The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life

This is an excellent book--logical, sensible, and worth reading. The one thing missing is "how" to get rid of things. Certain items, like used clothing, are covered, but the problem comes with family heirlooms you no longer want (and no one else does, either) or things, like valuable silver, that you can't just put in the trash. I've tried auctioneers (they don't want to deal with these things any more than you do), consignment shops (they tell me to come and get them), and there they are again, back in my house. What we need next is a book that really focuses on places to send things, not necessarily for monetary gain, but to ensure they don't end up in a landfill. My late mother-in-law used to say that you spend the first half of your life acquiring things and the next half trying to get rid of them. She was right. You can't just toss a two-hundred year old fish slice. So where do you send it?

Many thanks to NetGalley, Waterbrook and Multnomah, and Joshua Becker for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advanced copy.Joshua Becker has been in the “minimal” business for about 10 years. He has a website where you can get lots of tips and advice, including a newsletter sent to your inbox every so often. He has written other books but this one is sort of the culmination of his life’s work. He has been on TV, speaks all over and I have been following him for the past couple of years. In today’s world of massive consumerism, we can all use a dose of paring down and keeping things simple. We all have too much stuff. We are promoted, advertised, propagandized into thinking that it’s all stuff we need, what we have isn’t the right stuff and that the more stuff we have the happier we will be. This has been going on for years, I mean George Carlin had a bit about “Stuff” in the early 80’s. So I was excited to read what Becker had to say on what he promotes as a step by step, comprehensive room-by-room guide to decluttering your home and your life.Ugh - what an awful read. First I felt like his tone was so condescending. I couldn’t take it. Obviously I have a lot of stuff - that’s why I’m reading this book. He would repeat himself, ad nauseam, throughout the whole book. There wasn’t any comprehensive guide - again, he would repeat the same thing over and over for each room, literally the same steps - for each room! Why bother going through each room, listing all of the possible things you might have accumulated, telling me “get rid of what you don’t use or don’t need”. Obviously I knew that much! I don’t need a book for that. I was hoping for some insight, maybe some ideas that I hadn’t thought of to help declutter, some instructions. There was no real guidance other than “don’t do it” for lasting change. Then, don’t tell me how my life is going to change, I will become richer, have a fabulous job, help the poor, have more time, blah blah blah, just because you told me to get rid of some stuff. I didn’t buy any of it. I have decluttered before and none of those things have happened to me. The “real life” examples were ridiculous, laughable. Look, I believe in keeping a home without a lot of junk. Nobody needs piles of clothes, lots of knick knacks, and yes, you should keep those things that mean something to you. You shouldn’t get sucked into marketing ideas of having the latest, greatest and best thing out there, which will go out of date and then you need something new. I also happen to live with a (mild case) hoarder, who believes every rock, piece of junk, paper, etc. is extremely important and sentimental and will not throw out anything. So according to Becker, those are the things to keep. Not helpful. But without something new or real to add to the discussion, don’t fill up a book with one idea. My advice is don’t add one more book to your bookshelf with this one.

First off let me say I love Joshua Becker...have been following him for years. I have his first book and thoroughly loved it so was looking forward to this new book. But I must say sadly I was disappointed. The book is described as “a room by room guide to a decluttered refocused life.” Every chapter(room) said the same thing-get rid of what you don’t want, keep what you love. Well we all know that. If you preordered the book and are on Joshuas email list, you also received some online materials(minimizing checklist and a step by step minimizing checklist) I found those to be way more helpful, informative, and inspiring than the book itself. In fact I printed them out and put them in protective sheets in a folder so I can refer to them over and over. In those checklists he lists actual ITEMS to declutter and is much more specific as to how to proceed with your decluttering. I still think Joshua’s methods of decluttering and simplifying are the best-this book just fell short.

This book was a big disappointment. I didn't learn anything new about how to tackle my mental and physical materialistic issues. If you have never read a book about minimizing or organizing, this book would, I'm sure, be helpful. If you are like me and have read several, you will discover nothing new here.

Too much babble and not enough advice. We all know.....keep, sell, toss...........however, no motivating advice to help procrastinators. I did enjoy others' personal stories. Also.....he was pushing the readers to post his advice and tag the book. Pretty self serving if you ask me......

Very boring to read and difficult to say the least, poor paper quality as well. Joshua Becker drags on page by page of the same constant story he talks about on his blog or uncluttered course, basically can be broken down to things to keep, things to relocate and things to remove. Ok, he has just taken it to a very diffult book form for me no other reason than to profit. Throughout the book there are hints to post about the great benefits of owning less on our own personal facebook pages, for no other reason than to promote him. For instance on page 4 right from the get go he highlights. "You can help others by sharing The Minimalist Home tips on social media by posting or tweeting the tips labeled #minimalisthome you'll find throughout this book" When i read this and had bought this book, im like this guy is asking for free labor for people to share this on their most personal feeds on facebook twitter and etc, and for the end result to be for him to profit In other words free labor. This is a constant throughout the book, i was so dissapointed. I brought this issue up and the guru of minimalism removed me from his facebook group. I questioned the business model he uses as an ivortered pyramid to garner business to his site, from folks on his facebook group for free. There was a lot of backlash, after i asked if he was gonna sell us miracle water next. Basically the whole philosophy of Joshua Becker is things to keep, things to relocate, and things to remove, thats it folks.

TL;DR: A method to suit those who only have 10 minutes a day. Not for those looking to overhaul their possessions in a weekend.I've considered myself a minimalist for a good few years but was attracted to Becker's 'room by room' approach to decluttering. Originally I thought there would be no need for a room by room view, surely all the chapters would say the same things? I've been pleasantly surprised by exactly how useful such an approach can be.I think Becker's approach is much more practical for working households. I've tried the Kondo approach of taking out all my clothes, but eventually someone needs something and I just end up with a pile of clothes on my bed that then gets pushed to the floor. I've tried packing things away in boxes but always end up making a mess looking for something that I've decided I still need. But by going room by room, section by section, I was able to do a little bit here and there without feeling like I'd stopped a project halfway through.This approach isn't for the singleton looking to do a big overhaul before moving to a new apartment, but if you're worried about making a bigger mess than you started with I'd recommend this method!

It's a worthwhile read if it's among your first forays into the subject. There are some really decent tips in here and it’s great that Becker has went to some length in collating it all in one place.All said, I was really hoping for something a bit more refreshing from Becker. I personally found Maria Kondo's two books to be a a bit more valuable on the topic.

Fab book for anyone wanting to downsize their belongings. A talk through book from room to room. Many of the rooms he mentioned, we dont have in the UK but either way it's a great onsite to how we have stuff and why week keep for the just in case moment's, that never happen

I brought the kindle version of this book. Found it to be a useful guide to minimising my home. Although American homes seem to have more rooms than UK ones, basements and garages etc.I loved the way the benefits of mimalisation are explained.

I like this guy, Joshua I like his book and his way of thinking. Makes so much sense. I found the hard back appealing, good price for what could be life changing for one.