How I got rid of 400+ things from my house

6 min readApr 25, 2016

The secret is simple: Minsgame.

Minsgame is a simple and life-changing minimalist game. In Joshua and Ryan words:

Find a friend or family member: someone who’s willing to get rid of their excess stuff. This month, each of you must get rid of one thing on the first day. On the second, two things. Three items on the third. So forth, and so on.

I’m here to tell you my own experience with this game, because I believe it can change your life — if you play the game intentionally.

My own experience

I have played this game two times until now (next month will be the third). One time along my wife (at the time she was my girlfriend) and another with her and a couple of friends. On both times, all of us lived apart and alone. This means that every item we used was really ours and we were the only responsible from keeping that stuff home.

These Minsgames were a self-discovering journey. If I had to elect four things that I’ve learned from Minsgame, those will be:

I had too much furniture
I had no idea what I kept at home
I didn’t miss half of my stuff
My closest friends also had too many things at home
With fewer things, I can focus on what really matter

1. I had too much furniture

It can sound like I got rid of many mobiles — and I did. During Minsgame period, I sold some furniture: two dressers and one cabinet. But that’s not the point. In fact, these items represent less than 1% of almost 500 units I got rid of. So, the number itself isn’t expressive.

What really shocked me was the useless of all those drawers and shelves. In total, there were 10 drawers and 6 shelves holding a bunch of meaningless things. Since they were the main source of items that I was getting rid of on the Minsgame, those mobiles were getting empty, and they end up counting as “letting go” items either.

Next to this shelves accountability, I realized that all my clothes could fit on my wardrobe — no need to extra clothes-storage furniture. Plus, most of things that were on the drawers and shelves haven’t been used in months — even years. That realization took me to the next lesson: I had no idea what I kept at home.

2. I had no idea what I kept at home

I had things I didn’t even know what they were.

I had five keychains and only one set of keys.

I had boxes of cellphones; never touched blocks of notes; a key of my old and sold motorcycle; a phone that does not fit in any of my devices, shoes that didn’t fit on my feet anymore and many other nonsense stuff like that.

Did I know that I have such things? I knew when I got them but, a few days later, they were forgotten inside a drawer. They could be useful for someone else. And, after the Minsgame, they were.

3. I didn’t miss half of my stuff

I got rid of more than four hundred things and — now I can say for sure — I don’t miss anything.

Of all the items I donated, sold or thrown away, none of them were missed. No book, no old socks, no water bottle, no silverware, nothing at all.

That makes me think that I had more stuff to get rid of, but I lacked the courage. If I have had the courage, probably I wouldn’t miss this stuff today.

4. My closest friends also had too many things at home

The first indicator of that is that I lost the first Minsgame I played. My wife won — she won the second one too, by the way. The first time I played the game was only with her, and I reached the day 21, while she went until day 23.

Later, when we played with our friends, we couldn’t reach the end of the second week. But they started to live together some months later and they discovered many things they could have thrown away.

Almost everyone has things they don’t need, including you. So, if you have something that is useless and has no sentimental value, why do you keep it?

5. With fewer things, I can focus on what really matter

All those useless things showed me how I had things inside my home that I didn’t need. They were taking up space and energy from things that could really add value to my life.

I had some insights then:

With fewer things at home, there is more space for truly useful or meaningful things — and also new ideas.
This idea of not important things occupying space applies to other spheres of my life. If I spend time with people that does not add value to my life, I can’t spend more time with those who does. As the Minimalists like to quote: “You can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you”.
Meaningless things distract me from what is important and I want to avoid distractions. Make the difference for someone, build something that helps someone or even myself, do things that make me happy — all activities that meaningless things distracts me of.

Do you want to play the Minsgame?

Here are a suggestion I will give you, use only if it fits you:

Invite friends to play with you and set a prize for whoever go further

For example: the loser can make a dinner for the winners or pay the winners a theater ticket.

Create a digital group that to keep the track on

Me, my wife and my friends used a WhatsApp group because it was easy for us. There we posted the photos of the items and set some rules for the game, like “each silverware counts 1 item” or “a pair of shoes counts only 1 item”.

Post photos of the items in the group everyday

You can separate 20 items on the first day with no problems, but I counsel you to keep them in a box at your home. Then, everyday you take a picture of the items of that day and post in the group. This will keep you motivated and it will remind you of playing the game.

You can forget to separate the items or take the picture for one day or two, but don’t skip any day. If someday you can’t grab the items or send the photo, do it in the next day, for the “yesterday” and for the “today” items.

Have fun

Enjoy the game. The Minsgame is about feeling what things you have that brings you joy or add some value to your life, and what things don’t.

Laugh of the things you discover you still have and don’t feel guilty or ashamed. Take funny pictures, tell everyone what you are doing, donate your stuff, sell something.

Have fun.