Sprint To The Finish - The end of 30 Day Minimalist Challenge
Well here we are at the end of my minimalist game. It started strongly and then spluttered a bit as the calendar advanced and the item numbers went up. Days started to creep in between posts but I got there in the end.
The reason for this deceleration was not so much a lack of stuff but more a lack of time. If it's a day when I get up early, get ready and off to work, back fairly late given some after work commitment and ready for sleep, finding time to dig out 20+ unwanted items is a bit tricky! So it has tended to get left to the weekends.
Today though, stuck on day 28, I realised something new for the first time. The house doesn't look as if anything has changed but almost none of the clutter that still occupies every surface either belongs to my wife or is a joint thing. Do we really need this chipped ornament that has been on that shelf for over a decade but we never look at and don't much like? This never bothered you before she responds, and she is quite right, it didn't. It does now though. I rather fear that this might be an issue that grows...
So looking around for things to dispose of was starting to get really difficult. I have a few big items that I need to address but pretty much I've been through my stuff. Fortunately I remembered that I still had a couple of drawers of CDs and (being careful to leave behind those that belong to my wife, even though we don't have a CD player) stacked them up. 88 in total, just reaching the 87 I needed to take me to the finish line.
I still have boxes of CDs that I use regularly for my radio show but in the house it is occasionally vinyl and a lot of Spotify. As I was stacking them up I remembered what great albums they were and so I simply said "Alexa, play Is This It? by The Strokes" and there it was. I've not played those CDs for years, I still have access to the music, time to let them go.
Is This It? Yes, in one sense but not in another. It is the end of the 30 Day Minimalist Game and I think I did pretty well. It has helped to get me into the habit of thinking about my stuff and questioning what brings value to my life. However it still feels like this is the start of a journey that will last a very long time. One thing that has already changed is that I have not bought anything this past month other than consumables and the temptation has decreased as time has gone on. Maybe this has just hit me at that 'mid-life' point in my life but this feels like an important component of who I am going to be. I have a lot of questions that I am trying to work through at the moment. Minimalism is not the answer but I think that it can help reduce some of the background noise and allow me to concentrate a bit better whilst I try and figure things out.
I'll still keep blogging here. I quite like it and this shouting into the void is cathartic. Thank you for reading.
The reason for this deceleration was not so much a lack of stuff but more a lack of time. If it's a day when I get up early, get ready and off to work, back fairly late given some after work commitment and ready for sleep, finding time to dig out 20+ unwanted items is a bit tricky! So it has tended to get left to the weekends.
Today though, stuck on day 28, I realised something new for the first time. The house doesn't look as if anything has changed but almost none of the clutter that still occupies every surface either belongs to my wife or is a joint thing. Do we really need this chipped ornament that has been on that shelf for over a decade but we never look at and don't much like? This never bothered you before she responds, and she is quite right, it didn't. It does now though. I rather fear that this might be an issue that grows...
So looking around for things to dispose of was starting to get really difficult. I have a few big items that I need to address but pretty much I've been through my stuff. Fortunately I remembered that I still had a couple of drawers of CDs and (being careful to leave behind those that belong to my wife, even though we don't have a CD player) stacked them up. 88 in total, just reaching the 87 I needed to take me to the finish line.
I still have boxes of CDs that I use regularly for my radio show but in the house it is occasionally vinyl and a lot of Spotify. As I was stacking them up I remembered what great albums they were and so I simply said "Alexa, play Is This It? by The Strokes" and there it was. I've not played those CDs for years, I still have access to the music, time to let them go.
Is This It? Yes, in one sense but not in another. It is the end of the 30 Day Minimalist Game and I think I did pretty well. It has helped to get me into the habit of thinking about my stuff and questioning what brings value to my life. However it still feels like this is the start of a journey that will last a very long time. One thing that has already changed is that I have not bought anything this past month other than consumables and the temptation has decreased as time has gone on. Maybe this has just hit me at that 'mid-life' point in my life but this feels like an important component of who I am going to be. I have a lot of questions that I am trying to work through at the moment. Minimalism is not the answer but I think that it can help reduce some of the background noise and allow me to concentrate a bit better whilst I try and figure things out.
I'll still keep blogging here. I quite like it and this shouting into the void is cathartic. Thank you for reading.
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