I tried the 30-Day Minimalism Game and here’s what happened

by Lucy Moore | 4 September 2019

Having listened to many a podcast by The Minimalists, the 30-Day Minimalism Game has certainly come up a few times, however I’ve never thought to play it because I consider my home to be fairly minimalist anyway.

Minimalism on Female First

With that said, I thought it would be interesting to find out if I could get rid of even more when I put my mind to it and turned it into a game.

As it was the beginning of a new month it seemed like the perfect time to start. Plus, it’s only a few months until Christmas so I felt that I needed to take stock of what we already had before the next influx of stuff inevitably arrived in our home.

I have been reading lots of books on decluttering and minimalism so I felt as prepared as I could be, and I was more geared up than ever.

Now, I am going to break a few rules here- the game states that you have to partner up with someone- I am going to do this alone. I also won’t be ridding my home of the things by the end of each day- I will be putting them in a bag to take to the charity shop at the end of the week as this fits in better with my lifestyle. I already take a bag of stuff to the charity shop every week, so this is more in-keeping with my usual routine.

I worked out that in week one I would have to get rid of 28 items, week two- 77 items, week three 126 items and week four- 234. This is the same number of things people will get rid of if they do it every day, so I am still within the rules of the game in that sense.

The website states that anything goes including:

Collectables, decorations, kitchenware, electronics, furniture, bedding, clothes towels and tools- to name a few.

So here goes:

Week 1: Week one was simple for me as I already had just over 28 items in my bag earmarked for the charity shop. I counted them all out and put aside anything over that number in another bag for the following week’s purge.

The haul included; books, pillowcases, storage solutions, hair products, a DVD and some surplus pens.

I had no sentimental attachment to any of these items as I have a one in one out rules for books so as soon as I have read a book- it goes onto the donation pile before I order another.

The extra pillowcases were from a time when I thought I would change my pillowcases every day- you can image how long that lasted!

The hair products were given to me for free and they made my hair feel greasy and flat, so these were a no brainer.

We have so many pens that we could afford to offload those that we never use to write with.

I bought the storage solutions when I tried to organize rather than minimise which just made my things look pretty but didn’t help my clutter problem.

The DVD was something we watched but had no intention of watching again so that had to go to a new home.

All in all, entirely painless and a good start. I’m just hoping that week two is just as easy!

28 items gone.

Week 2: Week two wasn’t as painful as I anticipated. I got rid of some food items, drinks, party items, cards, ornaments, clothes and books.

I cleaned out my kitchen cupboards and found lots of food that we were never going to eat, so I donated it to a local food bank. It felt really food to give this away more than anything else because I know it will be helping someone in need.

The ornaments had been stashed in a cupboard, never to see the light of day and I thought I was doing them an injustice by not displaying them proudly. Now someone else can enjoy looking at them. The cards had been stuffed in a drawer after the celebrations were over and never put in the recycling, so I popped them out in the blue bin and only kept the ones that were special.

The clothes were items that had been worn but didn’t sit right on the body. A couple still had their tags on and no longer fit.

Finally, the party items included a few plates and serviettes that were left over from a recent party but there wasn’t enough to make a set for the next celebration, so I recycled these too.

77 items packed up and sent to the charity shop and the food bank.

Week 3: I thought week three was going to be much harder than the first two- the thought of finding 126 items seemed like a tall order, however once I got going, I found lots of small, multiple items that needed to be decluttered.

This week, I found balloons, balloon weights, damaged photographs, damaged tops, a damaged toy, ribbon, pens, paperwork, a keyring and some tights.

Again, more things left over from times of celebration in such quantities that we will never need them again.

The photographs were all stuck together and were tearing when I tried to separate them, but we have a digital backup of each, so they aren’t lost forever.

The clothes I got rid of had stains on them that I had tried several times to remove with no success.

The toy was broken from the moment we opened it, so it was no good to anyone.

I don’t wear tights anymore- so these seemed unnecessary to have in my underwear drawer.

I prefer not to have any keyrings on my keys as I find it makes the bundle bigger than it needs to be.

When I looked through my cupboard, I thought all my paperwork was all up to date- but surprisingly, there were still a few things lurking in the file that needed shredding.

Finally, I sent the ribbon on its way because I’m not the type of person to make my gifts look pretty. I like to wrap them and maybe put them in a gift bag, but this is where it ends. I don’t like to spend hours tying ribbon around something that is only going to get ripped off anyway. But that’s just me.

126 items successfully decluttered.

Week 4: This week, knowing that I had to get rid of the most- 234 items- I tackled the worst area of our home- the attic. There is so much stuff up there, I could do the game just on this space alone- but unfortunately- most of it doesn’t belong to me. Rule number one of minimising- don’t get rid of other people’s stuff!

The items that left our home included Christmas decorations, Halloween decorations, photographs and ornaments.

I’ve decided that this year at Christmastime, I am only going to put out the decorations that mean something rather than just cluttering our home with any old festive related fare. I kept Christmas photographs, personalised baubles, personalised cushions and decorations but said goodbye to anything that was bought because it matched out décor or… just because.

The same went for Halloween stuff, there was a candle holder (candles frighten me after I nearly set fire to my bedroom when I was little, so this was an easy choice) and a handful of paper plates and serviettes that had gone damp in the loft.

There were more papers hiding up there (of course) -paper gets everywhere- which went into the shredder.

The most satisfying part of this week was going through my photographs. There were so many that they made up most of the final number. I shredded any copies that I knew were digitised and backed up and got rid of multiples. Of course, I kept the ones that are irreplaceable- pictures that were printed from a disposable camera or back before digital cameras. It was wonderful to look through these again and finally put them in order. My mood was instantly lifted when this task was complete.

Finally, there were a couple of ornaments that went into the donation pile that were mixed up in our Christmas stuff for some reason.

234 items donated or recycled.

In conclusion: When you have a specific number to work towards, it helps you to be more decisive when getting rid of things. I found that because I was doing it in weekly chunks rather than a day at a time, I was even more ruthless because I had to get rid of all those things in one sitting.

Plus, when you have a one year old, you must do everything fast as it won’t be long before they wake from their nap or need something from you.

It’s surprising how many small things you accumulate that can go towards your goal, namely multiples of things that you would never be able to use up in your lifetime like pens for instance. Why are there so many pens in the world?!

The scary thing is, I could probably go through my house and do this challenge again. Once you count your belongings, it really hits home just how much stuff you have. Even when I thought I lived a pretty minimal existence anyway. I am tempted to do a 30-day minimalist game on my digital clutter as I know that I will hit the target easily!

I urge anyone to do this challenge because it makes you focus and have a structure to your decluttering rather than just doing it as and when. I can appreciate why it has gained such momentum on social media because it’s rather addictive once you get going. The tricky bit is keeping count of the things!