I am a minimalist in the making. I say “in making” because I have not managed to get to my targets in one quick move. Playing the minimalism game this December has really accelerated my journey into downsizing a lot.

But before telling you about the game, it is important to give you the background for it. Over the last year, I made several small shifts in my lifestyle to align with the “less is more” philosophy. The reason for me to get attracted to this philosophy is that it helps me reduce stress.

Some of the changes I made in my lifestyle are to monitor my expenses, distractions and toxic relationships.

Expenses

In this process, last year, I decided not to buy clothes for the whole year of 2019. This was mostly successful because I bought hardly 6 to 7 items which I needed. But I realized the loop-hole that I was still accepting clothes as gifts or handouts from family and friends. I prefer to spend on experiences like traveling or recreational sports like running, swimming and cycling. I continued doing them mindfully.

I learned to save money on travel in a big way. But that’s a blog for another time. Running event registrations can also be less expensive if you keep an eye out for people canceling and passing out the bibs. But the number one thing that helped me track my pain areas for expenses was to track expenses for some time and then make a budget. You have no budget, you have no control over the money. Simple as that.

Distractions

I unsubscribed from many youtube channels, websites, cable tv, and streaming services. Amazon prime is my only subscription for entertainment, probably because I prefer ad-free music and quick delivery options that come with it. I stopped watching movies that have average or bad reviews. I silenced all notifications on my phone except calls.

I have moved from using a to-do list and started scheduling every activity in either office calendar or personal. This has helped me hugely focus on the work at hand. Scheduling forces you to prioritize. And prioritizing is the key to handling distractions. It is important to leave space for breaks and recovery so that you don’t feel like a robot moving from one task to another.

Toxic Relationships

I have been dating to find a partner last year, with not much success. This has been a good exercise to understand human psychology though. If ever you needed practice in letting go, I suggest trying dating. You get a chance to meet different kinds of people. Some leave you better and some leave you bitter. But in any case, you learn to appreciate your time and let go.

Last year I have been consciously cutting off people who seemed to bring negative energy into my life. They were sometimes colleagues, sometimes friends and sometimes even family. Where I could not eliminate, I reduced interaction. I did reduce calling people in general to detox from over-connecting. I realized that many small things can be intimated through chats and calls can be avoided. Removing some contacts from my emails, social media and phone was a part of this detox.

THE MINIMALISM GAME

The Minimalism game was pitched by the website “theminimalists.com”. In short, it requires that we discard items. Each person gets rid of one thing on the first day of the month. Two things on the second. Three things on the third. So forth and so on until 30days.  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 total, the game will make us discard 465 items by the end of the month.

Categories that I attacked:

I managed to get rid of items like – an extra Bicycle, Clothes, expired medicines, paper, bags, kitchenware, food items, plastic boxes, blankets, pillow covers, decorations, craft items, books, exercise gear, gadgets, art supplies, plant pots, souvenirs, prayer items, wall hangings, jewelry, cosmetics, watches, toiletries, hair clips, miscellaneous. No furniture or major gadgets were removed because they are already as much as I need. Sometimes I managed to get the item out of the house on the same day and sometimes it made sense to gather and dispose of/pass on in bulk. But either way, I hid it in big bags until I dispose of it. This prevented me from bringing anything back.

Questions I asked myself while deciding to part with things:

1. Is it a need or just a want?
2. Have I used this in the last 3 months?
3. Do I still love using this?
4. Is this a duplicate that hardly gets used?
5. Is it too expensive to replace easily?
6. Is this easy to maintain though I don’t use it?
7. Is it adding value to my life?
8. Do I have an alternative to this?

Questions I asked myself while categorizing to trash/sell/donate:

1. Can my family or friend use it?
2. If not, is it worth the pain to sell it?
3. Is it in decent condition to donate?
4. Can it be recycled in some way?
5. What is the right way to dispose of it?

Lessons learnt

The list of lessons learnt is way too long to be accommodated within this blog. I will link the next blog here which will talk about my learnings from this game. I hope this gave you a fair idea of where I stand on my minimalism journey. Do share your decluttering experience and tips in the comment.