(upbeat music)
- What are you doing?
- Oh I'm sorry, do you want one?
- Nah, I'm good, thanks though.
That is correct.
My wife, Natalie, has
decided to try minimalism.
Yes, the same Natalie that loves stuff
and is not at all into minimalism.
I'm not sure how I convinced her to do it,
but here we are.
This is gonna be interesting,
to say the least.
Now, if you're not
familiar with this channel,
let me catch you up to speed real quick.
That's me; I'm a minimalist.
I don't own a lot of stuff,
I wear the same T-shirt
pretty much everyday,
I've got one pair of jeans,
and I'm crazy intentional
with nearly every
aspect of my life.
That's my wife, Natalie, and she's not.
Now, she's not a hoarder,
but she likes stuff.
She doesn't seem to get
distracted by clutter,
and since we started
dating five years ago,
she hasn't personally seen the benefits
of living a minimalist lifestyle.
Now, I wanna be 100% clear here.
I am not in any way forcing
minimalism on Natalie.
This is not like that
prank YouTube channel
that I tried to start.
(upbeat music)
- Matt?
Matt, where did all my stuff go?
- I got you!
- Oh my God, I thought you
threw out all my stuff.
- No, I did.
- What?
- Yeah, that's the prank.
- Matt, turn off the camera.
- Yeah, so this thing is
gonna be not like that thing.
That there was no consent.
Now I've actually talked to Natalie,
and I happened to catch her when she was
receptive and warm to the idea.
She agreed to it, so
an experiment was born.
For seven days, I'll be helping Natalie
declutter her life.
From her wardrobe to her beauty products,
her computer, phone,
and cooking condiments.
Natalie is going full minimalism.
(laughter)
So obviously we've talked about minimalism
a lot on this channel.
But for people who
haven't seen those videos
or interviews with you,
what are your thoughts on minimalism?
- I just don't think it's for me.
Like, firstly, I don't
have a problem to solve.
Like, I'm not like, I'm
feeling overwhelmed or stressed
by having all these things.
Like, I don't feel that
pressure or that stress.
- Do you think that, in doing
this one week experiment,
there will be places in which you actually
find benefits from letting
go or decluttering?
- I'm gonna be honest, no.
But I'm open minded and
I'm down to experiment
and try new things.
- While everyone has their
own unique sentimental items
and personal belongings they cling to,
if we're being honest, as a whole,
men and women tend to face different
challenges and problems when it comes to
embracing minimalism.
And no difference is more apparent
than in the bedroom closet.
Since I've never personally attacked
a decluttering project as
ambitious as a women's closet,
I decided to call in a
favor and ask an expert.
- We're overwhelmed by the
amount of stuff we own,
and closets are the easiest place
to collect a lot of crap.
- [Matt] That's Courtney
Carver; author and creator
of the minimalist
fashion challenged called
Project 333 that took
the internet by storm
back in 2010.
- For three months, you
dress with 33 items or less,
including clothing, jewelry,
accessories, and shoes.
- [Matt] But everything
else has to get packed up
and stored out of the way.
There are some items that don't count
towards your 33 items:
your wedding ring, underwear, sleepwear,
in-home lounge wear, and workout clothing.
But you have to use your
workout clothes to work out.
- By pairing down to 33 items,
people have experienced some
pretty amazing benefits.
Everything from easier mornings,
they have more time for themselves,
they're saving money.
I'm not saying that is
gonna happen for everyone,
but just hearing that from people
that it alleviated a little
bit of pressure and stress
so that they felt better.
I mean, that is probably
the biggest benefit of all.
- Three months to me feels
a little bit impossible,
I'm not gonna lie.
So I've challenged myself,
and it is a challenge,
to do project 331 with the
one standing for one week
instead of three months.
This is something that I've never tried.
I've never tried, even
though we've known each other
for getting on to six years,
I've never tried to pair down my wardrobe
intentionally and purposefully.
So I really don't know
what it's gonna do to me.
This could be another breakdown week.
Are you ready for it?
- I'm not ready for it.
- You're gonna have to pick up the pieces.
- I asked Courtney if she
had any advice for Nat
before she got started.
- My first bit of advice
is don't freak out.
I think that is the first reaction
when you start to remove
things from your closet
is you kinda feel like,
am I gonna have enough?
Or what will I do about laundry?
Or all these other questions
come up and we overthink it,
which we do with a lot of things in life.
But were we to just start,
that eliminates that,
it quiets the mind because
you're taking action,
and then you discover
that you're eliminating
a ton of stress and
anxiety just by starting.
- And then Natalie got started.
All right, Nat, here we are.
You ready for this?
- Yeah, let's do it. I'm ready.
Well, I think we can start
where it's really hazy
which is winter gear, like
east coast winter gear,
like, not LA winter gear.
This can definitely go into the no pile.
I fully reckon, yay, nay?
No, yes.
Didn't say that.
Cut that out, that's embarrassing.
Is this culturally
inappropriate? (laughing)
It makes me feel really
spiritual when I wear it.
When selecting items from my
closet for the experiment week,
I had to think about what kind of events,
work, or social plans I had coming up.
Valentine's Day just so happened
to fall within this week,
so I had to section off a few items
for the obligatory date night.
I also had a few days where
I knew I'd be spending time
visiting clients, so I wanted
items that made me feel
extra confident, polished, and creative.
And then I also just like feeling cozy
for lazy days so I wanted
to pick a few items
that helped me feel a little extra Hygge.
Google it.
When sifting through my wardrobe,
there were definitely a few items
that I knew I wanted to
get rid of and donate,
either because I just
hadn't worn them in forever
or they'd gone out of style.
Especially a ton of high heels
that I'd accumulated over the years
and worn for the odd meeting or two
when we were in New York,
but no longer fit into my more
laid back lifestyle in LA.
- So she packed up 99% of her clothes
into these suitcases and garbage bags
and hid them out of sight,
left with only 33 items to
wear over the next seven days.
Does that seem like
something that you could do
in the long-term?
- Obviously, obviously that's possible.
But will I?
Like, you know what I mean.
Like, yeah, I'll get by.
But will I be happy or fulfilled by it?
I truly don't think I will be.
Picking outfits sometimes,
like, it often brings me joy.
And so depriving myself of that choice,
I think would wear me down.
- Hey, by the way guys, if you wanna get
behind-the-scenes videos
of videos like this
and other exclusive content,
you can go to patreon.com/mattdavella.
- [Natalie] Its really good.
- I think it's good.
I think the audio being shitty
is kinda what, part of it anyway.
Get access to exclusive
videos, my secret AMA podcast,
and our inner circle community chat group.
Thank you guys so much of considering.
And now back to the video.
Next up, we moved along
to Nat's technology,
including her computer and cell phone
to face an even more intimidating problem.
How to organize a half decade
worth of digital clutter.
(intense music)
This desktop is horrifying.
How long has it been like this?
- Forever.
- Oh, forever.
- It's really not that bad.
I think you're being dramatic.
- One thing that I do is I kinda establish
all the shortcuts that I really want.
I click the top and bottom of the screen
so the ones that you use frequently,
like do you use the app store?
- [Natalie] No.
- [Matt] So we would just get rid of that.
- Whoa.
I never use Quick Time.
- Yeah, that's--
- I get it, I get it, I get it.
- This is screen recording right now.
Photos?
- No.
- My goodness.
Look at us decluttering.
And then as we dug deeper
into her other devices,
the real problem started to emerge.
- You wanna see something
that's gonna scare you?
11333 unread emails in my inbox.
11 thousand.
- Okay, I see two problems here.
Problem number one, you have
over 11 thousand unread emails.
Problem number two, you use Yahoo! Mail.
It was apparent from the
moment we opened her computer
that this would not be a quick fix,
and it would likely take a
day or two of backing up,
transferring, and migrating files
into a more appropriate system.
The most important thing I learned is that
none of these files were backed up
to any kind of cloud storage.
So if her computer was stolen or crashed,
all of her data would be lost forever.
And if the same thing
happened to her phone,
she'd lose five years worth of
photos, videos, and memories.
The first step we took was to back up
all her files onto a
solid state hard drive.
This way we could safely go
about moving her files around.
For her cloud storage, we
decided to use Google Drive.
We installed it on her computer,
and safely moved the files over.
For her phone, we installed Google Photos
and began the automated
process of backing up
all her photos and videos.
Finally, we updated her
operating system on her laptop
and made use of the handy stacks feature.
Hey, look, there was actually a photo
behind all those files.
- I guess there's peace
of mind in knowing that
my files are now all backed up.
That's obviously important.
I just didn't want it
to come at the cost of
losing any files in the process.
What might look like absolute chaos
is a very organized system in my head.
I have a hoarder's secret that
I've been keeping from you.
- What?
(laughter)
Oh God.
- My beauty belongings are excessive,
and I've strategically placed,
I've been keeping them
in separate containers
in different rooms around the apartment
so you have never seen them
all collectively together
in one bundle.
And I think the results will shock you.
- And so Nat dug through each
drawer, cabinet, and closet
to find all the beauty
products in our house.
And when she laid them all out,
personally I didn't think it was as bad
as she said it was gonna be.
- It's my precious!
- But just for fun, we
decided to coal down
all her makeup and skincare
products to just one bag
for seven days.
- This is actually kinda fun.
It's so close, it's so close!
No, I have to lose one thing.
I guess I don't need glitter eyeshadow.
And that's skincare and makeup.
- [Matt] Cool, minimalism.
That's not what we were supposed to do.
- Oh, I thought it was
like the Tik Tok challenge.
So when I thought about
what I wanted to fit
inside of this bag,
I had to fit both skincare and cosmetics,
plus we had Valentine's Day
so I wanted to do a special eye.
I think things like combo products
like tinted moisturizer with SPF
means I didn't need to pack foundation.
- And as our decluttering
project came to an end,
there was just one final place
we needed to tackle; the fridge.
Because if Nat hoards anything,
it's cooking condiments.
Oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce,
chili oil, Japanese mayonnaise.
The only question: which of
these would she be keeping?
Do you use all these condiments?
- I do.
- [Matt] You get value out
of all these condiments?
- Yes.
- [Matt] You can keep the condiments.
- Yay!
- I've gotta give Nat
credit for playing along
and taking part in this
little minimalist experiment.
As I joined her as she
decluttered her closet,
her digital life and beauty products,
I was reminded that sometimes
the most difficult part
of minimalism is the first step.
- I really really disliked decluttering.
I found it so exhausting.
It's like one of the worst
chores, so who enjoys chore?
Wait, you do, you enjoy a chore.
- [Matt] 100%.
And when it comes to
our experimenter, Nat,
what did she get from
this minimalist challenge?
Did she find any profound
takeaways or life lessons?
- I think this might be great for someone
who might open their
wardrobe everyday and go,
oh, this exhausts me, trying
to think what to wear everyday.
I am not in that situation.
I open my closet, I grab
things, it's very easy for me.
So I didn't feel like I
got anything out of this.
Fair to say that I will
never become a minimalist.
Sorry, Matt.
- [Matt] Sorry Matt.
Okay, well thank you
so much for doing this.
I told you!
That said, she did find one silver lining.
- I will say it was nice to go through
all my clothes when I restocked my closet
and found all the things
I don't use anymore
to donate to charity,
and it turned out to be
a pretty decent pile,
which means I have room for shopping.
- [Matt] Wait, what?
- [Natalie] What?
- [Matt] Turn this thing off!
- [Natalie] Hey!
- So whether you wanna
become a minimalist or not,
I don't think it takes
away from the fact that
by going through your stuff
and figuring out what you're not using
and not getting value from,
you can then find a new home for it.
And I think that's the coolest takeaway
from this video and from
the experiment with Natalie
is that all that stuff
that was just sitting
idly in her closet is now making its way
to a new home so somebody can actually
get use out of it, instead
of it just sitting there.
So that was really cool.
I wanna thank Nat so
much for doing this video
and for putting up with me
making all these videos all the time,
and including her in them.
I like these videos the most
'cause I just have so much
fun shooting with her.
I wanna thank Courtney Carver;
she's got a new book
out called Project 333.
If you're trying to declutter your closet,
I definitely recommend
you check out her book.
She's amazing.
And lastly, just wanna thank you guys.
Appreciate you stopping
by, watching all my videos,
it really means the world to me,
and it does not go unnoticed.
Thank you and I'll see you next time.
Natalie?
Nat, where's my camera gear?
- Got you!
(laughter)
- I thought you threw my camera gear out.
- No, I wouldn't throw
out your camera gear,
I just donated it.
- What?
- [Natalie] What?
