The minimalism as an idea of not being attached to unnecessary thing - not having them - and its most famous slogan "less is more" came to quite by chance.
Once returning home by tram I listened to a random podcast. The tram was noisy and crowded so I didn't hear much but got off with one concept.
It was a 33 days long challenge of "throwing away" - I'm pretty sure it probably has some professional name, but did not hear it. In a nutshell, all the fun is to find things we will get rid of for the next days (throw away, give away or sell - doesn't matter, just get rid of it).
The catch is that we have to do it according to a simple rule: on the first day one thing, the second two things, the third three and so on. Number of days (33) is quite ambivalent and probably given only because some value had to be given, also it's easy to remember.
I liked the whole idea for a very prosaic reason. Over two years ago - preparing for our daughter's birth - we renovated and partially rebuilt our apartment. Thereby a spare room we used to have became a children's room - previously serving as a handy storage for everything, therefore we were overwhelmed by the multiplicity of things. Furthermore during that time, my mother as a grandma "in spe", started to bear countless thing for her future granddaughter - toys and clothes (she was so excited about her new title and function that our child, not even born yet, already had over sixty wearing hats - counted). As future parents we also had to buy children's furniture, crib, changing table and various other equipment. Long story short - there were things, things everywhere! Some of them needed, others quite unnecessary.
No wonder then that two years after renovation we still have not been able to arrange everything. Many things just do not have anywhere to insert. Others (e.g. several dozen of textbooks for swimming in Russian - I read poorly in this language) are completely randomly brought home. Just because of the lack of description on cardboard boxes. One word - chaos. An apartment full of random stuff, the same in the basement, not to mention boxes left for storage at different family members.
All this led to the situation, when several times a week I had to move some things between the apartment, basement, parents' house and so on. Started to feel like it's my main job at free time, because of no space to keep it all and simultaneously just needing something that I took away previously. All that time having the apartment fulfilled with dozen of things I do not need or use at all. I literally drowned in things.
No one will be surprised that the concept of getting rid of over five hundred items in a little over a month sounded like something beautiful to me. After a short conversation with my wife, we decided to give it a try.
The effect surprised me for several reasons, but let's describe it step by step.
We didn't make it to the end, somewhere around the 23rd day we went on a short vacation and never returned to our interrupted job. Still, it gives over 276 things thrown away!
The first days were trivial. It was enough to look around to immediately find something to throw away. This way, in a week we managed to clean the window sills, shelves in the corridors and several drawers.
In the second week, it started to get harder, the field of the game had to get bigger - balcony and the clothing shelves full of worn but "still good" clothes. Towards the end, I even had start cleaning the basement - old cables, tires and other "inherited from the father-in-law" things.
The third week and several days of the fourth were a real challenge. Of course it could have been easier, but we have added two extra rules:
- a box of the same or similar objects we counted as one thing, regardless of how many of them were inside
- We do not throw away books. We just don't.
Anyway the last days were very difficult. From sunrise till dusk each of us kept looking for anything that we could get rid of. And it was still not enough. The task really got us tired and probably it is why we have never returned to the interrupted job.
So, what are the conclusions from our first adventure with minimalism?
We quickly learned that we had previously accumulated dozens of completely unnecessary items. Items do not even remember! Maybe I should have been taking notes, now I regret, a little, that I didn't do it. Anyway at least 270 things or sets of things have been thrown away and I can't even recall myself what it was!
I remember some collections of beer pads, a pile of toys from surprise eggs, cracked plastic flower pots, an old tire and a few more, but at best it's a dozen of items. And all the rest? I do not know and I do not remember it. Looks like I haven't needed any of them, but I used to keep it, clean it, carry it between different locations. I can't even explain why I used to do it because I do not remember most of these things!
Our apartment became more spacious, we felt less overwhelmed and, what's more important, we started to pay attention to what we mindlessly storage.
On the other hand, such a quick "cleaning" - to have a list fulfilled before the dusk - is not easy and can make you tired. Especially if the level of difficulty grows exponentially. Due to instilled instincts (e.g. "do not throw away books") or a regret of wasting something that many people could still use and enjoy, we kept a lot of things. Things that we do not use anymore or even never have used at all. Things that take up valuable space just because we didn't have time to organize an efficient distribution or sale. Everything we threw out landed in the trash container. It caused a sensation of waste and kept us at half-speed.
Furthermore the vacant space began to be filled up with the new-old stuff imported back from family. Enriched with new knowledge, we decided to deal with it more carefully. With no hurry or an obligatory amount.
However, I will write about it next time.
Till then I sincerely encourage you to try similar challenge. Maybe in a shorter period, how about two weeks? Still, if you conscientiously follow the rules, you will get rid of over 100 things within 14 days! And most likely you will never feel the lack.