Welcome to Becoming Minimalist. If you are new, welcome! We are honored to have hundreds of thousands of regular readers, and brand new readers every day. If that’s you, welcome. I’d love to make your experience here as comfortable as possible.
Most importantly, Becoming Minimalist is designed to inspire others to pursue their greatest passions by owning fewer possessions.
To find out more about my new book, The Minimalist Home, 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.*
Available everywhere: Barnes and Noble | Amazon | IndieBound - The Minimalist Home.*
Available everywhere: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kindle | iBooks | IndieBound
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, TIME, Fox News, The Huffington Post, Minimalism Documentary (Netflix), Reader’s Digest, LA Times, Sirius XM, CNBC, TODAY Show, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, 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.
- Pinterest: Promoting simplicity in home and life.
For interviews, media requests, or general questions, contact us at [email protected]
For more information on Joshua, visit his Wikipedia entry here.
About Joshua Becker
My dream of being a minimalist is a steady journey, and thank you for your various articles that get emailed to me. I may not be able to read them all in a timely manner, but I save them and read what interests me. What I have found is reading about other’s approaches inspire me in such different ways. I recently read the author that started project 333. I did her master closet clean out approach of doing it in a day. It took me a day and half because. . . dinner and kids needed to be taken care of. But I learned so much about myself in my buying habits and dressing habits. I am an out of sight, out of mind person. The things I had “stored away” were forgotten and it was easier to toss/donate. We have been living in this house for almost 4 years and I figured out if I didn’t use it/see it in the four years of being here, I didn’t need it. I took a note from Marie Kondo and kept a couple scarves that make me really happy, but I actually don’t wear them. I am looking for ways to use them in an artistic form or display now. It was liberating to get through my closet!
About 6 months ago we starting preparing our house for sale for a move that did not end up happening. In that time, I went through our storage room and books. I was able to make our spare bedroom an actual guest room for our frequent family guests. I also turned our storage room into a nice craft space that I can clutter up as I immerse myself into projects I can now do! I just shut the door when I need to hide it!
I love your approach to making the minimalist journey one to fit you and your own needs. I would love to see Clutter Free with Kids become an audio book since I am now keeping the book collection under control. :)
Do you have a book in the works or any detailed articles or course on decreasing business and over scheduling?
I finished both The More of Less and The Minimalist Home this past month. I have always decluttered every now and then when things become too stressful but having 4 kids and very generous family and friends is overwhelming, especially when they do not share the same views on “less is more” than you do. I began decluttering seriously, and much more rigorously than I ever have, on June 3rd 2019 (I will never forget that day because it took quite a bit to get my husband on board – showing youtube clips, leaving my goals around so he can see them, etc.) The amount of stuff I have hauled out of my 1,200 square foot house is incredible and yet we still have a house full of stuff. Lots more work to be done! Last night, my husband turned to me and said, “what can we do next?” SLOWLY but surely we are well on our way to a simpler life. Even my 6 year old has been on board with eliminating some toys that he no longer plays with. The challenge will be getting our parents on board with the less is more approach to Christmas gifts for the kids…. Thank you for the great website, the youtube videos, and all of the great work you are doing!
Hello,
On what date does the next Uncluttered course begin? Thank you!
October 15. You can find registration info here: my.becomingminimalist.com
I have previously stored posts on Pinterest, but can no longer find the link at the end of any articles. Is it somewhere else or are you no longer providing for this? Thanks!
I have removed that option for the sake of simplicity.
Hi Joshua, Thanks for the amazing website. I really enjoy your writing
To what extent do you feel that computer files constitute “clutter”?
If one has for example 60 material possessions but 700 gigs storage filled with document after document of sentimental or work-related documents, is that person still a ‘minimalist’?
I just finished your book The More of Less and I am recommending to everyone. This past week we did some cleaning out of the basement. I moved my craft stuff into a room where it is accessible and all in one place. I ended up with about 12 bags of trash, selling off multiple pieces of furniture that I was hanging onto for sentimental reasons and I started organizing photos. I used your advice about “the best” and throwing out doubles. I have over 10,000 pictures to go through, so though I started I have a long way to go. However, I want to thank you for getting me started in the right direction. I’m excited to be able to do the crafts I love, now they are available. We have more work in the basement, but with your suggestions I think we will get the area we desire!