Welcome to Becoming Minimalist. If you are new, welcome! With over 1M readers every month, we’re honored to have new readers every day. If that’s you, welcome. I’d love to make your experience as comfortable as possible.
Most importantly, Becoming Minimalist is designed to inspire people to pursue their greatest passions by owning fewer possessions.
To find out more about my new book, Things That Matter, click here.
About Joshua Becker
My story begins in suburban Vermont while I was cleaning the garage, my wife was cleaning the bathrooms and my 5-year old son was playing alone in the backyard. I struck up a regular conversation with my neighbor who commented, “Maybe you don’t need to own all this stuff.”
The juxtaposition was striking. My possessions piled up in the driveway… my son in the backyard… my day slipping away… I immediately recognized something needed to change. My belongings were not adding value to my life. Instead, they were subtracting from it.
My family and I began donating, recycling, and removing our unnecessary personal possessions. We embarked on an intentional journey to own less stuff.
As a result, we discovered more money, more time, more energy, more freedom, less stress, and more opportunity to pursue our greatest passions: faith, family, friends. And we decided to write about it.
Becoming Minimalist quickly became a place to encourage others to embrace minimalism. It does not boldly require anyone to become minimalist overnight—nor does it specifically define the word for you. Instead, it encourages each reader to discover their own journey and the far-reaching benefits that come from owning less.
We are dedicated to rational minimalism and discovering what that uniquely means for us. And the more who are introduced to this life-changing message, the better! Because we’re all just trying to make the most of this journey called life.
Over the course of the last eight years, I’ve become a best-selling author and have written four books:
- Simplify: 7 Guiding Principles to Help Anyone Declutter Their Home and Life*
- Clutterfree with Kids: Change your thinking. Discover new habits. Free your home.*
- The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own.*
- The Minimalist Home.*
- Things That Matter*
Past media coverage includes:
CBS Evening News, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio (NPR,) The Guardian, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Forbes, TIME, Fox News, The Huffington Post, Minimalism Documentary (Netflix), Reader’s Digest, LA Times, Sirius XM, CNBC, TODAY Show, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Good Housekeeping, and countless others you can find all over the Internet.
Our Articles
Get introduced to our simple message by reading some of our most popular posts:
- How to Declutter Your Home: 10 Creative Decluttering Tips
- What Is Minimalism? The 8 Essential Aspects of Minimalism
- The 10 Most Important Things to Simplify in Your Life
- 10 Reasons to Escape Excessive Consumerism
- 15 Clutter Busting Routines For Any Family
Or, to discover the importance of owning less, try one of these posts:
- Don’t Just Declutter. De-own.
- Minimalism Benefits: 21 Benefits of Owning Less
- Living With Less: 7 Ways to Sample Minimalist Living
We learned quickly that our journey to live with less on the outside would force our attention inward:
- How to Be Happy: 8 Ways to Be Happier Today
- How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others
- 20 New Ways to Measure Success
- Learning to Consider Gratitude a Discipline
And would be entirely unique because of our life’s values:
If you really can’t get enough, browse our most popular articles. But be warned, there’s a bunch of information there.
Our Community
If you would like to receive new posts via e-mail, sign up here. We are also connected to our community through social media. Find us here:
- Facebook: Inspirational quotes and links.
- Twitter: Quotes, thoughts, links.
- YouTube: Promoting simplicity in home and life.
For interviews, media requests, or general questions, contact us at becomingminimalist@gmail.com
For more information on Joshua, visit his Wikipedia entry here.
Please subscribe me to your blog.
Joshua,
You mentioned a ministry in your book that takes donated wedding rings. I don’t have a wedding ring but do have a ruby ring that I would like to donate but I can’t remember the name of the ministery or find it online. Can you provide?
The organization is called With This Ring.
Dear Mr. Becker:
Thank you for the time and work you put into your videos on YouTube. I especially like it when you illustrate the tips you suggest, such as seeing you clean the counters or wash the dishes. I hope it encourages many men to attend to the enormous job of keeping a home clean and welcoming.
My home isn’t the cleanest but I try to keep it welcoming. To help me pay attention to people and not the mess around me here are some tiny habits I aim to practice on a regular basis, to keep surfaces free of things that distract me much more than other folks:
Acting like a parent of multiples: Just like parents of twins or triplets often make it a practice of changing ALL the diapers at the same time, I push myself to clean all the toilets at the same time. The sink areas stay pretty clean because I wipe down the splatters with an extra towel I keep in the bathroom(s) but the toilets need more attention. If I clean one I then go around the house and clean the rest.
The paper items ready for recycling tend to get stuck in different rooms around the house. Empty toilet paper rolls, tissue boxes and cosmetic wrappers tend to sit, sit and sit on the bathroom counters for days—what gives? I am still in the process of building the habit of putting these items in our recycling bins right away.
Messes on the floor: My princess dog has cooked rice added to every meal, to aid digestion. She doesn’t focus on the rice, just the kibble, so the floor around her bowl is sprinkled with squooshy rice that hardens into hard, little pebbles that feel like Legos to your bare feet. To help me clean up the area I keep a dustpan and wide brush hidden away on the seat of one of the unused kitchen table chairs. Three times a day I’m down on my hands and knees or walking around like a bear, brushing up the rice. It keeps me limber.
Doormats and rugs: My husband raises a small number of horses and cows, so there’s a lot of dirt and manure being tracked into our house. When I walk the dog I try to remember to shake out the exterior door mat every day and the towel/rug we keep just inside the most often-used door. It helps to keep down how much mess is tracked into the house. Yes, we wipe down the dog’s paws in muddy weather. Princess paws.
Trash in the car: I use the driver’s door storage area for temporarily keeping car trash in check. Tissues, gum wrappers, toothpicks—it all goes there when I’m driving. At the gas station or at home I collect it and toss it in the trash. When I’m waiting at the park or movies for a friend to arrive I tidy up my car. Years ago I worked out of my car so I’m in the habit of bringing along anything I need if I’m stranded on a desert island. All that, and the princess dog crate, take up a lot of room and tend to get jumbled up over time. My friends tell me how clean my car looks and smells; it’s hard not to laugh.
The princess dog is our first indoors dog. I try to brush her everyday, outside. We shake out the towel she sits on when she’s on the couch. If there’s lots of pollen outside I wipe her coat down with a damp rag. I figure that the more fur and dirt I can keep out of the house, the better.
Pulling weeds: When I’m outside and see a weed, I pull it. I may not be able to pull all the weeds in every spot I see, but I yank out a few. When the weeds are absent you can better appreciate the flowers. I’m 71 now but when I was 32 with two little kids I was so bored outside with them playing in the yard. In desperation I pulled a weed or two in my dinky flower bed along the sidewalk. It snowballed into being interested in gardening and now I have flower gardens all around the house. When friends come over they love to walk around the yard and we meet at our botanical garden and parks to admire the gardens. I have several friends who plant-swap with me. It builds community. Pulling weeds and planting flowers keeps me limber.
My last tip is not a quick one but it helps me keep sane if I have people coming over. My husband is extremely willing to work with me on preparing for dinners and parties but needs a clear list of tasks to be done. Also, some tasks need some explaining and who has time for that when I’m in a rush? The answer is to have a printed, generic list of “to-dos” ready (kept in my recipe folder) and to prep him ahead of time for how to handle complicated tasks.
Being the kind of temperament that struggles to look on the positive side of things, even knowing that I’m loved by our heavenly Father and redeemed by Jesus, I do whatever I can to avoid feeling overwhelmed. My family and friends don’t care how perfect things are at dinner or other gatherings but I want to be able to focus on them and not on how things look. Chipping away at keeping the house, car, yard–life–tidy and ready for action helps me be more upbeat and focus on the joy of being with family and friends.
Best wishes to you and your family,
Hi
Greetings of the day! I hope everything is fine at your end.
I am Jennifer, Working as a digital marketing executive and passionate about writing on different marketing & digital signage industry-related topics.
Recently I got a chance to visit your website & I find it very impressive. I loved your content on the website:
becomingminimalist.com
We are working on a campaign for a client who is interested in doing a guest post collaboration on your website: becomingminimalist.com
The article will be well-written and according to your blog theme with small brief about the client in the article.
If you’re interested, please let me know your pricing for a guest post placement.
Thank You
Joshua Becker. A minimalist at HEART. Helping the world, doing his PART.
He has a soothing voice and hair like no OTHER . A successful blog, youtube following and now another book? O BROTHER.
He offers great advice about living with LESS. Declutter! Get rid of that MESS!
We need this man, people’s lives are a WRECK. Follow his advice and maybe you be as famous as his V-NECK.
I hope he comes to Connecticut someDAY. Joshua Becker . . . Here to STAY.
😅 funny you
Joshua, I want to ask permission to use a translated version of one of your blogs in a book for the classroom. Can you please send me an email address where I can send the request? Marieta
Hi. I get your regular emails that you originate and I also enjoy your guest posts. I was wondering if you, or your guests, have anything on minimal weddings. Thanks!
My life functions and I have a mostly clean, most of the time dish free sink which is good since we mostly eat from home and I don’t have a dishwasher.
My problem is my closets, drawers, every nook and cranny as my partner says… overstuffed and busting out the seams.
He’s suffocating in our little space and I’m causing that. I found this site, hoping an article or book could inspire me. I’ve read, listened to many… and it’s all the same thing a different way.
Letting go… I understand the act of letting go is so much easier than holding on.
I’m in the midst of this bridge… For right now stuff is winning because it’s the only thing in my life I can control, the only experience I can share, and it’s the only thing that feels true… because it’s there and I have it.
All that’s a lie… I believe is true. But the reality so much more is out there.
The root problem started when my Dad disease early onset Alzheimers started (when I was in grade school) I did pretty well with stuff and material objects until my high school years that’s when I started attaching myself emotionally to things. When things really got of control and we lost everything… his job, his house auctioned, our life. Even our family cat who was 17 died right before the big whirlwind of chaos. Even worse me and who he thought I was (which had been for years a younger version of myself) … but it was becoming apparent that he hardly knew me anymore at all.
Years have passed my father has too. The bitter-end was even uglier than the story above and watching him pass through all the stages was the hardest thing in my life.
I have now still attached myself emotionally to things, collections, and letting go of them is difficult for me.
I believe I have some grief issues dealing with centering around this.
Thanks for taking the time to read. Do you have any ideas on how I can get through this. I have my partner to think about and he’s a lot more important than stuff.
If anything could you pray for me.
Over stuffed in Indiana,
Anna
Hi Anna. I have grief issues too. It’s normal to go through grief and seeing a loved one suffer an incurable illness is heartbreaking. I know. I read this quote “minimalism is the art of letting go”. You have to let your grief go as well as the clutter. You will feel better after. You don’t have to let go of things that you use or love but if you start organizing and going through your stuff I think you will find things that are useless and meaningless.
My suggestion would be to start by organizing and taking out recyclables. Just by cleaning and touching items you will bring a new feeling to your life. Cry whenever you want. Let the tears and the clutter fall off.
Hi Anna, my tips for you is try to say “thank you” to stuffs that you want to let go but you can’t because there is emotional value in it. So a thankful farawel may work to ease the guilt to let go. A Prayer like “Thank you for accompany me throughout my life. It is now for me to let you go. I will always remember you even when I can’t see you. You have been once useful for me”.
Hi Joshua, just read 2 of your books: Things that matter and The more of less.. I have been downsizing or right sizing as some one else called it.. but what I loved in your books was the clear description of the WHY.. service of others. It gave me a renewed sense in my ongoing simple living efforts! Thanks, please keep at it! your writing etc..
Just discovered your website via a rabbit trail and am just in awe over what I have read on your site. You and your contributors make so much sense and get to the heart of what matters in life. My 2023 goal is to declutter and deep clean my house. Reading the articles on your website will be the encouragement that I need.
Thank you!!!
Welcome.
Reporting you to az police.
What??!!