Friday, July 18, 2014

The Urge to Purge


Collecting too much. Acquiring so many things, and letting them overwhelm you and rule your life. I am guilty of this and chances are, if you're here and you're reading this, well, you are too. Again, like me, you probably own tons of old beat-up action figures and boxes of VHS without a functioning VCR. Stacks of unread books, comics and old issues of Nintendo Power. Records, sure, of course, but cassette tapes and CEDs and all the outdated media you could possibly imagine. More than you could ever hope to contain.

So, yes, drastic measures must be taken.

Let me introduce you, dearest readers and friends, to The Minimalism Game.

I didn't stumble upon this on my own, but was introduced to it through the wonders of Instagram and one of my favorite bloggers out there, Mason from D.I Treasures. A collector like me, yeah, but I'm pretty sure I'm closer to crossing the fine-line between hobbyist and full-blown hoarder. If you doubt that, well, I've got a large box full of outdated party supplies that says otherwise.

They'll probably be the first thing to go, actually.

The idea of the game is to find a friend or two, people who also have lots of stuff in their lives they could and should part ways with. For the span of a month, each of you gets rid of these excess item every day. The true challenge comes in with this simple twist-- on the first day, you toss away one item. No big deal. The second day, two items must go. Three on the third, four on the fourth. This continues until the end of the month.

So, by day twenty-four, you're purging two dozen items for that one day. Doesn't sound so easy, does it?

Using other social medias, mostly Instagram [you can follow me @itstrashculture], you'll be able to keep up with my own attempt to minimize the Trash Pile. I'll be posting each day's efforts, and tagging both Mason and Laura [of Boo Bobby], who have both inspired me to undertake this challenge.

Oh, and if you see anything posted on Instagram that you might want to lay claim to, shoot an email to itstrashculture[at]gmail.com and we'll try and work something out. Help me avoid being crushed to death by a pile of junk by taking home some trash of your own!

9 comments:

  1. Oh whew! I thought you were going to see The Purge 2 this weekend and that we'd have to stage an intervention.

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  2. Man you hit me on the head here. I am absolutely without a doubt a hoarder. I got rid of a staggering amount of stuff a couple of years ago but what would have been a houseful to a normal person didnt even make a noticeable dent in my stuff. ..Well Not noticeable to normal people but completely and painfully noticeable to me.

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  3. This sounds 100% like the most horrifying thing I have ever heard of. But then you probably figured that would be my reaction to this.

    Maybe I'll actually try it at some point... But not any time soon. If I do this for a month it'll be February.

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  4. My wife is convinced I am a border-line hoarder. She would absolutely love it if I undertook this challenge. Come to think of it, I'd love it if she came to bed every night dressed as Harley Quinn.

    I guess we'll both just have to live with our disappointment.

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    1. LOL! You crack me up Eric! That's awesome! :D

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  5. Am actual do this already with my collection of things as i have things coming and going all the time.

    I tell my wife that for every 5 things i get i might only keep two lol. Keeps things fresh and allows me to weed out things i don't have a connection or passion for.

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  6. One way I've managed to keep things under control, is by limiting the amount of space I have for my "collection". If there isn't enough room in my display case, something has to go.

    I also tend to sell stuff off every now and then, which clears some space as well as allow me to buy other items.

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  7. Best of luck to you sir! As some have said already I too am borderline hoarding this plastic treasure but F it I plan to have it all melted down and turned into my Carbonite-esque casket when I croak anyway.

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  8. We're on what, day 6 now? And it's already getting hard to purge things! That's when I start getting rid of things like chipped dishes and holey socks. It doesn't only have to be toys and such. But honestly, I wanna narrow my little collectibles down to my favorites so I can enjoy them more. Let the game continue!

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