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 forthcoming book, The Minimalist Home, click here.
Our Story
Our 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.
We 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.
Our Writing
Get introduced to our simple message by reading some of our most popular posts:
- 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:
We learned quickly that our journey to live with less on the outside would force our attention inward:
- Stop Comparing Your Life. Start Living It.
- 20 New Ways to Measure Success
- Learning to Consider Gratitude a Discipline
And would be entirely unique because of our life’s values:
Our story has been seen on the CBS Evening News, the Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, The Guardian, The Boston Globe, and countless interviews/reviews you can find all over the Internet.
Over the course of the last eight years, we’ve 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 | BAM
- The Minimalist Home.* Available everywhere: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kindle | iBooks | IndieBound
And 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:
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!
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’?
Hi Joshua, Thanks for the amazing website. I really enjoy your writing