C (6:26)

Hey, I'm outstanding. Thanks for having me.

A (6:28)

So help help my my viewers out. What is a better way to decide whether you should keep something or get rid of it? Because the poop rule ain't doing it for me.

C (6:38)

I actually like the poop rule, but I've got some better ways to approach your things. The average American household has 300,000 items in it, and that'd be wonderful. It's making us more happy and more peaceful and was completing. We often buy a thing because we think it's going to complete us, but it does the opposite. It incompletes us. It gets in the way. Anything that gets in the way is clutter. The minimalist came up with these 16 rules for living with less. They're not really rules. They're just boundaries. They're adjustable for your life. If you go into your closet, one of the rules that works really well for me is the 9090 rule. You pull out anything that's in your closet. You know, those old sweatpants from 1998. Or maybe you have, like, an oversized jacket you haven't worn in a while, or that sweater. And you ask your yourself, have I worn this in the last 90 days? And if the answer is no, then okay, will I wear it in the next 90 days? Because right now it's the end of summer. And no, I haven't worn my winter coat in the last 90 days. But, yeah, I know I'm going to wear it within the next 90 days, so I'm going to hold on to that. But if the answer is no to both of those questions, then I give myself permission to let it go. If 90 days is too radical for you, then make it 180 days. Or if it's not radical enough, maybe it's the 3030 rule for you. The important thing is that we own a lot of clothes that we never wear. Another thing that really helps with clothes is the hate that shirt rule. You ever go into your closet, you put on a shirt and you're like, I don't know, man, this just doesn't fit me. That right? It looked great on the mannequin, but it doesn't look good on me. I kind of hate this shirt. Well, I don't just put it back in the closet and say, well, I'll just get rid of it someday. Or maybe I'll put it on. I'll keep it just in case. Right? The hate that shirt rule says, instead of putting it back in your closet, get rid of it, Donate it, sell it, get it out of the House. If you hate it today, there's a great chance you're gonna hate it tomorrow. Here's one more for you. I call it the spontaneous combust rule. You can take any item in your home, you pick it up, and you say, okay, if this item were to spontaneously combust, how would I feel? Would I feel a sense of loss, like, oh, that's my favorite coffee mug. Or would I feel a sense of relief, like, whew, I'm so glad I don't have to deal with that anymore. And if it's the latter, if I'd feel a sense of relief if that thing spontaneously combusted, I want to get it out of my life once and for all. Get it out of the home today.

A (8:54)

I love those. And honestly, if something spontaneously combusted in my house, my first question would be, why was there an explosive device in this thing? That's frightening, but I love the concept. That's a way better version of the poop rule. If this exploded randomly, that's way more exciting than, like, who got poop on this again? You know, that's not as fun. So decluttering can get overwhelming. Like, when I unload my junk drawer, I just go, oh, gosh. What's the easiest place to start with when decluttering, when you feel overwhelmed?

C (9:21)

I'll tell you where not to start. First, don't start with the difficult things. Don't go to your sentimental items, like, oh, that thing grandma left me when she died 14 years ago. Oh, should I get rid of it? I don't know. It's just so precious to me, you know? There is no such thing as a sentimental item, though. There's only sentimental people. If I gave you my sentimental items, you'd be like, get rid of these. These aren't sentimental to me at all. But I always start in the places that we spend the most time in. It's either the living room or the bedroom. Those are areas that we spe a lot of time in. And so we have a lot of mental clutter that is caused by the physical clutter in those spaces. In fact, our material possessions are just a physical manifestation of whatever's going on inside us. So if I look around my house and I've got a lot of external clutter, it's because I have a lot of internal clutter, emotional clutter, spiritual clutter. Maybe I have calendar clutter or relationship clutter or financial clutter or career clutter. There's a lot of clutter in our lives, and it starts with the stuff.

A (10:17)

What this really gets to as well is the accumulation of stuff. Like we have tiny houses called storage units that Americans put their extra stuff in just in case. So how do we stay content in a culture that says you need more? And what about if and just in case? How do you just pause and go, I don't need that?

C (10:36)

Those are the three most dangerous words in the English language, just in case, because they allow us to hold on to anything that we might need in some non existent hypothetical future. I can justify holding on to anything. Why deal with it today when I can just put it off until tomorrow? Right, right. And so we come up with something called the just in case rule. It's in the minimalist rule book. You can download it for free over@the minimalists.com but the just in case rule is anything I'm holding on to just in case I can let go of it, because I know I can replace it for less than $20 in less than 20 minutes from wherever I am. So we call it the 2020 rule. And at first, that seems like an incredible rule of privilege. Like, I don't want to go around every day wasting $20 replacing all of these items. Guess what? You never have to use it. You never end up replacing those just in case items. I've been a minimalist for 15 years now, and I've had to replace five just in case items I've gotten rid of. That's about 100 bucks over the course of 15 years. But you know what that's done for me? It's given me permission to let go of tens of thousands of just in case items that are getting in the way. And better yet, by letting go of that excess stuff, I've been able to contribute beyond myself. Because if I'm keeping it in my basement or my attic or my cabinets or my storage locker, which, by the way, costs you money every month. If I'm holding onto it, I'm selfishly clinging. No one's getting value from those things, including me. In fact, it's extracting value from my life. But if I let it go, if I donate it to a charity or to a shop where someone else can use it, or maybe I sell it on ebay or Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. Now someone else is getting value from those things. Just because it's clutter to me doesn't mean that someone else can't get value from it. If and only if I'm willing to let it go.

A (12:17)

Well, I'll tell you what I struggle with. The sunk cost Fallacy. I go, hey, I paid good money for that thing. You want me to just donate it to Goodwill? No, I'll list it on ebay or Facebook Marketplace. I'll get around to that someday. Then you're getting Lowball offers of $5. You navigate 17 messages with people not showing up. You end up selling it or giving it away for a measly price. And then you're just angry with yourself going, never again. And then you repeat the process. So how do you speak to someone like that who kind of has that wired in them or who goes, hey, I declutter once a year, and suddenly the clutter enters my life again.

C (12:50)

Yeah, decluttering is about reaching an end point. It's more like a horizon. As soon as you get there, there's a new horizon. I wish I could say, here are the hundred items that you should own, George, and then you'll be happy for the rest of your life. But of course, as your life changes, your circumstances change. And what adds value to your life changes as well. And so we have something called the selling deadline rule. If I want to let go of something, first, I set a threshold for me. I'm not trying to sell things that are five bucks. It's not worth the time. I'd rather donate those things. But if I', debt, maybe it's anything over 20 bucks. That's what it was for me. Now that I'm not in debt, it's pretty great. I can say anything over 100 bucks, I'll try to sell. But that's where the selling deadline rule comes in. We talk about this all the time on the Minimalist podcast. When people call into our show and they're trying to part with something, and. And how do I let go of this thing? And we set a selling deadline. I try to sell it on Facebook Marketplace, and if it doesn't sell within a week, I lower the price. If it doesn't sell within 30 days, I donate it. If I can't donate it because no one will take that old mattress or pillow or what, I will find a way to recycle it. And ultimately, if I can't recycle it, there are some things that must end up in a landfill. I mean, let's face it, it's already in a landfill called your house. Right now, you're holding on to something that is trash. I'd rather go through that whole process. Yes, there'll be some things that we have to throw away, but we can sell certain things. The key, though, is to get it out of my life in a respectable period of time so I don't keep clinging.

A (14:12)

So good man. All of these are beat the poop rule all day long. So thank you for this wisdom. The rules, the boundaries, the practical advice. It's why you're my go to guy when I need to declutter my physical life and my mental life. You just bring me Zen so I appreciate what you do. Can you tell the people what you're up to, where they can find you?

C (14:32)

Yeah, you can always just find us. At theminimalists.com you can find our social media, our podcast, our Netflix films and everything else. Theminimalists.com and I had the pleasure on.

A (14:41)

Being on said podcast and we'll link that episode if you want to hear the conversation that we had as well as your website. So thanks so much Joshua man, Be well. Stay decluttered.

C (14:53)

It's a joy to see you.

A (14:54)

Big thanks to Joshua for joining me today. And if there's one thing to take away from all this, it's that getting rid of excess stuff won't just clear your closet, it's also gonna clear your mind and your budget. Less junk always leads to more joy. Now I will say the poop test is not the only crazy Gen Z trend that you need to be aware of because I recently made this video breaking down how the zoomers have created a new strategy to micro retire. So click here to check it out or use the link in the description below. That's it for today. Be sure to hit like on this video. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.