box of dreadlocks, old camera, 4x hats, 2x compass, figurine from a friend, 11x misc cables, 4x misc hardware, belt, ipod case, 24x misc cables, 27x t-shirts, belt, 6x misc hardware, sunglasses, 2x old cards, accordion filing folder, Printer, animal carrier case, earring box, 5x Christmas ornaments, flask, 2x duffle bag, boots, 4x jackets, snuggie, blanket, 2x disposable cameras, picture frame, 5x framing hardware, 4x copies of old tax returns, 4x expired medicine, fish tank and supplies x5 (pending pickup)﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿For those of you counting, you may realize that I'm 55 items short of making it to 30 days (stopping on day 29) that's because while I want to get rid of more things I still have a hard time letting go of items I still might use. If you count the amount of stuff that I just threw out and counted as garbage and not part of the challenge I'm sure I would have completed the game. Or then there's things like my last 8 years of old pay stubs. I keep these for some reason, I was told I might need them for something but besides for when I've had to deal with my mortgage I've never needed them. That was a lot of old paperwork to get rid of, but I didn't count that as an item on the list.I highly recommend trying this game. Even if you don't make it a full 30 days it's a very eye opening experience on your personal consumption. To see what you've spent money on that is no longer necessary in your life is very interesting. Even if you only make it 2 weeks you will probably see how much clutter you don't need in your life.So how about you? Do you have a lot ofin your life? Will you try the minimalist game? You don't need to complete it to win :)