Conquering the Clutter: 31 Day Minimalism Challenge with 1500 Days

Back in August, I was decluttering like a champ.

I was inspired, motivated, and crushing J$'s declutter challenge.  I successfully eliminated one item per day for an entire month. My house was getting lighter and lighter by the minute.

Everything was going swimmingly, until... well, life got in the way.

We had some friends come into town, we went out of town, and I started a major endeavor for my company. Needless to say, decluttering just went out the window.

 

A Podcast's Influence

 

Then last week I listened to one of my favorite podcasts and my motivation returned.

On last week's episode of the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast, Scott and Mindy interviewed Anthony Ongaro from Break The Twitch.

From listening to Anthony's story and then hearing about Mindy's desire to purge some items in her house, I decided I too needed to get my act together.

I had a crazy thought.

Mr. Wow and Mr. 1500 had previously had a fun weight loss challenge last year, but the women had never gotten into the action.

Here was our chance.

Since we both want to do some major decluttering, why not challenge ourselves to do The Minimalism Challenge?

I mean, decluttering one item the first day is easy, then two on the second day, and three on the third... no problem. But come the end of the month, we will be doing 31 items on the last day, I know it is going to way harder by that point.

I have definitely tried this challenge before and failed miserably, so I knew I needed a partner in crime to hold me accountable.

And in the end, we would be purging 496 items in total. That's nuts, but well needed on my end for sure.

Fortunately, Mrs.1500 was on board, so starting December 1st, we both jumped on the declutter bandwagon.

 

My Loot So Far

 

The results so far have been nothing crazy since we are still within the first few days of the month.

 

Day 1: candle holder from our wedding that we haven't used since that day

 

 

Day 2: 2 pairs of leggings

 

 

Day 3: 2 giant pitchers and an Oscar Meyer Wienermobile keychain

 

 

Day 4: a stuffed bull from Pamplona, a beach dress, t-shirt, and hair pins that I do not use

 

 

And I am trying to convince Mr. Wow to do it as well.  He somehow snuck out of it for the first day, but on Day 2 I stared at him until he reluctantly got rid of 3 items. Day 3 he came up empty handed again, but Day 4 he was back in action.

 

And the Winner Is...

 

The winner for most random item so far goes to Mrs.1500 for her contribution of the frog enclosure, a device that never even got the chance to enclosure a single frog and one that she had possession of for nearly 6 years.

I reckon my emergency underpants might have given the frog camp some competition, but that was done away with back in my first round of decluttering at the end of the summer.  Gonna have to come up with something good to even compete with what Mrs.1500 has come up with so far.

Needless to say, I am super excited to see what else we find during our rummaging.

 

Who Else Wants In?

 

I know there are some of you guys that have been wanting to declutter your houses and this is the perfect excuse.  We'd love to have some of you play along with us as we conquer the clutter.  Free feel to email or tweet at me with your loot and I'll be sure to include you guys in my write-up.

Oh yeah and Mrs.1500 and I also created instagram accounts so you can see our purging in action everyday throughout the month.

 

Follow Mrs.1500 here: OfficialMrs1500

Follow me here: wafflesonwednesday

 

Who's ready to conquer the clutter with us?

 

PS - The Annual FIRE X-Mas Video is out... take a look you might recognize some folks!