After 28 Days of piling up the stuff I’ve accumulated after years, I’ve tallied up 312 items to remove from my life. The number was never the goal. Recognizing how easy it is to collect what will be nonessential in a short amount of time was what I wanted out of this. Minimalism is a philosophy that some may consider extreme, but I think it can be a beautiful thing. Forget about the stuff for a moment, and focus on what matters.

Practicing Letting Go

Following the Minimalists’ game, I found and removed an incremental item each day. One on day one, two on day two, etc. I was hoping to make it through all 28 days of this trial, but on the 25th I just couldn’t let anything else go.

When I did add items to my list, letting go of so many things without value had been surprisingly cathartic. Especially early on. Most of my early picks I had to question how I ended up with it in the first place. I’ve told friends recently that not having stuff stored under my bed is one of the most satisfying feelings I’ve had in years.

Throughout the duration of the trial, I was swinging back and forth between the idea that I don’t have nearly enough and that I have more stuff that the trial would even come close to addressing. One of the strongest muscles of strengthened over the past few weeks has definitely been quieting the voice in my head that adds value to the junk in my life.

Beyond Stuff

Minimalism doesn’t have to end with just physical stuff, but it can be a philosophy applied to any facet of life.

As mentioned before, the strength in recognizing what things are actually important is what minimalism builds. It’s a muscle that gets worked out every day with regular practice.

If a certain activity or relationship isn’t adding joy or value to my life, I put it on the chopping block. Life’s too short to put ourselves in situations we don’t want to be in. Those that hold up to the scrutiny are those that I believe are the most important thing to be doing or person to be with at that time.

Minimalism: A Lifestyle, Not Just a Game

That’s a wrap for this trial. It has been a blast cleaning out and organizing the things I’ve held on to for years. Now comes the exciting part of actually getting rid of it all from that pile in the corner I’ve been photographing throughout the trial.

The big takeaway I want to emphasize to both you the reader and to myself is that minimalism goes beyond this 4-week trial. Without applying it as a lifelong philosophy, I will find myself in the same place I was before. Luckily, a lot of beliefs I follow build on each other, making each easier to practice as another grows stronger. These include Mustachianism and stoicism.

Next time, I’ll be trying something a little different. I’m going to be shooting for a daily writing goal of 750 words, per the website appropriately named 750words.com. Writing every week has definitely improved my ability, and so I’m interested in what writing every day will do! Give it a try yourself and let me know in the comments how it goes!

As I clear the clutter and free up my mind, I’ve thought a lot about how big of an impact thinking with a minimal mindset has had. For a long time, I’ve seen myself as having a longterm approach to life. I make plans that will benefit me down the road, but until recently I never really had that thinking when it came to the stuff in my life. Exhibit A, the picture at the top of this post. My brother is definitely to thank for this new appreciation.

I wanted to take this post to thank my brother for getting me turned on to Minimalism.

Oh Brother

My brother has long influenced some of the best decisions I’ve made or at least helped open the path to them. Joining cross country in long-term led to me doing the same, which is pretty much the root of the life that I’ve lived to this point.

While most of our conversations over the years revolved around quoting cartoons and talking about video games, there is the occasional serious chat that is on a whole new level. From relationships to goals, we’ve had some interesting discussions. One that was particularly crucial to this latest trial was a long conversation about Netflix documentaries, in which of course, Minimalism came up.

When I got home, I gave it a watch, and it resonated with me. It forced me to look around at what I had and think about it.

A couple of months after first watching the documentary, I moved back to Eastern Iowa from the Dallas area. The move made me think about what I was taking with me, and so I took what I thought was important.

Time went on, and Minimalism kind of crept to the back of my mind. I fell back into similar habits before. Using stuff as a frequent stimulant to keep things interesting. New electronics, new trinkets, and new gear for new hobbies filled up the space around me.

This cycle continued for a while. Then, last month, I was back home for a visit. My brother and I were geeking out about Mr. Money Mustache and financial independence philosophy. I was amped.

He then mentioned the director of the Minimalism documentary had a YouTube channel and podcast. As a frequent suggester of possible trials, he also recommended I try out this game. Here we are. As I pile my mountain of the nonessential, I have him to thank.

Throughout the duration of the trial, he’s been updating me with his progress as well. For his sanity, he hasn’t been keeping the pile around as I have, but removing clutter big and small has been going well.

To my surprise, my mom also wanted to participate in this game. I’m sure she hated my post last week regarding sentimental items. We argue about them all the time. It’s been awesome hearing about how things have been going for her. Hopefully decluttering is giving her the good vibes I’ve gotten.

Coming to an End

The other night I was excited and stayed up way too late adding stuff to the pile. I may not make it all the way thru this trial but am not thinking of it as a failure. I’m beyond excited to look around at what remains and know that it survived scrutiny.

Next week will bring this trial to a close. Stop by to at least see the final photo of the accumulated clutter. While you’re here, find out what I’ll be doing next! Leave a comment below with suggestions and I might just give it a try.

The battle against the accrued clutter scattered throughout my apartment. It can be hard to notice how much we really have when boxes are filled and hidden under the bed or in the closet. Sentimental items hide there until we open them. In our modern lives, we often hide most of our clutter online or on hard drives. 

Digging Deeper

In the process of gathering items for the Minimalists’ Challenge, I moved on to sorting through the boxes under my bed. Good advice would tell me not to open the box, as once I have the items in hand letting go becomes much more difficult. The accountability group I meet with were actually just talking about this a few days before I started the challenge.

Going through what I’ve been lugging around from place to place amazed me. I have a stack of DVDs I don’t know if I would ever watch again. Dozens of loose CDs, and even the ones in cases are from a time long past.

Sentimental Sticks Around

Even knowing how nonessential many of these items are I find letting go of some things so damn difficult. I didn’t feel any hesitation when I added my old Xbox 360 to the pile, but I’ll be damned to give away this DVD of Dude Where’s My Car?

Sentimentalism can be applied to things we don’t actually care about. We apply value to the things we own because we get caught up in ownership. An exercise I like to practice when facing this is to ask, “what would I go through or pay to own this again?” This forces me to remove current ownership from the equation. More often than not, the answer boils down to “nothing, because this doesn’t matter.”

Sentimental value can be a difficult thing to work through, especially when it’s not a monetary factor that’s keeping an item around. Another practice that I think helps me is to think of what feeling or memory does the item invoke. I may seem to come off as the type who is saying to get rid of anything and everything. However, I understand the impact some items can have. There are a few things I keep because nothing else can give me the feeling provided.

No one else can tell you what does or doesn’t have sentimental value. It’s up to you to consider the costs of keeping those things around.

Let’s Get Digital

I’m not sure what is all on my old hard drives and flash drives. Like with the boxes under the bed, opening what’s on them is probably a bad idea. Before finding them, I didn’t even have to think what is on there. I’m sure I’ll come across old photos and school projects that might bring back good memories.

Addressing digital clutter can be tough because it’s not physically piling up where you can see it. Because of this, taking on the task of cleaning out old files just hasn’t been enough of a pain point yet. Email, on the other hand, is something I need to clean out several times a week.

Ads, newsletters, and more ads are sent daily. Hitting the unsubscribe button has been satisfying. At first, I found it a bummer to unsubscribe as I send out a weekly newsletter myself. When I thought about it though, I realized how much better it is to think of my email to be sent to only those who want to see it. Those who are excited to see what’s in store for that week.

Another simple digital detox I’ve started is to turn off as many push notifications as possible from smartphone apps. An even better practice is to completely remove unneeded apps. When you aren’t getting a dozen spam notifications an hour, you’d be surprised how much less you will check your phone.

Does this mean I’m telling you to purge everything you have online? Of course not. I mean you probably couldn’t even if you tried. Like with all other elements of this trial, the approach I am taking may not work for you. The key is to reflect on what really matters and remove the things that get in the way.

In the modern age, we are gathering more and more. Some of it we bury in boxes and some of it is coded in ones and zeros. Either way, in order to clear way for the essential, we need to address the clutter.

When you hear the term minimalism, you may have the vision of someone living in a cabin along with one set of clothes who sleeps on the floor cooking the same meal out of a garden every day. Someone doing the absolute minimum to survive, but that’s not really what it is about. Minimalism is about living with the least amount of clutter in your life as possible.

Don’t Worry About Semantics

I wrote a lot on Essentialism a few months back when I was struggling with a lot of projects at once. I’m sure someone will get into the semantics, but I do believe the two are close, if not the same idea. The goal is to live with less, mostly in the form of negative aspects of life. Cut out the clutter, and only the essential things, those that align with your values, will remain.

When it comes to these philosophies the key for me is finding out what is right for you. I don’t think there is a template or checkbox that decides whether you are a minimalist or not. It’s not about titles or status. The important part is to find out what’s important and what’s not. That’s it.

What is Clutter?

Clutter is the stuff that’s not important. Over the past few years, I’ve accumulated a number of random items that I don’t know how or when I came across them. Many of them are things I would never choose to bring home, but once they are there, they are so hard to get rid of.

The biggest contributor to the excess junk I have is from subscription box services. While I do not think these services are seeking to cause harm, sticking with one a little too long can start to build up.

Beyond the items out of these boxes, I have a lot of “future project” type items that have accrued over time. An old keyboard, old books, and an unused toolbox are a few examples from the first room alone.

The small pile has started but will grow exponentially over the next few weeks. As more and more items will be needed each day, I’m never sure if I can keep up or not.

Not Just Physical Space

One of the worst aspects of the clutter we let stick around is the mental capacity we spend on them. Whether we want them to or not, the objects we own take up space in our minds.

We give value to the things we own because we want to justify why we chose ownership in the first place. “Of course this ugly tie has value,” we say, “I like to wear it ironically. Once a year…alone at home.”

Getting rid of the things that don’t matter give us the room both physically and mentally for the things that are truly important. Hell, maybe you really do love that ugly tie. I can’t take that away from you.

A Family Effort

Having my brother and mom going along with the challenge has made things rather interesting. We can talk about the things we’re getting rid of and motivate each other to move past the sentimentality of certain items.

Hearing about the progress made has been great. My brother has found things he didn’t even know how they got to where they were. Ice cube trays in a closet? Sure why not?

I’ll have much more updates as the trial continues, and will be sharing more on the progress of my family as well. What’s one piece of clutter you can remove from your life today?

When you hear the term minimalism, you may have the vision of someone living in a cabin along with one set of clothes who sleeps on the floor cooking the same meal out of a garden every day. Someone doing the absolute minimum to survive, but that’s not really what it is about. Minimalism is about living with the least amount of clutter in your life as possible.

After four weeks of meeting with friends, I learned that I am highly motivated by social factors. Some might say it’s bad to cave into peer pressure, but what about when the results are positive?

Lifelong Impact

With this framework in mind, I understand a majority of the choices and decisions I’ve made throughout my life. For better or worse, a lot of decisions I made were heavily influenced by the people around me.

Throughout my younger years, I followed a lot of my brothers’ footsteps. Their opinion was important to me, because they had insight into what was coming next for me. Most of my socializing was done through the two of them until may later teen years, which influenced my decisions even more.

Peer pressure is often framed as a bad thing. Drugs, alcohol, and the whole nine yards. I’ve had my fair share of these not so good decisions, but plenty of good did result from this influence. Back to my brothers, Brandon joined Boy Scouts and Cross Country, which led me to do so, and Frank played football, which led to me making my own friends when I joined in grade school. There are probably countless good decisions in my life that I’ve made without realizing it based on the influence of others.

A lack of peer pressure is why I put on 30+ pounds after graduating college. There wasn’t a reason beyond my own desire to exercise to get me out. No team goals, no championships, no races, nothing. I consistently made the excuse that I was just taking a much-needed break, but the reality was I just couldn’t find a reason to motivate me. Luckily, my first trial of biking to work has given me a reason to exercise daily.

Stakes Make Progress

It can be easy to put things off until there are consequences for doing so. In my case, those consequences don’t even need to be dire. Simply having to foot the bill for a couple other people has led all of our group to make progress more often than not – we did have one occurrence being treated to breakfast.

This approach may not work for everyone. Some will think this is a waste of time and effort. Some people really can be purely motivated by their own desires. My hat goes off to them, but I’m going to focus on what works for me.

If you’ve ever heard someone say or felt something along the lines of, “You don’t want something if you need incentives to do so,” I implore you to snuff that thinking out. Sometimes when you want something to happen, incentives are exactly what you need.

Progress Makes Perfect

I’ve made more progress in my writing than I have in several months. More importantly, I’ve made consistent progress.

With that progress made, I wanted to experiment with something else. I specifically avoided making writing my goal the past couple of weeks. I worked on the project as a whole. The work was high-level planning and thinking, but I didn’t actually write. Not having a specific writing goal caused me to not write. Even still, I still found excuses and reasons to “put it off until tomorrow.”

Forget what you know about peer pressure. This is a trial that I believe everyone should go thru at some point. You may find that it’s not for you, but I guarantee at least one person from your group will benefit greatly. Don’t wait for someone to invite you. Call up a few friends and organize a meal, coffee, or just even a gathering at your place to talk about goals.

For next time I’ll be scratching an itch that has my attention as of late. Minimalism has been on my mind a lot after I re-watched the Minimalists’ documentary, and my brother got me hooked on the director’s YouTube channel. I am going to be trying their challenge game joined this time by my brother. Tune in next time to see how the first week goes!

One of the key benefits I’ve seen of meeting with an accountability group is treating should do tasks into need to do. I used the group to help me launch progress on a writing project, but it has really forced me to take an inventory on the to-do list I’ve been putting off.

Trim Your To-Do List

When we first met, all of us had wildly different goals. Some professional, some personal, and others a combination of the two. This past week something very different happened. Most of the goals were centered around smaller maintenance tasks. Each of us gained momentum on the goals we had. I was writing and felt I had gotten over the toughest part which was finding the motivation to start. I took a look at what I was putting off.

My goal this week was to finish a book, ironically titled “Finish,” and another book my brother had gifted me this past weekend. I was nearly complete with Finish, but one distraction turned into an excuse turned into several days of not reading straight. Simply adding stakes to finishing the book led to me sitting down and reading the last few chapters in one night. I didn’t plan on the marathon to the end, but I just enjoyed it so much that I wanted to keep reading.

The benefit hasn’t only been to the goals I’ve declared for the week, but also the little things I’ve put off recently. For example, I paid some vehicle registration fees that have been sitting under the books I’ve been stacking up recognizing it as an important item on the to-do list. Trying to come up with a goal for the week has forced me to take inventory of my outstanding tasks, those I both do and don’t want to do.

Want-To-Do Lists

I joked with my friend Dan that “watching six hours of Twin Peaks” counts as progress towards a goal if that’s what your goal is. I said this because the very day before we met, I watched hours of Twin Peaks without moving from the couch. Watching the show has been on my watch list for a couple years now. I have a similar approach with movies and books. Some may consider reading books a chore, others a privilege, while I find myself somewhere in the middle.

Often, I find I need to create tasks for the things I want to do. I need to feel like I am accomplishing something in order to give myself permission to do so. There is no right or wrong answer to tasking out things we want to do. Some may feel it takes away the enjoyment, while I find myself in the opinion that tasks force me to actually do things I enjoy. Drop a comment below and let me know where you stand on this!

Next week will wrap up the “trial” of this group, but I do hope we will keep meeting. If so, they will likely have frequent mentions here keeping me accountable for whatever it is I may be doing. Remember to stop by next week to find out what I’ll be trying out next!

Meeting with the group has helped not only me, but all of the others have expressed how it has positively helped them work on their goals. That part has made it even better than the progress it’s helped me make. I’ve also found myself more willing to seek out social functions and more easily avoiding distractions

A Social Spark

For what’s felt like at least a few weeks, I’ve struggled to find any appeal in social activities. It would be a waste of time and/or money, I would often think. Now that I’m actually going out and spending time with people I enjoy, I see the appeal of doing other things.

A small group of us went for a run earlier this week which was really nice. While I use biking to work as my exercise excuse, there’s something different about a group run. The time just feels better spent. During the run, a few other social events were mentioned, and I found merit in doing any of them. Just getting myself out the door once a week, raised the chance of doing so throughout it.

Putting the Shiny New Idea Aside

A very bad habit of mine for a long time has been to constantly switch projects. I do this not only in my personal life but at work as well. While it may have it’s occasional benefit, more often then not, I find myself churning through projects without putting quality effort into them.

Meeting with this group every week has helped me to put some of these distractions on hold for now. This isn’t to say these ideas don’t have merit, but completing my current goals come first.

These are just a few of the benefits I’m seeing off the bat meeting regularly. If you find yourself with similar problems I’ve had recently, feeling anti-social, unfocused, and unable to finish commitments, seriously give this a try! It has become what I look forward to most each week.

This past Sunday, I had a nice breakfast with friends. When we were wrapping up, I said the real reason I wanted to bring the group together. I was putting together a weekly group to work towards goals and hold each other accountable. In the course of our first meeting I’ve made a few observations, the type and size fo the goal will vary greatly from person to person, stakes are often the missing ingredient, and I needed this group for more than the purpose of accountability.

The Goal Doesn’t Matter

In our small group of four, we have a range of goals. We have a physical/health goal of running every day this week. We have a business/professional goal of making 25 sales calls. Lastly, we have project goals of online streaming and writing. My goal is to finally make progress on a short guide tied to this blog.

The book has been started and changed on and off for months now, and I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to make the long-needed progress. My goal for the week was 1,000 words written. The size of the goal wasn’t important, but the way I looked at it was to shoot for something that would take two or three hours of effort.

But Stakes Do

Completing this guide is something I’ve tried to make progress on multiple times in the past. Using my newsletter subscribers as my accountability group. Making announcements on progress was supposed to get me over the hump of personal distractions and excuses, but I struggled to stay on point each time. What was missing were real tangible consequences.

Saying I’m going to do something is easy, but being truly accountable is a bit more difficult. WIthout consequences, what is the point of having a group? I wanted to keep this simple for now, and so not completing a week’s goal results in having to buy everyone’s meal the following week.

There are a number of apps and services that can assist with this if working alone – BeeMinder and Stikk to name a few. In both examples, monetary loss is the consequence, but in slightly different ways. I’ve considered using both services for different reasons, but haven’t yet. Let me know if you’ve used these and your thoughts on them in the comments below!

Two Birds

For a few weekends in a row, I felt anti-social and unfocused. I didn’t feel like I was making any progress in anything from projects to health to professional goals. Staying in and binging a TV show or playing some video games probably wasn’t the best solution. Putting this group together is not only a good boost for motivation and progress, but also serves as a regular social event to meet with friends.

The coming weeks will prove to see if this is a useful approach or not, for both myself and my group of friends. We’ll be meeting again this weekend. I’m looking forward to both sharing my progress and hearing how everyone else is doing.

 

My most recent trial of shutting down screens was good overall but had some missteps along the way. Successful days were on and off. One I would close us and be in bed well before 11 PM, while others were spent up past midnight. I believe part of what made this so difficult is that I feel more energized as the night passes on. What I need to do now is find better ways to spend that energy in some form of outlet.

Time to Turn In

Throughout the trial, I’ve had to stop gaming with friends early or cut off videos in the middle of watching in order to start winding down at 10 PM. While I definitely was disciplined most nights, some were a struggle. I just needed to fill my brain with the last 5 minutes of that video, or I would use the excuse that it  was a weekend so I could stay up until 1 AM playing games.

Many days, I struggled to fall asleep as early as planned, and so I tried to replace time that was often spent watching videos with a variety of other tasks. I tried puzzles which seemed to only keep me up later. Reading seemed to help, but I often would try to get one last chapter in.

Optimal Working Time

I’ve always felt I’ve been more of a night owl than a morning bird. My peak times to get work done has seemed to be late in the evening.

My hypothesis for my increased energy comes from a second wind after decompressing after a long day. In my high school and college years, this was winding down after class, cross country/track practice, and homework. While my activities have been consolidated into one eight hour block of work I think the results still apply.

Conclusion

Though I struggled to make 10 PM work, I think trying this out, with a range of successful nights, has helped me to realize a better solution long term. I’m going to play around with the no screens after X o’clock format a bit more and see if I can find something that works. Maybe it’s 11, maybe it’s midnight. 10 just seemed too early. By the time I was supposed to be winding down, I’d finished decompressing from work and my brain was ready for more.

With loosened expectations on time, I do think having a stricter daily habit will be the most beneficial. In other words, no more weekend binges. Consistent sleep is more critical than hours slept.

I may not have enjoyed this trial, but it did force me to recognize a few issues with habits I’ve formed. I believe playing with the formula for my sleep habits will help and this was a good launch point.

For the next four weeks, I’ll be trying a tip I learned in the memoir of Felicia Day, a weekly accountability group to focus on actually accomplishing goals. Details to be worked out, but I’ll probably follow the same framework Felicia’s group was, a gathering over brunch. Why fix what isn’t broken?

Not much has happened this week, so I’ll keep this post relatively short. One thing I have observed though seems to be a second wind I tend to get around 8:30-9 PM.

Most days after work, I’ll decompress and wind down by watching some videos or playing some games. Usually, shortly after dinner I’ll get a second wind and start whatever remaining tasks for the night, this post for example.

I’m not sure if it’s just been a particularly heavy work week, in which my mind needs much longer to rest. Recharged around what has lately become bedtime. Or if this is more of a regular experience.

I’ve always felt I was more of a night owl. I feel like I have been far more motivated to do things before bed. Perhaps it’s the idea of finishing certain tasks before a day closes helps push me to get working. Perhaps moving a bedtime farther back than 10 can allow me to leverage this sudden motivation.

Next week, I’ll be wrapping up and moving on to the next trial. If you have any ideas, drop them below in the comments!