Forum challenge: Lets play the minimalists' game

[bos]

Still on track! The back-and-forth for selling and picking up individual items is starting to be an annoyance. Now I get why Americans have garage sales—it’s a way to clear things out fast! But it’s also been fun meeting new neighbours who come to pick things up.

[guitarplayer]

I took 10 books to a book swap so am at 14 now versus 45 I should be at. I hold what I've said before about the March grace period due to starting late.

[frugaldoc]

This is quite the challenge. Now that I am home, I've started trying to catch up. I am just starting week six now and find it a bit of a struggle. Perhaps that is a good thing. I was tempted to throw away stacks of old research papers/review articles, but since many are printed on one side, I have kept those to use as scrap paper or stationery. I write a lot of letters (one of the unique things about me) so now people get the added bonus of learning about loop diuretic resistance when they receive a letter from me.

I have discovered camping gear that is still useful 30 years later. My MSR stove from when I was 20 and trying to recreate the Walden experience in the woods still looks good as well as the aluminum cookware. When I get back to California, I am going to make a point of using these things again.

[jacob]

The back-and-forth for selling and picking up individual items is starting to be an annoyance.

Over time it'll get clear that most of your stuff is going to the same few places that you keep returning to. For example, eBay, freecycle, thrift store, library, church, transfer station,... You can make this easier on yourself by setting up a system of boxes and batch process them, either going when the to-go box is full or one box a week or whatever.

[Stasher]

Good Morning and Happy Monday on the start of a new week, let's look at last weeks efforts to reduce.

For Week 9 on March 03-09 I rounded up the following 10 items
2 excess coffee cups (to thrift store)
2 excess coffee travel mugs (to thrift store)
2 throw pillows (to thrift store)
1 pair of shoes (to thrift store)
3 old plastic cutting boards [part of a xmas xchange years ago] (recycled at local depot)

[jacob]

Week 9:

6 AAII magazines -> LFL
1 Disassembled homemade wooden gear project -> burn pile
2 rusty ball bearings extracted from above project -> trash

[theanimal]

Week 9

Listed for sale
-2 rolls of chicken wire (pending)

“Donated” to transfer site/thrown away
-Leaking Nalgene water bottle
-Car phone holder
-Plastic bowl with lid
-3 cans of old frozen paint
-Pull up bar for door frame

Total now at 57 items

[jacob]

I was cleaning up my bookmarks a bit and came across this old Ted talk. It contains the standard techniques for methodically getting rid of excess stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T33vGEPL-wg - Getting rid of 1000 things (Liz Wright)

[guitarplayer]

I took 10 books to a book swap so am at 14 now versus 45 I should be at. I hold what I've said before about the March grace period due to starting late.

DW sold:
- glasses
- case for glasses
- teflon slow cooker shell
- slow cooker lid

so up to 18 against 55. We are loosing it.

[jacob]

Going through my "project/random parts"-drawers"...

I have several. They're technically not drawers but cardboard boxes taking up floor space. Some haven't been touched for year(s)

Week 10 (a day early):
4 plywood clock parts (spares, prototypes)
1 fishing line bird nest
1 power switch button of unknown origin
1 box with old insoles (I have no explanation for this )
3 envelopes from the basement's "shipping pile"
(all trash or burn pile)

[mooretrees]

I’m jumping in finally.

I expect to do this in more batches rather than weekly.

First batch:

Given to two friends:
2 games we never played
9 books
5 reusable sponges

[Saltation]

Week 12:

- 4 can coolers
- 4 license plates
- 4 random weight bar clamps

[Stasher]

Good Afternoon and Happy Monday everyone. Here is last weeks efforts to reduce and I'm needing to dig deeper to find items as the weekly number increases to larger amounts.

For Week 10 on March 10-16 I rounded up the following 10 items
1 dress shirt taking up space (to thrift store)
3 cans coconut milk [wife developed an allergy] (to food bank)
1 quilt taking up space (to thrift store)
1 kids halloween costume (to thrift store)
1 old magazine that was buried in my book shelf (curbside recycling)
3 discontinued outdoor magazines I had nostalgia for (donated to a friend to read & then pass on)

[theanimal]

10 more things for week 10, bringing my total to 67.

Listed for sale
Worm compost bin

Given to friend
32 oz of yeast

“Donated” to transfer site/thrown away
Headband
Instrument flying handbook
Half broken bike pump
2 old shipping envelopes
1942 aviation star guide and accompanying book
Lot of skin samples

[Stasher]

Good Morning and Happy Monday on the start of a new week, let's look at last weeks efforts to reduce.

I thought it was going to be harder but I am still finding things buried away in corners, shelves and drawers. I have still avoided the junk and catch all drawers tubs etc as I will need those when we get to the big double digit weeks

For Week 11 on March 17-23 I rounded up the following 11 items
1 Mason Jar Mug (to thrift store) **found this in the bag of rice I didn't want and donated lol
1 18kg bag of California short grain rice **didn't enjoy compared to jasmine (to a neighbour posted free in group)
1 ethernet 5 port splitter (to local electronics thrift store)
1 bluetooth wireless headphones (to thrift store)
3 old mountain bike/bmx helmets (free to local families who replied to my online post)
1 pair like new jeans (sold)
1 cool weather jacket (sold)
2 outdoor magazines I have no idea I was hanging onto, these are popping up everywhere (recycled)

[Saltation]

Week 13: Accumulated 2 headlamps, 1 barstool and 2 umbrellas through rewards program also accumulated a glass and iron on patch. removing 20 items to stay with the spirit minimalism. DW and DS searched the family library to each remove 10 books.

-20 childrens books donated to LTL and local parochial school library.

[theanimal]

A day late in reporting but not an item short!

11 more items for Week 11.

Returned to Friends
-3 baby books

Returned to store
-Unused Aluminum Pail

"Donated" to Transfer Site/Thrown Away
-Another baby book
-Drawing pad for a toddler
-Toddler bath accessory
-2 dog harnesses
-Toy dog rope
-Pair of socks

YTD total is 78 items out the door and $869.71 back in.

[jacob]

Week 11:

Threw away my note sheets for the individual [World of] Warships I played early on. Amusing to see how they're all written at the tips&tricks level.

This clears the left side of my computer table. The tabletop appears to be the same color as I remember it to be.

[guitarplayer]

so up to 18 against 55. We are loosing it.

Got another 7 books to a book swap, bringing it to a total of 25. The game still motivates me so I am going to keep playing lest someone kicks me out.

[jacob]

I just reread https://www.amazon.com/100-Thing-Challe ... 0061787744 about the "only personally own no more than 100 things"-challenge/reformation, which used to be a popular "lifestyle"-project 15--20 years ago. Included in the book are all kinds of deliberations and rewriting of "the list" as the author works out the essentials. (That particular book is also amusing because it shows just what kind of walking California techie cliche I was at the time ... complete with bike riding, woodworking, and rarely used camping gear.)

As I've been going through my stuff over the past 10+ weeks, I realized/confirmed that I already am rather minimalistic. Almost all the stuff I've gotten rid off has been either books or "project clutter". One issue I've had with the minimal minimalists is how they end up being very limited in what they can do. These are the ones who lose the kingdom for want of a nail. Most of my stuff comprise tools or stuff to fix my tools. This also means that not much of my stuff is actually salable due to having received at least one fix or another. Bonus: This also means that not much of it is stealable. The positive take-away is that I'm really not consuming much of anything and so, therefore, I don't have much of anything to sell on to consumers. I seem to have left that cycle.

Conversely, I'm fairly intimately connected with a lot of my stuff for the same reason. It's a pretty curated collection that requires time to rebuild.

As such, for me this exercise is more of a decluttering project than anything. It was way overdue though!