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 Records, sure, of course, but cassette tapes and CEDs and all the outdated media you could possibly imagine.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 If you doubt that, well, I've got a large box full of outdated party supplies that says otherwise.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!