30 Day Materialism Challenge: Throw Away 1 Thing Per Day

Our 30 day challenge starts with a modern day problem called materialism, to which a solution is to throw away 1 thing per day.

How Materialism Adds Up (More, Better, & Faster)

The problem starts with starts following. As we progress in life, we want to have more and more things in terms of quantity. If we can’t have more in terms of numbers, we want them better in terms of quality. And when we can’t have more or better, we want faster in terms of delivery. Hens, we  arrive at more, better, and faster model of materialism. 

For example, we start we living in our parents house, but progressively we start desiring to move our and live in our own place (more). Then, after we move out, we may start living in a student housing, slowly dreaming of a private house, perhaps a studio (better). Also, we start thinking that perhaps we want to have these things as soon as possible (faster).

Why Materialism is a Modern Problem

While this formula for life sounds nice, we are facing the problem of scarcity. We don’t have an infinite amount of money, or at least most of us don’t, and every extra thing we (want to) own has to go somewhere.

For example, if we buy a new bicycle, we need to put it somewhere. Therefore, we need bigger storage space. The more significant storage place will probably be in our house, so we need a bigger house. A bigger house means that we will have extra rooms, which have to be decorated. All of the above will cost some quantity of money, but the starting point is the desire to have a new bicycle.

Of course, the bicycle is only an example. Every person has something like a bicycle, which they what to have. There is almost a list of things people want to have, which they want to have. It is a progress list. After I buy this, a new item appears.

Surprise! You Have an Infinite List of Desires!

The exciting thing about this list is that it is infinite. However, if you are to ask people, they don’t see it this way. People only concentrate on the next thing on the list, and they often think that this is it.

This short-term orientation of people comes from fixing problems in their lives with material goods and the idea that the next thing in the list will somehow make all the difference.

It does not. Just ask a person who already has the next thing that you want. So the solution is not more things. It never was.

Why Less Is More

Since we live in a developed world, most of us have enough food, cloth, health, and shelter. Realistically, we don’t need anything else. Everything else was sold to us by modern-day society, pretending to be something that we MUST have, but it is rarely the case.

Imagine if we saved our money on all these small things extra we use every day in our lives? No TVs, no smartphones, no dinners in sushi restaurants…

Some people can’t imagine this kind of life. It can be even scary to entertain such an idea.

Getting rid of stuff is a scary process. We have spent our lives living a materialistic dream, whereby we were accumulating things and not throwing things away.

How Hoarding Becomes a Problem

Often we don’t even remember what we have in our storage until we see it, and our worldly mind still tells us that we need it and that we might want to store it for 5 more years in storage, just in case.

We have stored things for many different reasons (as I have mentioned it in my other article Hoarding – Secret Materialist Inside on Us), but we need to get rid of stuff we already have to break this assumption.

We don’t want to throw away everything, nor will the majority of us master enough will power to do so.

Underneath our taught person look, we are very fragile. We hide behind our stuff and the comfort it gives us.

Throw Away 1 Thing Per Day

To tackle this giant monster, my friend proposed an easy solution whereby instead of making a house cleaning, we throw away only 1 thing per day.

This is easy, and everyone can find something that they can throw away today and tomorrow. In fact, the more we look through things we own, the more we realize how many things we don’t need.

Soon enough, we start asking ourselves, “do I need this new thing?” After all, you will have to throw away something soon, so if what you buy is not good enough, it goes straight into the garbage, equivalent to putting your money directly into the trash.

Interestingly enough, this is what I see some people do. They buy useless things, wholly convinced they need them, and in few days, they put it into some box that they will not look at for years, just because they cannot admit to themselves that they made a mistake buying that thing.

After several years of such accumulation, people move into bigger houses filled with junk.

Pure economic nightmare.

Try Throwing 1 Things Per Day For 30 Days

In conclusion, can throw something everyday, and it is quite therapeutic to challenge yourself to do it for 30 days, almost line a challenge.

Moreover, by taking a Throw Away 1 Thing Per Day challenge, we will realize how much, too much, we already have. Soon, we will stop to define our happiness in other terms than money, and instead think of it in terms of time we are spending with our friends, spending time in nature, and going on adventures that we wanted to do for years.

But it all starts with 1 thing, or rather 1 thing per day, everyday for 30 days. Try this challenge!