My October 2019 Challenge
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De-clutter 5 Items or More Every Week until December
For this month’s challenge, I decided to try something new. Previously, my challenges are usually new behaviors that I hoped I can sustain into a better habit for myself. But for this month, I want to try to minimize my belongings as much as I can
I know this is a late post for my monthly challenge, considering this is the middle of October. But, after my failure achieving my September’s challenge, I want to try something new, so that I can maintain my motivation in doing these challenges
Why De-Clutter?
Growing up, I do not have a lot of belongings as I do not believe in buying more than 1 item that does the same thing. So, why do I decide to de-clutter?
I have always been thrifty and frugal when it comes to buying and owning stuffs. I usually opt for bang-for-the-buck approach and do not care as much about brand when it comes to shopping. I would spend countless hours researching my purchase before finally pulling the trigger.
The first time I decided to buy a good headphone, I researched various brands for close to 3 months before deciding on one. At that time, I was in college and all I know about earphone was the white earphone that came with my iPod and I was using it everyday. I even wear it while I was working (I worked in the kitchen and my supervisor allowed me to use the right side). When the right bud eventually breaks, I cut it and continue using the left one until the left one dies too.
Now, the problem is throughout the year, I started accumulating stuffs (read: hoarding) because I almost never throw away stuffs unless they are absolutely destroyed. I still wear my over-sized high school T-Shirt as pajama, still use my cracked mugs as pencil holders, still use my hole-some (see what I did there) college bag pack when I go to work, you get the idea. Eventually, I start having more than 1 item that does the same thing, only in a different condition.
This is not a problem until few years ago, when I start being a lot more involved in my family business and I started having to meet more and more people, ranging from vendors to potential customers. First impressions speaks the loudest and people DO judge you by your possessions and how you look when you are approaching them from a business stand point. So, I started buying better clothes, better bag and leave my old stuffs at home and when my better clothes or bag get old, I leave them at home and buy more clothes and bag, the cycle continues. Now, I have suitcases of old clothes that I don’t wear anymore, a cabinet of bags that I do not use anymore and a shelf of cracked glass for pencils that I may come across in the future.
Being a Minimalist to Save Brainpower
Some people thrive in chaotic condition, but I have always work and function better when there are not a lot of items or things going on around me. My home office are filled with stuffs that are becoming part of the furniture and it is becoming a distraction when I am working from home. I would sit in front of my computer trying to think of a solution or whatever I am thinking at the moment and saw the cracked mug and now I am thinking “I really should glue the cracked part if just in case I decided to use it to hold something heavier”. Just like that, I lost my train of thought and I have to retrace my mental thoughts.
Another problem is, having a lot of stuffs means you have to keep a mental note of where everything is. By de-cluttering, I hope that now I only need to keep a mental note of where the essential things are.
Being a Minimalist to Save Time & Money
When you have more items, you will spend more time maintaining your belongings. Considering that I hoard stuffs that are bordeline broken, I do spend considerable time fixing and maintaining them (regluing shoe soles, re-threading old watch straps, etc). This will make sense if you own a shoe that is in the upward of $1,000, but re-gluing an old Nike soles for $15 when the shoes cost $50 7 years ago is just not economical.
Feeling of Freedom
I did throw away a lot of stuffs before I moved into my house 4 months ago and I remembered I felt so free when suddenly half of my stuffs are not there anymore. I still have a lot of stuffs currently despite what I threw away and I hope that by doing this challenge, I will feel free. It should be a nice feeling to know that whatever you see in the room or house is all you really need and when you need to move, you can fit all of it in the trunk of my SUV and be done.
What I Throw Away This Week
Today, I sorted out my office and room and this was the result:
- A tube filled with glowsticks that do not glow anymore (Trash)
- A cheap plastic rubik cube that I won from the fair 6 years ago and never played with (Give to nephew)
- 2 boxes of old clothes that I never wear anymore (Donate to church)
- A length of leftover fiber optic cable that I salvaged when my ISP installed my internet (Trash)
- 2 miniature Iron-Man action figure I got from China 4 years ago that have been collecting dust. (Give to nephew)
Will report back in a week or so and see how much more I can minimize
