– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

(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?

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
minimalism /ˈmɪnɪməˌlɪzəm/ B2	noun - the practice of living with only the things you need
declutter /dɪˈklʌtər/ B1	verb - to remove unnecessary items from a place
wardrobe /ˈwɔːdrəʊb/ B1	noun - a large, tall cabinet where clothes are hung
experiment /ɪkˈsperɪmənt/ B1	noun - a scientific test to prove or disprove a hypothesis verb - to try something new to see what happens
benefits /ˈbenɪfɪts/ B1	noun - advantages
intentional /ɪnˈtenʃənəl/ B2	adjective - done on purpose; deliberate
hoarder /ˈhɔːrdər/ B2	noun - a person who accumulates things and has difficulty discarding them
clutter /ˈklʌtər/ B1	noun - a crowded or messy condition
receptive /rɪˈseptɪv/ B2	adjective - willing to consider or accept new suggestions and ideas
condiments /ˈkɒndɪmənts/ B1	noun - spices, sauces, or other seasonings added to food
donate /dəˈneɪt/ A2	verb - to give something to charity
eliminate /ɪˈlɪmɪneɪt/ B2	verb - to completely remove or get rid of something
anxiety /æŋˈzaɪəti/ B2	noun - a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease
challenges /ˈtʃælɪndʒɪz/ B1	noun - difficulties
confident /ˈkɒnfɪdənt/ B1	adjective - feeling or showing self-assurance
fulfilled /fʊlˈfɪld/ B2	adjective - satisfied or happy