Hello Everybody,
Let’s try something different today and have a little bit of fun.
This past weekend, Becoming Minimalist reached a significant milestone I wanted to share with you.
We officially surpassed 100,000 email subscribers!
That’s a pretty impressive accomplishment worthy of celebration. It means more and more people are being introduced to the life-giving benefits of owning less. And it means our community and our movement continue to grow in significant ways.
Asking people to subscribe via email to receive updates from Becoming Minimalist has never been a huge priority for me. But recently, I’ve begun to change my thinking about that. For starters, there are many readers who appreciate the convenience of receiving an email whenever we publish new posts. I want to make sure readers know that is an option if that’s what they prefer.
Additionally, and equally important, I have just created a 10-day “getting started with minimalism” email sequence to people who subscribe. The sequence includes a PDF copy of my best-selling book, Simplify, as well as first steps people can take on their minimalism journey. It serves as a helpful touchpoint for people who discover the blog, find themselves interested in minimalism, and are ready to start owning less and living more.
If you would like to join the ever-growing email list to receive the free book and email sequence, click here.
For those who have already joined, all 100,000 of you, thank you for being a part of this encouraging community and providing opportunity for this celebratory post.
I’d like to offer a special thank you to everyone who reads Becoming Minimalist. Every month, we welcome over one million unique readers and our Facebook community has now grown to 800,000. These numbers are a credit to each of you who have so generously shared this blog and its articles with friends and family.
Thank you, thank you for supporting Becoming Minimalist and helping to share the inspiration!
To celebrate, I’m giving away 7 book bundles specifically to this community.
**UPDATE: This contest has concluded and winners have been notified. You can find a list of winners at the bottom of this post.
Each prize bundle contains:
- An autographed, hardcover edition of The More of Less.
- An autographed, paperback edition of Clutterfree with Kids.
- One free registration to our upcoming Uncluttered Course ($89 value) beginning on September 5th.
The prize is open to all readers from around the world—we’ll ship the books anywhere for free.
To register for the drawing, leave a comment below.
In the comment, tell us where you are from and which Becoming Minimalist post you remember reading first (or how you were first introduced to this site).
*I know some of you have been reading for many years and do not recall your first introduction, that’s okay, just do your best.
On Friday morning, we will use an online Random Number Generator to select the winners and begin contacting them via email. I will also announce the winners on this post.
Thanks again for being part of the Becoming Minimalist community and making my work so enjoyable. I am more grateful than you realize and I look forward to the comments below and subsequent interaction.
Here are the seven winners of the prize bundle: Jason R. (Houston, TX); Jen F. (California); Alex (Buffalo, NY); Tara P. (Sunshine Coast, Australia); Dana B. (Unknown); Selina C. (United Kingdom); Christie C. (Black Hills, SD). Each of the winners have been contacted via email to redeem their prize.
On a personal note, I am blown away by the stories that have been left in these comments. I have read as many as possible.
There are stories from readers who have been following this blog from the very beginning and stories of people who just found it last week. There are stories of people finding us through Facebook, through guest posts, through mentions in the media, through conversations with friends, through Netflix, through Google, and countless people who couldn’t remember exactly how they found it. It has been incredibly encouraging to me to read these stories from all over the world.
Thanks for being part of the conversation.
Keep it up – enjoying the information.
I always look forward to these weekly blogs, and find that I am already doing some of the minimalist actions, but it is always good to receive wise thoughts and encouraging words on your blog.
Love reading these posts and love the guest post too. Thanks?
I live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and signed up to receive Joshua’s newsletter back in 2013!! I had 2 small children and life as I knew it was changing rapidly! Joshua has helped me curb the wave of kid-related clutter and helped me stay sane!!
My children, now aged 7 & 4, have always collected donations for a local charity at their birthday parties and never asked for gifts. They have enough! They don’t know any differently and my husband and I relish the opportunity to demonstrate with our actions our family-held value of generosity. Words cannot express my gratitude for Joshua and how his resources and encouragement have helped me simplify my life and live intentionally in a culture that seems to have lost its way. Thank you! xox
I love getting rid of stuff. Your documentary on Netflix is amazing and inspiring!
I’m sure I was led here via Courtney Carver’s site and her work with Project 333.
My absolute favorite post (although probably not first), was this one:
‘What if I don’t?’
(One Important Question to Ask Before Any Purchase)
This question is always with me, helping me to form decisions that are focused on the things that I value instead of more, bigger, and better stuff
Maintaing the level of stuffness has just become absolutely overwhelming, and now I am able to enjoy the shedding of layers and layers I no longer see value in.
Thanks Joshua, I appreciate your work
ps I am from Pittsburgh!
I’m from Newton, KS. And I found you on Pinterest and have been following you since.
I wanted to de-clutter but wasn’t totally hooked on the Minimalist thing. However, after listing to the podcast on Wellness Mama, I became hooked to Joshua Becker’s method and ideas and I feel that his minimalist ideas were more in tune with what I wanted. Love the emails for lots of interesting ideas and positivity and choices. Keep ’em coming!
I’m so glad I stumbled across this website. Your words have inspired me on my journey to less.
From Kelowna, BC, Canada. I’ve been following your articles for quite a while now – I can’t even remember when I started… maybe it was your blog or a post on social media? I’ve always appreciated that while you believe in minimalism you’re not trying to force one approach for everyone, but to adopt what works for you. Thank you!
Love your fbkcomments & read your book so mch..its my lifesaving tool..my husband is a natural minimalist & i was a collector.. phew i love my journery to minimalism now..& our house has never bin so tidy & uncluttered ..thankyou so mch for your continued encouragement on fbk..
I am really enjoying learning different ways to creat more order and calm in my life.
Hi all!!! Donna from MA . I learned about Joshua from Minimalist the documentary. I have ever since been following Joshua and Courtney Carver ( as I feel I gain the most from :) . I have scaled down my Facebook feed only to include daily articles which I ( try ) to read every morning or before bed . It’s really helped me on this incredible journey!!!! I have to say the positive messages are what I need to start my day on the best side . Thank you for devoting so much of your time and yourself.
I’m from Nashville , TN.
I love this site and am getting rid of stuff every week.
I’m in the Cleveland, OH area and was introduced to your Facebook page by my cousin. I don’t remember the first one I read, but I read almost every one! I’ve been working on decluttering for about two years, and for all the first time, I made significant progress when I signed up for your course! My posts about my journey have inspired a few of my friends. Thank you for all you do!!
Hello my name is Jennifer and I am from Calgary, Canada. I first discovered becoming minimalist just over a year ago after watching the minimalists documentary. Since that day I have been reading as much as I can on the minimalist lifestyle and what works the best for me and my family. Thank you Joshua for the very informative blog the interesting articles and for keeping me motivated on my journey to less!!
I’m from western Massachusetts. I think I found you through The Minimalists-but it was a while ago and I definitely don’t remember the first post I read! But I kept coming back, so it must have been good! :-P
I’m in Bremerton, Washington (State) and while I can’t remember the first post I read I was introduced to becomingminimalist through the Facebook group The Minimalist Life. I felt an instant calm and connection with your writing style and I’ve been following you on Facebook ever since.
Minimalism is a great concept. Good job capturing it on the site.
I read every post and I am slowly uncluttering my house and talking to my kids every day about your blog.
Love it!
I am from Mississauga, Canada.
My first introduction to your site was on the minimalism movie. I loved the fact that your site had a lot of information in regards to people with children/families.
I am from Woodbridge VA and a fairly new subscriber. I do like the email format so I am glad you will keep doing that. One of the first posts was about how much happier when we have less stuff. There have been many more along those lines of course, but they seem to be sinking in. I like to forward certain ones to my daughter who surrounds herself w clutter. She and I are both working toward a simpler life.
I’m already well on my way to becoming an all-out minimalist and I love every minute of it. I first saw your blog online and I read about how you were cleaning out the garage and decided to try minimalism. I love the blog and enjoy reading each post.
I can’t remember the first post but your posts help support my daily decision to be a minimalist. My life was getting so chaotic and my journey began this winter when I discovered the Danish art of Hygge and that lead me to minimalism. My life continues to improve but supporting posts help a great deal! Thanks so much from Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada ??
Tracy from British Columbia, Canada. I stumbled across you through a facebook post 10 most important hings to simplify in your life. That spoke to me and my procrastination on simplifying finally ended. I am tired of constantly reorganizing to make things fit and not having time to do what I love! It will be a long journey but I celebrate every time another box goes out the door! Love your posts about just getting rid of 10 things and increasing that. Thanks for a great sire!