First of all, sorry for the extra stuff in your inbox if you’re a subscriber. You’re nice enough to subscribe, and then I publish a blog post with the text “test” and a broken link?!? Still working the technical kinks out over here in WordPress blogging land. Hope you can laugh along with me!

Now… on to the rest of the stuff! Are kids stuff magnets or what? When they’re babies, it seems you need a suitcase just to get out of the house. Then comes what I like to refer to as the goodie bag/Happy Meal days when there seems to be an inordinate amount of crap that somehow makes it through your front door–even if you never take them to McDonald’s. (My least favorite birthday party favor? A “free” goldfish! But that’s a story for another day….) What about all the paper sent home by the school, sports equipment that they tried briefly, musical instruments that they quit? The list goes on and on…

I’ve moved 3 times in the past 3 years so stuff has been on my mind frequently. Last year, we packed up our whole house and moved it into a 2 bedroom apartment – with a 10×20 storage unit on the side. And that was after I donated, sold, and pitched a ton! So… I’ve been on a quest to purge everything we no longer need. Which brings me to my plans for October and an invitation for you.

I discovered The Minimalists last year and their #MinsGame. They are focused on minimizing the clutter in your life and maximizing the good stuff–the experiences, the love, the friends. The object of the #minsgame is to minimize your stuff by getting rid of the same number of items each day as the corresponding date. One item on October 1st, 2 items on October 2nd, all the way to 31 items on the last day of the month. I briefly experimented with this last year, but I still have a long way to go so I’m doing it again.

I’ll post a picture each day in October on the Elephant Mamas Facebook page. Anyone want to play along?