If you’re feeling disorganized, chaotic, and frazzled, we have a 30-day minimalism challenge that can help you change your lifestyle! Each day, you will make incremental changes that will help you realize what’s important in your life and what you can let go of.
But before we can talk about the 30-day minimalist challenge, we need to explain what it is first.
What is a 30-day minimalism challenge?
The idea with a 30-day minimalist challenge is that you try to eliminate something physical, mental, or unhealthy daily for 30 days. You can use the challenge however you like. There is no right or wrong way to complete the task, just as there aren’t a finite number of days it takes to break a bad habit.
By changing some of your habits each day, you can get some clarity in your life, including your physical, mental, and financial well-being.
How to start changing your life with this 30-day minimalism challenge
Are you ready to begin? Here are our 30-day minimalist challenges that will transform your life! Try these for the next 30 days as less is better!
1. Analyze your daily habits
Before you can live a minimalist life, you need to understand where you stand. How close (or far) are you to reaching your goals? Your daily habits will help you determine how far you’ve come. Think about the skills that you have and what you need to improve.
For example, if you already have a great morning routine, do not alter it. If you do not give yourself ‘me time’ and consider yourself a hoarder, you will know what to do. This isn’t the time for self-incrimination. Rather, now is the time to sit down and decide what direction to take next.
2. Establish a morning routine
Rather than rushing to your email or social media accounts, allow yourself time to relax in the morning. Instead of checking your email and social media accounts, enjoy a leisurely start to your day. Do mornings first, so you can start your day with a clear mind and enough energy.
Instead of driving a vehicle, devote more time to meditating, praying, or journaling. Spend some time outside and sip coffee or tea as you enjoy the peace and quiet in the morning. You could also make positive affirmations part of your 30-day minimalist challenge!
3. Create goals for the year
It’s easy to become discouraged if you feel like you aren’t making any progress, but you might be accomplishing quite a bit and not even realize it. Instead of ‘winging it,’ as part of the 30-day minimalism challenge, set specific goals for the year.
Create short-term, mid-term, and long-term objectives, but make sure you choose goals that are both achievable and feasible. It’s useful to have a mixture of ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ objectives, but you should still have definitive, visible goals with achievable timetables.
4. Decongest your kitchen
Your kitchen is likely to be the center of the house. It’s also likely to be one of the most congested areas. Kitchen countertops are often used as a dumping ground for people’s garbage. They walk into their homes and dump all of their materials on the counter, leaving some of it to make a mess.
Clear the counters and leave them clear at all times. Establish a nightly cleaning regimen that includes you clearing the kitchen counters every night. Also, keep the counters uncluttered. Don’t leave too many appliances, canisters, or decorations out. It only provides additional work for the kitchen and results in confusion.
5. Write in a gratitude journal
It’s easy to miss what is going right in our lives, even though even small things go OK. The bigger ‘bad stuff’ typically overtakes the small good stuff that can occur during a day. Every night, write five to 10 short entries about three to five valuable things that occurred that day in a gratitude journal.
Some days are better than others, so you can look for good things by supplementing your pleasant experiences. With regular practice, it becomes natural to focus on positive qualities rather than unpleasant ones.
6. Enjoy some time alone
Solo time is important. It allows you to regroup and feel like you’re not being pulled in every direction but where you want to go. It’s nice to have time to yourself. With practice, you can truly enjoy your free time.
If you have to get used to being by yourself, do something by yourself. Perhaps you listen to music, read a book, or journal. So long as you keep yourself busy, you’ll eventually get used to it.
7. Go technology free for a day
Technology has become so commonplace in our lives that we forget to take a break from it. If you’re not careful, technology can consume you and never give you “time off.” If you answer texts, check email, and scroll through social media constantly, you’re not living in the present – you’re thinking about everything else.
Institute one day a week, month, or any frequency you can handle to go technology-free. At first, it may feel uncomfortable. Eventually, you may even look forward to it and enjoy it.
8. Commit to not complaining for a day
Complaining comes so naturally, especially when you have a poor day. But you also have to focus on the “good stuff” if you want to see the good. Only complaining makes others join in. The longer your frustration lasts, the worse it gets.
To experience life’s full range of experiences while refusing criticism, set a time when you will refuse to complain. No matter how bad things get or how frustrated you get, don’t complain. Pay attention to how you’re feeling and how much more energetic you feel when you are not constantly dragging yourself down.
9. Declutter your living space
One of the biggest steps in our apartment-demographic challenge involves decluttering your home. Think about the area you usually spend the most time in and declutter it. Let it be an area of peace so that you can relax in it. A cluttered environment prevents people from being able to relax.
Design your space into a calm area, so it will be a refuge and not something that makes you feel more distracted.
10. Donate things you don’t use or need
Instead of cluttering up your space with items you think you’d want to keep, adopt a rule for your 30-day minimalist project that involves donating unnecessary items to people who can put them to use. If you haven’t used the items in six months (and they aren’t holiday-specific), give them away to someone who can use them.
We most commonly preserve clothing longer than we should. Whether clothes are too big or too small or we no longer like wearing them is no reason to hang onto them any longer. Clutter makes it hard to be a minimalist, so just don’t keep things you don’t use. Clothing, household items, or mementos you keep but don’t use take up space and make it difficult to be a minimalist.
11. Purge your social media following/followers
Check your social media feeds. Can you follow everyone you follow? Does it stress you out to look at others’ feeds? Perhaps you feel frustrated or upset when you see other people’s posts – this causes unnecessary stress. Take the time to go through your Facebook and other social media accounts and delete your friends and followers.
Think about who you care about and who you want to see the information you post. It might feel better to have a large volume of followers, but it doesn’t make you full. You can feel more secure and less worried if you have only necessary followers, and you don’t need to see their posts. There’s nothing better than that for stress reduction on social media.
12. Cancel subscriptions and memberships you don’t use
Examine your credit card statements for “ghost subscriptions.” These are “free” subscriptions that you signed up for but never canceled. You could be paying for the subscription without knowing it because it’s automatically charged each month.
Even if you are a member, you should not have subscriptions if you do not need them or they aren’t necessary. Cancel them if you do not use them or they are not needed.
13. Say no to something or someone
We’re accustomed to saying yes to everything, but we need to say no when we need to. Saying yes to things because you feel the need to do so rather than because you actually want to do so is a sign of weakness. If you say you don’t want to do something, you don’t feel so good, and it won’t allow you to lead the life you want.
At first, it feels unpleasant. You may even be mad at yourself for saying “no,” but with practice, it gets easier. You’ll be able to determine what feels good to you instead of constantly saying yes to others because they want you to.
14. Spend 20 minutes outside
Make a habit of spending 20 minutes outside per day. If it seems impossible to fit in 20 minutes of exercise, find creative ways to make it happen. Take your lunch outside or take calls outside.
If you live in an area with warm afternoons, take your morning exercise routine outside in the morning. Being more intentional about your morning workout can make your outdoor time more enjoyable, and you may also find yourself enjoying spending time outside more often.
15. Unsubscribe from email lists
You probably don’t even remember how many times you’ve given out your email address. Companies get creative in getting their emails so that they will send users advertising content, but spam takes up your time and bandwidth.
Instead of getting subscriptions to unwanted newsletters, unsubscribe from these lists and reduce the amount of time you spend sorting through your inbox each day.
16. Read a book
Turn off the computer for an hour or two and dedicate this time to reading. You can bypass the blue light exposure and gain educational knowledge or just read for entertainment. By cutting off electronic devices at least two hours before bed, you can promote relaxation and sleep. Read a book to wind down and prepare for bed.
If you have some spare time, we recommend reading our personal favorite minimalist books.
17. Have a no-spend day
Use a day that you will not spend any money – not even on necessities or food. Be sure to plan for this day so that you will have enough food and essentials to make it through the day. Try not to spend 24 hours and see if it is possible to extend it for even longer.
A crucial part of the month-long minimalism challenge is saving your money by buying groceries with a no-spend day.
18. Learn something new
Is there something you have always wanted to try but never had the time? Now is the time to begin. Learn a new skill, learn a foreign language, or step outside your comfort zone and do something you would probably never do, such as zip-lining or returning to school.
19. Clean out your closet
Go through your closet and find anything that doesn’t fit you anymore. Create a donation pile, a discard pile, and a keep pile. Inspect each item individually and ask yourself if you like it and how it suits you. Enjoy how you look and use your clothing, too.
If you can’t honestly say that it makes you happy, it is good for you, and you can discard it, don’t bring it.
20. Organize your online files
Go for a day in the 30-day minimalism challenge and organize your online files. Your online files can get as messy as your paperwork drawer. Take the time to create digital folders. This allows you to quickly find anything, such as a tax form, whenever you need it.
21. Turn off notifications
It is easy to jump at every notification that you get, but doing so prevents you from accomplishing your tasks at hand. Turn off all notifications except for those you need in case of emergencies if you have children, or you could be in danger of missing the readings that you need.
22. Fold and put away your laundry
If you don’t mind doing the laundry but are terrible at putting it away, be sure to fold and put away your clean laundry right away. Only wash the dirty laundry if you know you’ll have the time to dry, fold, and put away all of the clothes in a single day instead of doing a big laundry day and letting the clothes pile up all week.
23. Make a meal plan
Guessing what to cook every night or putting your stressor on yourself after work may be burdensome. Instead, create a meal plan and follow it. Whether creating a weekly or monthly meal plan, the key is to have a designated menu and the items to make it.
24. Clean out your personal products
If you hold on to personal items because you want to preserve the memories associated with them, declutter your home. Some items should be stored indefinitely, but if your valuables crowd your home, bedroom, or basement, it is time to declutter and figure out what you want to keep and what you should get rid of.
25. Establish a relaxing nighttime routine
It is important that you follow a sleep schedule to snooze on time. If you find it difficult to fall asleep, set up a regular bedtime.
Some suggestions include taking a hot bath or shower, reading a paperback book, turning the bedroom temperature down, and ceasing all electrical exposure at least two hours before bed.
26. Declutter your kid’s toys, involve them in the process
Give your children the opportunity to clear out their toys. Bring out only their favorite toys and let them choose which ones they want to keep. Just as you get rid of clothes that you no longer want, have your children choose the toys that they don’t play with as well. Together you can choose toys you can provide to children in need. Your child will get the chance to declutter and the spirit of giving.
27. Create a reading list
Create a reading and posting list and post the items somewhere where you will see them. If you read books, you are more likely to achieve your goals. If you tell yourself you will read a book someday, you will probably not do it. But if you write a list of books you want to read, you will be more motivated to accomplish your goals.
28. Leave a whole day with nothing to do
It can be scary to live in a world that is never at rest since we are usually moving. However, leaving an entire day to do nothing is a blessing in disguise. If you become anxious, accept it, but at the same time, try to do it anyway. After a couple of hours, you may find you much enjoy the sense of having nothing to do and the freedom to do whatever you wish.
29. Write tomorrow’s to-do list today
Nothing compares to the satisfaction of crossing something off a to-do list. Organize your to-do list for tomorrow today to ensure you are ready tomorrow. With a prepared list, you do not have to worry about forgetting anything in the morning.
30. Find ways to overcome stress triggers
Stress is a part of life, but you can manage it better when you have ways to do so. Find things that make you calm, such as taking deep breaths, meditating, taking a walk, talking to a friend, or simply sitting and doing nothing for a while.
Try this 30-day minimalism challenge to change your life!
Thirty days allows you to make significant changes to your life. You may dislike certain parts of it and like others, and that is perfectly fine. The key is to give yourself the opportunity to try new activities, see how different tastes work with your body, and decide what you want to keep going forward to have a calmer mind and possibly even help your finances.
