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Minimalist Challenge

kyuuei

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Anyone want to do this with me? I'm not going full-on minimalist 100-things-list style. Just trying to reduce what I don't use, re-purpose what just sits around, and find out what works and is important to me.

How it works:

1. I'm going to write a series of goals. I base it on a weekly process for others, but I'll be working on it here on my deployment on a more daily basis and it isn't a hard-fast system.

2. I'll write out tips and trends and things that help organize it all from various books I've been reading on the subject. (For example, when it comes to clothing, I'll write out concepts and such.)

3. Each week will also create a "bin" of things that need to be gotten rid of--you have the following week to find a purpose for the items, or simply give them away, but they need to be out of your life and house after the week's up otherwise you throw them away. (Unless you're going the garage sale route--in which case, get boxes and tape them up so you can't get into them until you have enough selling items.)

4. Just post your results (Pictures would be awesome btw! Seeing everything get reduced..) any way you can. What tips worked or didn't, or if you find it relaxing and awesome or stressful.

I'm sort of combining concepts with this--taking tips out of 15 minutes a day, minimalist books, life changing self-help books, etc.

It isn't going to take long each week to do the things you need to do (proportionate to the amount of stuff you have..)

If you're participating, here are the weekly goals through the month of June.. so you can jump in on any week and report what you've done in the past, or if you're participating with this, etc.

Pre-challenge: Evaluate your goals and your angle of attack
Week 1: Toiletries
Week 2: Entertainment items
Week 3: Storage
Week 4: Clothes
Week 5: Food, Laundry and cleaners.. a catch-all week really.
Week 6: Paperwork
Week 7: Junk drawers
 
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Thalassa

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It's pretty easy to become a minimalist. Just move across the country every few years and maintain a goal of freedom. Having too many possessions and obligations impedes freedom.
 

kyuuei

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It's pretty easy to become a minimalist. Just move across the country every few years and maintain a goal of freedom. Having too many possessions and obligations impedes freedom.

:laugh: it is for some people (like myself!) and I do move around quite frequently to new countries. I mean, I may be a minimalist for some standards, but definitely not in the way I see myself being. The philosophy is a neat concept, and one that I think would help a lot with many aspects of life.

Was just curious if anyone wanted to participate in it with me, I'll be doing it regardless.
 

Lady_X

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ughh i just moved and declared immediately after that i was going minimalistic. stuff stresses me out...just stuff everywhere asking for attention...fuck off boxes of things!
 

ceecee

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*ears perk* Did someone say organizing?
 
G

Ginkgo

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Anyone want to do this with me? I'm not going full-on minimalist 100-things-list style. Just trying to reduce what I don't use, re-purpose what just sits around, and find out what works and is important to me.

How it works:

1. Each week I'll post three goals. (I'll try to be on time for this ;) I wrote a note on my wall in case anyone DOES want to do it.) You have all week to do them, so you can procrastinate, or do them all at once, or split it up to do a little everyday.

2. I'll write out tips and trends and things that help organize it all from various books I've been reading on the subject. (For example, when it comes to clothing, I'll write out concepts and such.)

3. Each week will also create a "bin" of things that need to be gotten rid of--you have the following week to find a purpose for the items, or simply give them away, but they need to be out of your life and house after the week's up otherwise you throw them away. (Unless you're going the garage sale route--in which case, get boxes and tape them up so you can't get into them until you have enough selling items.)

4. Just post your results (Pictures would be awesome btw! Seeing everything get reduced..) any way you can. What tips worked or didn't, or if you find it relaxing and awesome or stressful.

I'm sort of combining concepts with this--taking tips out of 15 minutes a day, minimalist books, life changing self-help books, etc.

It isn't going to take long each week to do the things you need to do (proportionate to the amount of stuff you have..)

Let me know if ya'll want to do it, and I'll start posting goals this Sunday!

Can that include utilities, gas, water, food, electricity, clothes, time spent doing certain activities, etc.?
 

kyuuei

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Can that include utilities, gas, water, food, electricity, clothes, time spent doing certain activities, etc.?

:laugh: Hush you. I should make you do it now just on principle!
 
G

Glycerine

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Sounds neat but I am not sure about how great I would be with follow-through. For example, I just got around throwing makeup that was 5 years old. Lol. I am a lousy J. Maybe if I start out small, it might work. :happy2:
 

mmhmm

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Let me know if ya'll want to do it, and I'll start posting goals this Sunday!

oh i'm totally down for this!

i'm just in the beginning stages of packing
and moving out of my condo. and i've actually
been using the bin strategy to determine what
i'm keeping, what's being given away and what
i'm tossing out. i'm just going through one room
at a time right now.

and omg i'm avoiding my dressing room at all costs.
i have an insane amount stuff that i really need
to figure out what i want to do with it.

omg so down. so glad i found this thread.

*ears perk* Did someone say organizing?

oh man. i have a dream where my everything in
my home has its place. my biggest issue is like
storage organization/solutions.
 

kyuuei

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Sounds neat but I am not sure about how great I would be with follow-through. For example, I just got around throwing makeup that was 5 years old. Lol. I am a lousy J. Maybe if I start out small, it might work. :happy2:

:yes: That's the idea anyways. My weakness is toiletries and clothing. :blush: Its small projects over time that'll add up to something bigger via baby steps.

*ears perk* Did someone say organizing?

:D I did indeed.

oh i'm totally down for this!

Awesome! I'm making the write up tonight for project one. :yes: If I end up on a mission where I cannot report, I'll simply write out the weeks in advance so that the program doesn't slack off without me, and report on any progress I made when I return.
 

KDude

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I'm already a minimalist, I think. Good luck though. Always keep your comfort in mind. If there's a shortcut to something, take it.
 

kyuuei

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I'm already a minimalist, I think. Good luck though. Always keep your comfort in mind. If there's a shortcut to something, take it.

:laugh: We're faking minimalism here I think.. it's just a challenge to get the blood pumping and the thoughts moving.. if people actually branch into such a lifestyle than awesome. :yes:

Alright, Week 1's post.

Week 1: Toiletries!!
Something that seems to be a bigger problem with women than men, but I've seen guys stock pile old colognes they never use and things of that nature too! This is probably one of the easiest categories to start with--usually you have them in one central location (the bathroom, or a section of the bedroom.) and usually you've already made way too much space for them so finding a new home for them isn't a problem either.

There's three steps to do this!
1. Put it all out in the open. Clear space and make room, whatever you have to do, make sure you can see every bit of what you own. If you clean a section, organize it, and then go to a different section it's hard to see just how much stuff you really have.
2. Ditch what you don't need. I'll explain this more in detail below, mostly based off of tips and stuff from the books I've been reading.
3. Organize what you do use to work better for you. Keep consolidating everything until you know you have what you need, without sacrificing anything you truly do use. Ensure everything you pulled out has been touched, thought about, and categorized properly.

That's it :) too easy right?

Various tips to keep things going smoothly if you want/desire some:

1. Find out what you need and use, and separate everything into piles. It seems obvious, but when you place things openly into categories you realize just how MUCH of a single item you really have. "Soap" is easy to identify as something you need, but when you place all of the different kinds into a single spot, you really see how much too much really is. Don't have a miscellaneous pile either. Either it's for your face, or for medicinal purposes, etc.

2. Put in the get-rid-of-bin anything you haven't touched in 6 months. (If you bought a twin pack of your favorite toothpaste and just haven't used the first tube yet, its not so bad.. but that christmas-set-gift of bath salts when you never take a bath? Get rid of it.) If you're so focused on, "Well, when ever I THINK I want to do something like this, I won't have it!" then make yourself a little gift set of your own with a single session's worth of those items in a small box. Too lazy to do that much? you probably ought to chuck it anyways.

3. Go through your piles from step one and throw out anything expired. Usually cosmetics have a shelf life of a year, and some products even less than that. (It isn't that the make up will go bad.. but bacteria will fester in things like that after a while. And many of the products have ingredients that break down over time, so even if you never used it and you think it's awesome for your skin, the shelf life could have expired on it and all those awesome factors are no longer relevent.) Chances are, if it was worth using in the first place, it's currently being used.

4. Try to get rid of multiples of the same products. If you have 3, 4, or 5 different moisturizers for your face, pick out the one you use daily and the one you use every-so-often (like if you use a different moisturizer once-a-month or during the winter), and chuck the rest. Maybe it worked for you before, but your skin stopped tolerating it. Who knows. A waste of space is just as bad as a waste of money though. (If you have a product you like, and have several travel-sized items you don't like, think about maybe just washing out one of the containers and filling it with what already works for you instead of settling.) This is probably the best step, because you evaluate what you really want and now you just have one or two in each pile.

5. You're done! Organize everything into the places that they'll be most used in, remembering that the more visible something is the more you'll use it (If you told yourself, "this is my only eye cream and I need to start using it!" don't put it back in the back of the shelf)
 

Tiltyred

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I'm in! You're my hero. I need this.
 

KDude

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:laugh: We're faking minimalism here I think.. it's just a challenge to get the blood pumping and the thoughts moving.. if people actually branch into such a lifestyle than awesome. :yes:

Ah, I see.

I have say though, the way you're wording some of this makes minimalism sounds exhausting to me, personally :D. The number of parameters you're trying to adjust and break down...

It must be Ne. You're kind of categorizing things from the "outside in" too. Putting them in "get rid of bins" or setting useful things in visible places afterwards, indirectly assigning value to it that way. The shortcut would be getting in touch with your inner sense of structure, I guess (Fi/Ti). This way you always have a "get rid of" bin in your mind. For me, I just kind of have an eye on what fits my lifestyle/comfort factors in a kind of organic way, and then chuck immediately (or not even have something at all). Occassionally I have to do some spring cleaning, but not much.

Then again, either way works.
 

ceecee

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I'm in. I have a large linen closet that I keep the majority of toiletries, meds and miscellaneous stuff including towels that could probably use a redo.
 

Qlip

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I wanted to jump in earlier, but I was a bit hesitant. I've already cut down on a heck of a lot of my stuff. I live in a two room apartment (not two bedroom). I think I'm ready to raze some more. I'm going to binder up my DVDs & Blue rays and trash the boxes. Also I'm donating more things to goodwill. My goal is to get rid of an entire shelf which sits in front of a window that would be a lot nicer to have open.
 

kyuuei

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As a side note, has anyone thought of rewards? I've set up a reward-type system for myself for my goals.. :D They're pretty silly, but I like it that way. I'm such a kid @_@

If I complete the first week: I get to try the toothy tabs from Lush that I've been reading about. To-go toothpaste that won't explode? <3
If I complete the first month: I get to spend a day in the game room here playing video games. It's free, and technically I can go anytime I want, but I'm saving it for this.

I'm in! You're my hero. I need this.

:laugh: The more supporters I have the less excuses I have to bail out myself ;) Tomorrow is the day I get started on this week's project and it's probably the one I struggle with the most while on deployment, which works out rather perfectly since I think a girl is moving in with me soon.. so I'll have a nice clean area for her to come home to for the next month. :yes:

Ah, I see.

I have say though, the way you're wording some of this makes minimalism sounds exhausting to me, personally :D. The number of parameters you're trying to adjust and break down...

It must be Ne. You're kind of categorizing things from the "outside in" too. Putting them in "get rid of bins" or setting useful things in visible places afterwards, indirectly assigning value to it that way. The shortcut would be getting in touch with your inner sense of structure, I guess (Fi/Ti). This way you always have a "get rid of" bin in your mind. For me, I just kind of have an eye on what fits my lifestyle/comfort factors in a kind of organic way, and then chuck immediately (or not even have something at all). Occassionally I have to do some spring cleaning, but not much.

Then again, either way works.

:laugh: You're thinking from the perspective of someone who already knows though. If people have that sort of inner zen (and lord knows I sure don't) chances are they aren't really pack-ratting things like toiletries in the first place.. yeah, maybe they go through once a year and throw shit away when it looks too ragged, but when you're in unfamiliar territory everything seems daunting, and you lose your train of thought. For me, I'm looking at three bottles of soap and going, "Yeah, I'll eventually use them all, I swear.." but then I forget I also have two bars of soap, and a current gift-set of soap that I'm using now.. that's way too much soap for a period of 9 months, even showering twice a day. :laugh:

Plus, how I say things isn't how people are going to do them. People do what works for them.. but if they don't know where to start, the tips are a good way to get you going. Better to give too much information than not enough.

That's why books frequently say things like this. Bins, and categories, see everything at once, etc. It's giving you a mental picture in your head.. establishing a train of thought, and something that becomes way more familiar mentally will allow things like what you mentioned (a mental bin, for example) to establish itself.

I'm in. I have a large linen closet that I keep the majority of toiletries, meds and miscellaneous stuff including towels that could probably use a redo.

My stuff is everywhere.. a drawer here, two shelves, two packs, a travel kit.. @_@ I'm trying to reduce it to my two packs, a drawer, and a travel kit.

I wanted to jump in earlier, but I was a bit hesitant. I've already cut down on a heck of a lot of my stuff. I live in a two room apartment (not two bedroom). I think I'm ready to raze some more. I'm going to binder up my DVDs & Blue rays and trash the boxes. Also I'm donating more things to goodwill. My goal is to get rid of an entire shelf which sits in front of a window that would be a lot nicer to have open.

:D Well this isn't a hard-and-fast system.. If you're a guy that uses one soap, a razor, deodorant, and a lotion than you probably don't need week one.. but if you see something (like a paperwork episode later on) you could jump right in and participate.

That window goal is a really beautiful one. :drool: My personal goal is to not have to think--if everything is super easy to access, super convenient, and super minimal.. then clean-up is a snap, and I don't have to waste any of my time doing it. Which is a good thing, since I have very little time here to begin with.

I'll post my progress tomorrow, when I break everything down into sections. (Getting rid of things is really easy here in Africa.. I just put a box full of stuff into the latrine, and the ladies that clean it usually take it and use it or hand it out to their friends.)
 

Qlip

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:D Well this isn't a hard-and-fast system.. If you're a guy that uses one soap, a razor, deodorant, and a lotion than you probably don't need week one.. but if you see something (like a paperwork episode later on) you could jump right in and participate.

Yeah, I'll jump in when it's applicable. I'll have to skip any bathroom product episodes.. I've been purposely expanding my products. I actually bought facial cleanser last week. :D It sounds like you have some great goals!
 
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