Starting September 1st, Mary of !Blog (and as you may recall, n00bcakes) and I are joining forces to recover from the insane busy-ness of July and August, and simplify our lives. We’ll both be doing the 30-Day Minimalism Challenge, as well as some extracurriculars to help be more minimal.

The word minimalism usually refers to art, design, and music movements. In this case, however, minimalism refers to simplifying ones personal life by reducing both the desire for and possession of material goods, and even ditching the societal norms that cause more stress and harm than good.

At least to me, it’s also about peeling back the layers of our modern lives and achieving a level of simplicity and whole living that makes the most sense for our physical and emotional well-being. It’s about letting go – physically and mentally – of the things that don’t matter. It’s about identifying and systematically reducing or eliminating the many widely accepted red herrings in modern westernized life that are distracting us all from the real goals in life, and the true sources of happiness and fulfillment.

The 30-Day Minimalism Challenge has one life-simplifying challenge for each day. Mary and I will be posting weekly progress reports on our respective blogs, but we’ll also be sharing our progress and relevant articles on Facebook here and here, and we’re running a joint Minimalism board on Pinterest, which we’ll stuff full of relevant articles and inspirational quotes and photos!

Spending September simplifying things a bit should not only help us clean our slates, reduce stress, and start practicing simpler and more fulfilling lives, but should also give us a head start on surviving the holidays with a little more zen than usual!

We hope you’ll join us and follow along, even if you aren’t prepared to take the challenge with us, we’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback as the month goes on! Check out !Blog’s intro post here.