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New Years Minimalism Challenge
13. Jan, 2010 
28 Comments
So it’s not even the middle of January and everyone’s forgotten about their New Years Resolutions? Right?
Wrong! I hope you haven’t either!
How many of you said you wanted to get rid of things? Pare down? Clean out your closet and your mind?
Have you started?
Do it! Join Dave from The Minimalist Path and I on a Minimalist Challenge this month.
In? Good.
The Challenge
From January 15th to February 15th you’re going to be getting rid of one thing every day from your kitchen, closet, computer room, bedroom, car, work. Anywhere that is accumulating clutter and things you don’t need. The purpose here is not to become a minimalist Zen Monk, (if you want to though, give ‘er) but to remove things from our lives that don’t matter.
The idea for this is not to get rid of everything. Yes, this would be very minimalistic to be sitting on a bare floor eating with your hands. Not very practical though. You want to remove things from your life that have little value and leave the big things that mean a lot to you. All those little things take up time, space and money. Wouldn’t you rather spend those on things you love?
Rules
1. You have to plan to get rid of something every day of the challenge. You can take the stuff to wherever it’s going to end up, dump/friends/recycling depot/ shelter, once a week if you like. I understand it’s hard to go every single day.
2. Update your blog/website/doc/wave with things that you’ve thrown away. Try to make an update post somewhere of what you let go every week. Comment here with the link. If you don’t want them cluttering up your blog, email me.
3. Things that can be recycled or donated, have to be. Don’t just throw them in the garbage. People can benefit from used stuff.
4. Check out what Dave has to say about the Challenge on The Minimalist Path.
That’s it. That’s all you have to do. After 30 days you might just create a new habit of getting rid of things you don’t need. Now get minimalizing!
[Update]
If you’ve started a little late, check out the update from Week 1 to see how everyone is doing.
New Years Minimalism Challenge Wrap Up
New Years Minimalism Challenge Week 1
New Years Minimalism Challenge Week 2
My 30 Day Minimalism Challenge
Let’s do this thing….
Good luck everyone
David Damron
The Minimalist Path
I have been chucking/donating at least 27 things a week. I am taking another load to the thrift shop in the morning.
I started this year. It’s getting harder, Which is all the more reason to push ahead…
P.S. http://theminimalistpath.com/2010/01/the-rcthink-tmp-challenge-plus-please-donate/
I accept the challenge. If I get rid of 31 items in one day, will I have met the challenge?
Vita Reid
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Hey Ross,
At the moment I am decluttering my whole house and have only just started on the study, however I am always up for a challenge so what I will do is for next 30 days I will get rid of one thing somewhere else in the house other than the study or a room that I will be currently working on.
I’ll keep ya posted
Greg
Hey Ross,
Nice idea for a 30-day-cleanup-marathon! I was thinking of doing some equal sort of thing by a “5-thing challange”. But I’ll skip that for now and join you guys.
I’ve (somewhat) translated the idea to dutch and placed it on my site.
Grtz!
Rik
Thanks for commenting everyone, I’m excited for this one.
@Dave Def, time to do the awesomeness.
@Lil: Wow 27 things a week? I’m impressed. But you’re not finished until you’re looking at everything in your house going, “Do I really need that?”
@Vita: Yup! I’d say you definitely would have. Could you go longer?
@Greg: Good timing then! I’m excited to hear your updates. My desk is definitely where I’ll be starting. The drawers hide clutter way to well.
@Rik: That’s awesome. I wish I knew dutch. Good to hear you’re up for it. Are you going to put updates on your site?
@Ross: Yup all of my updates will be posted on my own blog. And be happy you don’t know the dutch language: it’s a hard one to learn & speak. Even the natives have trouble with it (and i’ve got an extra handicap: dyslexia).
@Rik: That sounds tough! I’m starting with French then
I’ll be doing weekly updates, I’ll let you know about those to get links to yours.
This is awesome! I’m having surgery so I won’t be going full power for a couple of months but I’ve put it in my outlook calendar to do in April.
Hey all,
I got head start being in Australia.
Day 1 – screwdrivers, yep thats right, that old burred set in the garage that u never use anymore cause you got newer ones – gone!
I update my blog with rest of the week happenings and let u know.
Cheers
Greg
@Ross I’ll update on a weekly base too and I will comment right here in your blog (or upcoming blogs) with a short translation of my (dutch) list. And now: “Lets get started!!”
@Greg that’s awesome. I forgot about you guys having an early start on us over there. I feel like I’m one of the last.
@Rik That sounds good. Post links updates or links to what you can this week. I’ll start another post for week 2 with my updates from week one.
I’m hoping everyone updating what they’re tossing here could inspire some good ideas for others as well. All that junk that’s stored away somewhere? Get it out and do something with it!
I’ve already got a bin of clothes started to be donated and an old jacket went in there today. I never knew how much clothing I had until I got rid of some and still had a lot!
Hey Ross,
My weekly update is now posted up, check it out – http://tinyurl.com/ygamvlp
Cheers
Greg
Hi David,
as promised: here is the link to my site & update of the first week of the “RCThink / TMP Chalenge”.
http://dutchminimalist.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/tmp-rcthink-uitdaging-week-1/
It’s in Dutch, so here is an translated version of the list:
but had to much damage: special trash)
- Laptop harddisk + memory (exchange @ lokale PC shop)
- Ornamental skull (flea market)
- kable gutter (my dad could use it)
- Scouting clothing + badges + small stuff (some wil be used for Carnival – rest goes to an member of my old group)
- Posters (most go to trash, some are donated to a lokale school)
- Pile #1 copied DVD’s (case to Dad, disk to mom (elderly “daycare”))
- My first (self bought) radio (1989/1990) (Did turn on
It’s going quite ok, some times its hard to trow stuff out. For the upcoming week I’ve already got some item in mind.
Greetings,
Rik
Got in on this late, but glad to be on the bandwagon for this project. Started minimizing in Aug 2009, but still a long way to go. I accept this challenge with enthusiasm. January and February are usually my decluttering months anyway as I prepare for my garage sale, and I’ve set aside some things already. I’ll update at the end of the week.
Hey Therresa!
It’s never too late to get on the wagon, just make sure you do everything you can to stay on.
Make sure you check out my first update, with some links to everyone elses: http://rcthink.com/blog/2010/01/new-years-minimalism-challenge-week-1/
Good Luck!