There are a lot of things in my house. Just so many physical things. If I didn't even count each individual Lego piece...it would still be A LOT of items. More than I probably care to think about. I have been working on some form of minimalism for years and writing about it nearly as long and yet, there is still too many things in this house.
For some reason I started following Casey @that.minimalist.mom on Instagram last year. It may have been on the recommendation of my sister. And then at some point Casey started reposting pictures people had done of her purging 1000 things challenge. And I was feeling the itch to get rid of things, had been texting with my sister for months on the topic. So I asked her if she wanted to try to get rid of 1000 things in 2023 with me. Then we roped in another sister (who, by the way, is kicking both of our butts).
Despite having many things in this house, finding 1000 things to get rid of is still a great many things. That comes out to roughly 83 per month. Or nearly 3 items a day for an entire year. I had done a good deal of purging last fall especially when I discovered the magic of my local Buy Nothing group which has 850 members and I've only had handful of things that nobody has claimed. That really motivated me last year to do some serious kitchen cleaning out especially. It was much easier when I just had to coordinate with someone to pick it up off my porch and I wasn't trying to safely donate wine glasses!
But...1000 things. That felt like a lot. Even though I thought we were somewhat minimalists...I realized we had been getting more lax with the number of things coming in the house. I partially blame trying to keep the spending and number of gifts even on the boys. That's not easy! And then it ends up adding one more to one and then the other and back and forth, it's hard to even those out! But also, just feeling like we were doing a decent of enough job of having less things. We had less than we did early in our marriage, maybe. Although adding kids always adds stuff. But 1000 items felt like a bit of a stretch but, maybe, doable goal.
I am not to 1000 things, yet. However, I am over 400 and am hoping to hit 500 by the end of the month. Can I still find another 500? I do not know. What I do know is how clarifying this exercise has been.
It started with easy items, I only got to 50ish in January and none of that was too hard. There are always extras. I did ok in February but it was March when I really took off. I had over 200 items added to my count in March and once I started to get rid of things, it was hard to stop. It turned into such a mindset shift that even I, who had written and been getting rid of things for years, was amazed.
Things no longer got to stay here just because we had had them for awhile or because someone had gifted them to us (although, to be honest, that second one has rarely stopped me in the past). I was reconsidering nearly everything in our downstairs. Do we really need this? Do we really like this? Why are we keeping this?? Our 1200 square feet are valuable and precious, why am I giving some of that up to this stuff???
I finally realized that the less we bought the less we had to store. I know. It makes sense. But I stopped stocking up on gifts to give, toiletries, and groceries. We still have some of all of that...but less than we did! Target is always going to be there for me. I might pay a few bucks more for something not on sale but I am also spared from storing something for months or years until I get to using it.
There have been unopened gifts we bought to give people that I've returned to Target. I've gifted partial toiletries on Buy Nothing. I got rid of a variety of hotel samples and the like on Buy Nothing. I've been using up candles, using up our food stashes, and, in general, just buying less. Less to buy less to store less to own.
I've been cleaning out my iTunes of songs I only listen to when they pop up on my "haven't listened to in 75 days" playlist. I've been recycling magazine clippings from shows and movies I haven't watched in years. I stopped holding onto my old issues of HGTV magazine. I buy-nothing group partially used adult coloring books (after I tore out the pages I used). I cleaned out my stash of blue & green wine bottles (had someone happy to take them on Buy Nothing). I keep going through, again and again, the lower level of our house. I haven't even touched much in our upstairs yet although that is coming!
I didn't realize how much extra our house held. But it was a lot.
It's not just owning less that has changed in my head but also just using what we have. I hung in our laundry area two pictures that had been sitting in a storage area for years. To be fair, those walls are new and I wouldn't have had a wall to hang them on a few years ago, but they are up now! I'm eyeing the spaghetti that has been in the pantry for...awhile....and working it into the dinner rotation. I'm considering just how many t-shirts my 5 year old needs in his drawer (small hint, it's not the 28 that were in there at one point...I can't explain that one.)
Throughout the month of March, especially, I had had a huge change in my attitude towards things. We gave the boys, and ourselves, less for Easter and reallocated that money to our vacation fund. We lowered our budget for their birthday and adoption gifts. We don't need more things. We have things. We're still buying Lego sets but it is at a slower rate than before! I didn't add as many "extras" to the Easter baskets. It's just been a general mindset shift of LESS.
This is not what I expected when I set out to race my sisters to getting rid of 1000 things this year. A race I am losing. We are cheering each other one and have nearly daily texts about what counts as one item (my sister told me I should count each Lego box I got rid of...which got me around 20 boxes crossed off). The lines aren't perfect, I'm not counting each sheet of paper I clean out of the file cabinet, but it has been HUGELY motivating in just reducing what we have.
It feels like our house has more space, a little more breathing room. Cupboards that were near to stuffed full before now...aren't. I've been through some spaces 3 times and STILL find things I can get rid of each time! I'm realizing more and more the less we need and how much freeing it is to just have fewer things. Fewer things to take care of and store and make us think about if we want to use them or not.
We are entering a busier stage of life. Luke will be in sports at least two seasons starting in the fall. Sam will be in school. Matt might be entering a busier season. There is never a bad time to try to have less. (Although, there are certainly times it might be harder to devote time to purging, it's not a quick activity!) BUT...looking ahead to a busier season coming, it's certainly worthwhile to get some of life simplified before then, even if it's just in the number of things we own.
Having few things in our house has made me want to simplify my decisions, spend less money, and crave open spaces, less packed cupboards and drawers. I wasn't expecting that when I started but it has been the biggest benefit of this whole project. Even if I don't hit 1000...this project has been a win.
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