Like many people, I have fallen into the trap of having way way too much crap. And sometimes I don’t really have a good answer on how to get rid of said crap. Like… what do I do with old electronics and batteries? I also have a ‘man-closet’ full of tools and parts, and a garage full of tools, hardware and supplies.
The Minimalist Game
While I was trying to figure out the best way to declutter and get rid of my stuff in my garage, I came across some aussie talking about The Minimalist Game.
Which is apparently from The Minimalists, and here’s their intro vid:
These labradors have an interesting premise: gamify decluttering and see how far you can go. Declutter one item on day 1, two on day 2, three on day 3, etc. I roped my wife in and started on September 1st.
The Rules
The rules are very loose, and I appreciate there’s room for interpretation to make this work in whatever way makes sense for us. It can be as hard or easy as we want it to be!
But we do have to define our own rules around basic ideas like ‘how many items is a thing?’ For example: is an old laptop with a cord 2 items or 1? Is a box of cereal one thing or 500 pieces of cereal?
Rules we’ve worked out:
- The Golden Rule: You decide what counts as a thing.
- A comforter set of 7 sheets and pillows can be 7 individual items if you say they do.
- Things that are a set *can* count as one thing: A pair of socks is one item. But an old laptop and cord can be two things.
- If we were going to throw something out anyway that doesn’t count.
- If we want to sell anything we have to sell it by 30 days past the final day of the game. So our game will end on September 30th, meaning we need to have sold the items by the 30th.
- Items don’t need to be removed from the house immediately, and can be set aside to go to the appropriate ‘processing facility’.
- We are planning trips to the following at the end of the game:
- Goodwill – A number of items are reusable and not worth posting for sale.
- Hazardous Waste – Cooking Oil, Solvents
- Electronics Recycling – Old Batteries, phones, broken laptops, etc.
- Scrap Metal Yard
- Items going up for sale have to go up for sale the day of decluttering.
- Whoever has the longest streak wins but the game ends after 30 days.
- Winner cooks the other a delicious dessert. If we both make it to the end, we both make desert for the other.
Declutter Tracking
I will also be tracking all items decluttered as I move forward in this blog for posterity so all mankind can learn of the embarassing crap that has lingered in my house for way too long. My wife is not documenting her embarassing crap, she is the smart one.
Week 1 Crap
Day 1: An old hoodie with a stain I can’t get rid of and from a trip that didn’t go well so wearing it just reminds me of that trip so fuck this hoodie.
Day 2: Lithium batteries that are hanging around because they should be disposed of properly. A broken electric toothbrush and an old camera battery
Day 3: A burnt out buck converter, an old rubber notary stamp sans stamp, and a broken piece from an old christmas tree that I’ve since repaired with a 3d printed part.
Day 4: A wonky pixel 4a, a fully working samsung s10, a broken power bank, and a fully working but meh power bank.
Day 5: Another broken power bank and a ton of old cooking oil.
Day 6: An old dishwasher detergent bin (i am a container hoarder), a ‘lower back pillow’ i never use, a pair of very worn out socks, two nearly empty bags of decaf coffee(not enough for a carafe, but not enough to throw away 😛 ), and a ‘fizz electrolyte’ pack that was some kinda freebie from some cycling event.
Day 7: A grease gun, a tub of old grease sans lid, two broken saw blades, one with an arbor stuck on it, a pair of brake levers, and a copy of Betrayal: Legacy.
Tune in next week for more mundane and weird crap! Its been a nice slow curve as we ramp up into this. Its been good so far but its just getting started and its going to get incrementally harder!