Today is the final day of my 12 Days of Giving Minimalism Challenge and I am officially 78 items (plus some) lighter – hopefully some of you are, as well!

For my final giveaway, I asked Josh to look through the DVDs and video games in his man cave. He came up with these giveaways:

 I didn’t even realize he doesn’t have a PlayStation 2 anymore… not that I could tell you the difference between a PS2 and a PS3 except that I’m guessing one is more expensive and fan-dangly. In any case, it’s nice to get the hubby on board, doing some minimizing! (Note: He would probably NOT agree with that statement, but hey, we do things out of love…)

One of the things I enjoyed most about this challenge is that it really challenged me. I thought I’d have no trouble donating 78 items… until I actually had to do it. This challenge forced me to look at my things the way I did years ago, when I was seriously overwhelmed with too much stuff, and re-examine why I owned things. I haven’t minimized this much in years and it felt really good.

This teaches me that minimalism truly is a process, one that never really ends. I don’t think I’ll ever be what I would consider an “extreme minimalist” – someone whose possessions could fit neatly into a backpack, for example. However, I can always push myself a little further toward my goal of living with less. This is good because it puts me in the place of my clients. Letting go of this many items at once pushed me into that realm of fear and rationalizing that I often see in clients. It was good to put myself in their shoes, and remember that letting go is not easy. It can be downright terrifying.  I had to do a lot of self-talk to allow myself to let go of some of these things, but I doubt I’ll miss any of them. And I know that I–and those who receive these items–will be much better off because of it.

Another thing I enjoyed about this challenge was that it was a giveaway. Since I committed to giving everything away for free, I didn’t have to listen to nagging thoughts like, “This is worth money… I should sell it.” The truth is, selling things is a pain. It takes time and patience, and I’ve found that most people don’t have enough of either to make selling worth their while. Who really wants to sit for two days at a yard sale? And who wants to spend large amounts of time weighing, posting, and responding to inquiries on eBay? Unless you’re very self-disciplined (or your items are truly worth a significant amount of money) giving things away is much easier than selling.

Thank you for joining me in this challenge! And if you didn’t, there’s still time to shed some clutter before the holidays. Wishing you and yours a very merry minimalist holiday season!

Rose Lounsbury is the Dayton, Ohio area’s up-and-coming professional organizer. After blogging about her own journey toward a minimalist lifestyle, Rose was inspired to start Less, a minimalist-minded professional organizing company. If you’d like Rose’s help with an organizing project at your home or office, please call her at 937-626-9030.