Our game has come to a close. Thank you so much to all of you that participated and played the #minsgame or minimalism game with me in the month of November. The game is played by getting rid of items in accordance with the day of the month and a grand total of 465 items at the end of 30 days. It was a lot of fun but I will be completely honest, I’m so glad it’s over. 🙌🏾 More on my closing thoughts later but first here’s Melannie with her thoughts on the game.
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Jasmine: How did the game go for you? Did you “win” – get rid of 465 items in 30 days? Did you meet your goal?
Melannie: I thought the game went well. I was able to get rid of 231 items. I completed the game on Day 21. My goal was to play as long as I could, so I feel I met that.
J: Did you learn anything about yourself while playing the game?
M: I am a planner so I found myself searching for items all the time to add to my pile of items to get rid of. I really didn’t like the idea of waiting to pick my items each day. It made me really anxious.
J: Has this changed the way you relate to items in your home?
M: Not really, because my husband and I have already been working on being more mindful of what we bring to our home anyways. We don’t like junk or a lot of knick-knacks.
J: Would you play this game again? Was it hard or easy? Would you recommend it to your friends?
M: I don’t know that I would be able to play the game again. We’ve done a pretty good job of keeping stuff out of our house. Maybe in a year or two. It was a bit of both. Easy to get rid of items but I found it difficult for me to find items to get rid of. I would recommend it. Overall, it was fun to watch everyone else eliminate stuff from their homes and to see a lot of items donated to local charities.
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As for me, I thought the game went well. Unlike Melannie, I didn’t plan what I was going to give away aside from a few select things. It was a nerve-wracking but November (like all months in my life these days) was surprisingly busy. Shout out to my husband, Jason, that would often help me dig through boxes to find something to get rid of. What I learned is that we have a lot of stuff. I feel like most people that played along, whether it was for the entirety of the game or only a few days, learned this if they didn’t know it already.
Going into the Christmas season, I know that there are a lot of things I don’t need. I feel like playing this game helped to center my priorities in terms of wanting more stuff. I did some Black Friday shopping and even ended up returning some things that I truly didn’t need. (Some of those deep discounts got me.😩) I did finish the challenge in its entirety and got rid of 465 items. I don’t know if I could do this again for 30 days. I’m thinking about doing some sort of mini-challenge in the spring. Maybe for a week or until we reach 100 items.
I’d love to hear about your overall experiences. Whether you played for a day, a couple weeks, or “won”, tell me in the comments below. If we were to do a mini-challenge in the spring would you be interested in playing along? Let me know! Appreciate you guys! ❤️