How I got on with the Minimalism Game in February

One of my Ten Things to do in 2020 was to play the minimalism game at some point. I've completed this month long decluttering challenge several times over the past few years and I always find that February is a good month for it. Not only does it give you a start on the spring cleaning, February is also a shorter month so you don't need to find quite as many items to declutter!

To take the challenge, you need to remove the same number of items from your home as the number of that day in the month, one item on the first, two on the second and so on. You need to make a few decisions - will you count shared items towards the total? Does a bag of smaller items count as one item or many? Do you count accessories that go with an item separately?

I'm a very list oriented person, so I kept track of my progress using a card within my personal Trello organisation system, making a note each day of what I'd decluttered. Yes, I'll admit that sometimes I got a day or two ahead of myself, and it took me a couple of days into March until I had found my final items, but I'm still going to count my #minsgame as a success!

Because I'm fairly decluttered already, this challenge is always an opportunity for me to hunt about in the backs of drawers and cupboards. Needing to get to my total also gives me the extra bit of motivation to pass on something that I've been umming and ahhing about.

Mostly things went into charity bags (I filled two big bags), into a pile for a garage sale that we'll hopefully be taking part in this summer (if not they'll be moved on at a later date!), into the recycling or into the bin.

There were some things that were easy for me to get rid of and some which I struggled with at the time, but now that they are gone I know that I made the right decision.

I've definitely noticed a difference in my surroundings, my bookshelves are tidier, my surfaces are clearer, and I've freed up lots of space in cupboards and drawers. The minimalism game isn't something that I can play that often, but I'm definitely going to attempt to give it a go once a year or so!

Photo credit Samantha Gades via Unsplash