Days 14 & 15: The Minimalism Game

Days 14 & 15: The Minimalism Game – Catalogues

 I thought that it would be one day, and I could scrape together 14 catalogues to recycle – it’s that time of year and catalogues are just about daily in the mail. I was surprised to find 35 of them when I gathered them from the pile in the kitchen and the desk in the front hall.

Clothing, Gardening, Emergency preparedness, Tools, mailing lists from different holiday shopping stores. I have to pay better attention to mailing list options and opt out of the mailed catalogues.

So, I am working on getting off of the mailing lists and going to paperless statements for the last few things we get paper bills for. We don’t get as much junk mail as we used to, and most of the catalogues are from stores we have purchased from in the past. However, now that the garden is mostly set up, we don’t need anything else from these places, and other decisions about spending less and making memories rather than giving impulsive gifts have reduced the need for shopping at all.

It’s halfway through and I am thinking it may take more than one month of this game to really get to all of the storage bins and hiding spaces where things are put for safe keeping.

Goals:  electronic statements, electronic bills, opt out of mailing lists.

Observations: I rarely order anything from a catalogue – and use websites to shop when I do shop. Most of them go unread and get recycled, or put in a pile to “read later” and end up a pile of thirty-five…

Also, I would like to add one thing here: I don’t want a system to organize this or any of the other things I am discovered piled around the house.

My goal is not to need a system at all…every pile, every drawer, every bin is a time sync. Time that I would rather spend with people or writing and gardening.What I use every day is already organized…spoons with spoons and forks with forks…baking supplies all in one place. It’s the stuff I don’t use and pay attention to that overtake me mentally and physically. I just want that stuff gone.

That is why I am playing the game!