When I first started reading about minimalism on ZenHabits and mnmlist, I began thinking about what minimalist art would consist of. Would it be a solid-colored canvas? Perhaps a color field painting? Maybe a stylized landscape? Would my choice fit another minimalist’s criteria?

As a portrait artist, I tried to create a minimalist portrait. It took me longer than I thought it would, but I managed to capture Leo in the fewest details necessary.

You can see the picture I worked from on his about page. What do you think, did I create a successful minimalist portrait?

Isn’t it amazing how complicated we tend to make things? To exercise, we so often think that we need a personal trainer, a gym membership, all of the equipment that we could ever think of, and special outfits. In reality, we need some good shoes, a set of appropriate clothes, and maybe some basic equipment.

My favorite weight-lifting routine focuses on a few exercises and requires only a few pieces of equipment. My preferred exercise, running, is very simple. (Preferred is not quite the right word. Least-disliked might be more correct. I love the feeling I have after exercising, but hate having to make myself do it.)

As part of my 2010 Action Plan I decided to complete three challenges: 100 Push Ups, 200 Sit Ups, and 200 Squats. I have delayed starting these challenges until now; I wanted to ease back into running first, so that the two sets of exercises would not interfere with each other.

Now it’s time for me to start working on those challenges. As suggested, I started out by testing myself to see what I am currently able to do.

• Push Ups – 35
• Sit Ups – 50
• Squats – 50

Based on these results, I will follow the instructions on the respective challenges’ websites and work my way up the routines until I can complete the goals.

I feel that this basic routine successfully gives me a minimalist workout routine. It effectively captures the spirit of the Minimalist Experiment by cutting out the “extra” exercises so that I can focus on some basics and build from there.

Well, enough talk, time for me to go on today’s run!

As part of the Minimalist Experiment, I got rid of many of my clothes over the weekend. As I cleaned out my closet, I kept less than half of the clothes I started with. Here’s a list of what I currently have:

• 7 undershirts
• 4 fleece/hoodies
• 4 jackets/coats (including one for rain and a leather jacket)
• 5 pants (jeans & dress)
• 3 sleep/sport pants
• 10 t-shirts (two of which are seasonal)
• 5 long-sleeved t-shirts
• 4 polos
• 6 button-down dress shirts
• 3 sweaters
• 15 pair long socks (6 daily, 6 dress, 2 hiking, 1 seasonal)
• 10 pair ankle socks (4 daily, 6 new)
• 14 underwear
• 2 shorts (1 is swimtrunks)
• 1 sport coat
• 1 vest
• 2 suits

96 items of clothing, and I still feel like it’s too many. I don’t wear the sport coat or vest often, nor do the polos see much use. It would be easy to replace the sweaters with the hoodies and fleece jackets. However, this is only a first step.

Some of the items I kept won’t be used often, but are worth keeping for when I do need them (such as the suits). Some I am not sure how often I wear, so I wanted to keep them to see. Some of the socks are still packaged, so I am keeping them to replace the older ones as they wear out.

I am not striving to reduce my clothes down below a certain number. I just want to make my life simpler. When I get dressed in the morning, it is now easier for me to decide what to wear for the day. Also, I like the idea of being able to replace worn-out clothes with higher quality ones.

This is a good starting place. I have all the clothes I need for a daily basis, and some extra ones for special occasions. As I work with this wardrobe, I can weed out the clothes that I don’t use often enough to keep around, and remove them.

I noticed when I was cleaning up that I had too many clothes that I never use. In fact, this project is one of the main things that made me want to undertake the Minimalist Experiment.

I’ve known for some time that I have too many clothes. When my wife and I moved in together, I donated a lot of clothes. When we moved apartments, I got rid of more. And still, I have too many clothes. I have clothes that have not been out of the closet or dresser since I put them in there. They’re wasting my space, taking up time to look through them as I decide what to wear, and are generally just clutter. So it’s time to do something about them!

I followed the simple system that I read about on Becoming Minimalist to narrow down my clothes.

• I pulled everything out and spread it on the bed.
• From there I sorted it into three piles:
  • keep
  • relocate
  • discard
• Then I took care of the piles.

Everything on the Bed

Wow… my clothes covered the entire bed, nearly a foot deep. That’s just too many! And this is after two rounds of getting rid of stuff.

Keep

Deciding what to keep is easy. Deciding what not to keep is hard. I know that I kept too many items, but this gives me a good reference point for further minimizing later on. I kept less than half of the items that I removed from my closet and dresser.

Relocate

One of the problems that I have with getting rid of certain clothing articles is that I think I may need them. I used to work outside during the winter, so I have a collection of nice warm clothing. However, I am no longer doing that type of work, so I need only a few select pieces. Years of habit make it hard for me to pass on good work clothes, however.

To help prove to myself that I don’t need many of my work clothes (and some of the dress clothes, as well), I packed the clothes that I have not warn in awhile into a duffel bag. This bag will go into the storage area. If I haven’t missed the clothes when I next open that bag, they will be donated.

Discard

I have used the relocate method in the past. While bringing down my clothes, I ran across a stack of shirts that I had previously set aside. Since I had forgotten they even existed, they certainly had not been missed. This stack was quickly tossed into the growing “to be donated” pile. The collection has over-grown its bag and will soon be dropped off at GoodWill.

The Results

My closet is much lighter. My clothes are no longer smashed together. I have half a shelf of empty space (room for my art supplies!) and my morning decision making will be much easier.

One of the first things I noticed when I started cleaning up around the house is that I tend to create piles of papers. This isn’t news to me, as I’ve been doing it for most of my life. However, it always surprises me when I look around and realize that there is a stack developing in every room.

The first area I began to tackle, for the Minimalist Experiment, is to get rid of this clutter. I threw many notes, outdated todo’s, and random ideas into the recycling bin.

Next, I started transferring items that I wanted to keep into my Evernote.com account. I recently discovered this helpful website, and it has helped me tremendously. Evernote is basically an online place to store all of your notes, clippings, etc. You can copy and paste bits of text, pictures, and even entire websites. Best of all, it is then searchable! Instead of organizing everything, just save it and use the search bar later. It’s incredibly easy and fast!. ChristianPF.com has a list of 21 Creative Uses for Evernote that is worth checking out.

So I started copying my saved notes into Evernote. It was such a great feeling to throw away some of that paper! It’s quite a relief to get rid of the notes and scraps of ideas that I’ve been saving, “just in case”. I still have the comfort of keeping them available if I ever do need them, but they’re not taking up physical space now. Even better, they’ll be easier to find if I do ever want to use them. A quick search and they’ll be at my fingertips.

Since I’ve been using Evernote, I’ve discovered that I create less paper. I have a file full of blog post ideas, my reading list, saved quotes, and more. Before, these would have existed in multiple locations, shuffled around as I tried to organize them. Now, I might write something down and slip that piece of paper in my pocket. As soon as I get to a computer, however, I transfer that information to my account and have it readily available when needed.

I’m not done yet. There is still plenty of paper for me to minimize. However, I’ve made a good start, and already it’s a relief to have cleared out some of the clutter.