February Minimalist Challenge

I first heard about the Minimalists, Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus, on the Enjoying Life on a Budget podcast with Mark & Lauren Greutman (Episode 054, December 9).   With “happy” being my focus for the year, I realized that having a clean, organized house makes me happy.  As much as I try to keep the house organized though it never stays that way.  Why?  Because we have too much “stuff.”  So I went to the Minimalists site and discovered the 30-Day Minimalism Game.   The gist of the “game” is that on day 1 you get rid of one thing, day 2, two things, and so-on until on day 30 you have gotten rid of thirty things!  I was so on board with this and decided I would start this challenge on February 1st.  I told the rest of the family about the challenge and decided that they were going to participate with me.  We would ALL be getting rid of “stuff.”  You can start this challenge anytime, however, I thought it would be easier to keep track by starting on the first of a month.  Since there are only 29 days in February, we will technically only be doing a 29-day challenge.

I recently read The Life-Changing Method of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.  I may be in the minority, but I wasn’t a huge fan of this decluttering book.  I can’t get on board with talking to my things and thanking them.  The major take-away from the book that stood out to me was only keeping the things that “spark joy.”  This idea is going to be the driving force of our decluttering challenge.

Ultimately, my goal for this challenge is to have a cleaner, more organized home.

So, stay tuned for updates as our family embarks on this decluttering, minimalism challenge.  Even better, why don’t you join us and take on this challenge yourself!