User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
4 StarsMy personal rating for this book (as far as how much I "enjoyed" it) would be a 3, but I am giving it a 4 star rating as I believe the book and its message has a lot to offer to anyone new to minimalism and the minimalism philosophy.
I have been on the minimalist "journey" (geez, I sound like such a cliche, but whatever) for over a year now and I went at it pretty much the same way I go at most things...which is to say HARD.
I have never been a hoarder (except when it comes to book hoarding, obviously), and I was always that person who maintained a clean house, and who regularly went through clothes and other household items for donation...but I still always felt like my environment was cluttered and thus stifling mentally and emotionally.
After discovering minimalism and various minimalism blogs (including the author's) I felt inspired and completely overhauled my home, my belongings, and the way I spend, save, and donate my money.
As a result, I have already done all the work outlined in this book and I felt like it had nothing new to offer me; HOWEVER, I went into this book knowing that might be the case; and that does not mean I don't think this book has a ton to offer other people who are in a different place in their journey.
Having this book a year or so ago would have been a game changer for me and would have easily garnered 5 stars. Basically, in my opinion, the enjoyment and/or usefulness you get from this book will coincide with where you yourself are in life in relation to your "stuff" and how you feel about it.
If you are a long term minimalist, you might enjoy this book as a refresher, although it might not have much (if anything) new to offer you.
But,
if you walk into your house and feel instantly heavy...you feel overwhelmed by the piles of miscellaneous mail and junk in your living room the minute you cross the threshold of your front door...you feel like you have NOTHING to wear despite having a closet filled so fully you need a winch to push clothes aside to see what you have...you can never find anything you need because you have too much crap in your junk drawer(s)...you have to turn sideways to get out of your car after you park in your garage (if you can even FIT your car in your garage)...then this book is for you.Now OBVIOUSLY, as I write this, I acknowledge that I am writing this from a position of privilege. I recognize it is a luxury to be fortunate enough to be in a position to consider "too much stuff" a problem and the riddance of that stuff an accomplishment. And I am not trying to pretend otherwise.
All that said, I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in minimalism or to those just looking for some help/motivation with doing some spring cleaning.
Rating: really liked it
My husband and I are not minimalists in the strictest sense of the word, but we are neat freaks and neither of us are packrats. I actually find organizing closets and drawers fun. There’s a place for everything. No clutter. I didn’t necessarily NEED this book, but even if your home isn’t a cluttered mess, it’s very helpful for motivation to keep it that way.
We are empty nesters and recently moved to a new city and state. Prior to moving we spent a year clearing out stuff, auctioned the rest, and started over in our new home. There's pleasure in having (mostly) only what we need and/or love. Less stuff, more time for people and the things we enjoy instead of taking care of our stuff. The late, great George Carlin had a hysterical comedy routine on stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Numg_...
But, still, there were the wire shelves in our basement storage with very neatly organized bins of ‘stuff' we weren't ready to part with when we moved. There were duplicates in our kitchen or gadgets and appliances we never use. Too many clothes in my closet for my fantasy self that is 10# lighter or younger and has a life where I need to power dress. There’s paper that I swear breeds and accumulates at night while I sleep. Keeping stuff out of our home is an ongoing process that never ends.
The minimalist esthetic of an all white, pristine space is not for me and the Marie Kondo method is a bit too woo-woo and extreme, but I do love a clean, organized home without too much stuff. Also, as much as I love organizing, one take away was that what is often needed isn’t more organization, it’s a different mindset and motivation for getting rid of the stuff you thought needed to be organized.
I popped in my AirPods as I worked and the thought processes encouraged in this book (as well as select You Tube videos) helped me keep the end goal in mind and prevented me from keeping stuff “just in case” or keeping what we viewed as sentimental items that no longer served us well. It feels good to start off 2021 with a clean slate. Now if I can just convince my husband to part with the packed away wedding china we haven't used in well over a decade 😉
Rating: really liked it
I received an e-copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Short version: don’t do this to yourself, folks. Just don’t. There are better books about minimalism (and/or decluttering) out there.
Long version: the thing is, I actually usually like books about minimalism and about downsizing your life, particularly the ones that offer practical solutions with regard to decluttering one’s life. They can be very soothing. They show the reader that change is possible, that others have been there before and that there is no shame in having clutter in your home now, because you can get better.
This book isn’t like that.
I mean, I agree with the basic tenets of what Becker writes. Having less stuff makes it easier to clean up, means fewer things to concern oneself with, means that looking for things is less complicated because you know where everything is, etc. Having more does not equal being happier. Capitalism, as a system, incourages one to buy as much possible and places value on what one possesses; and then, people tend to hold onto things they no longer need because they might be useful, but they rarely turn out to be. And so on. This is perfectly reasonable.
But the book doesn’t stop at that. And it doesn’t stop at painstakingly going over every single room in the house to basically tell you to throw away (donate, recycle, whatever) what you don’t need and declutter, declutter, declutter. If the book consisted only of that, it would be rather boring and very repetitive (so many empty words!), but not quite so annoying.
Unfortunately, the author peppers his text with much judgment and condescension.
The first instance where I actually stopped reading and looked sideways at the book was this:
“I have a friend with a bookcase in her living room. The last time I visited her, I noticed the following on its four shelves: thirty-six books, eleven figurines, twenty-four photos, two souvenir coffee mugs, ten snow globes (and it wasn’t even winter), various flower arrangment in vases, and a small sampling of candles. Yes, I actually wrote down the inventory… when she wasn’t noticing.
As I looked at her bookcase, I asked myself, Which of these things mean the most to her? What is it that she values most? I couldn’t tell by looking at her bookcase—it was too crowded with things that were unimportant.”I feel so sorry for that woman and her bookcase. How could she not organize it more thoughtfully for her “friend’s” benefit.
“I was at the house belonging to an acquaintance, Mick, one Friday afternoon. It was a larger-than-average house, with palm trees and a pool in the backyard. Although it was undeniably beautiful, it seemed a little excessive to me. Of course I didn’t say anything about that because it wasn’t really any of my business.”Well, thank you for considerately including this detail in the book, then.
“Our bathrooms and laundry room might not seem important, but since we use them so frequently, letting them stay cluttered would mean embracing aggravation and inefficiency every day.”This may not necessarily be so judgmental, but… what? Not important? How? What?
Well, perhaps because:
“I don’t know if it’s more about vanity or marketing, but increasingly both men and women worldwide are buying products with the intention of making themselves look better.”1) How dare they?
2) But also—we do know that people have been trying to improve their appearance since forever, basically? It’s not a new phenomenon.
3) In conclusion, how dare they.
(This is followed by considering how many beauty products women have / use.)
Then, this nugget of wisdom when it comes to using electronic devices:
“I’m told some people use their computer to play games.”Obviously they are not minimalists. Minimalists do not have such trivial pursuits.
And so on, and so on. Don’t own stuff, don’t own mismatched stuff, don’t put it in a large (although beautiful) house, because Mr. Becker will be there to judge you.
Then there are some examples of truly horrible pieces of advice. My “favourite” is probably the following bit:
“The problem with most under-the-bed spaces is that they quickly become places for hoarding more and more unnecessary things. Our closets are full, our drawers are full… and the next available space is under the bed. So that space quickly collects countless items, seemingly never to be seen again by human eyes.
… I use the space under my bed for storing useful items that I do not want to leave out in the open. Under my side of the bed, I store the books I am currently reading. This keeps them within arm’s reach but does not leave clutter on a nightstand. (Actually there is no nightstand there. I removed the one from my side of the bed …) I also keep some business files under the bed. My wife keeps a few boxes of keepsakes under her side as well. We live in a house with no basement or attic, so using that space under the bed has been helpful to us.”Okay, how does that make sense? There is a point to having a nightstand, and that is precisely to collect things you use while in bed. I could maybe understand keeping one book or a magazine under the bed over night (because maybe there is a glass of water on the nightstand and we were too sleepy to navigate around it), but any longer? Nope. Business files? Boxes of keepsakes? Are you kidding? How does one clean under the bed, then? (I take the fragment above to mean they just lie on the floor.) This is exactly what pieces of furniture such as file cabinets were invented for.
There is also this:
“You can make changes in your lawn, trees, and shrubs so that your yard will be simpler to take care of and create the experience you want. …
Could you reduce the area of grass that you have to mow, replacing the turf with hardscape such as gravel?”Please don’t. Please keep the grass. Possibly some shrubs. Do this for your planet.
Then there is a chapter dedicated to the idea that one should buy a small house rather than a large one, because—well, you know, minimalism, and big spaces call for more clutter, I guess.
Two quotes (which are isolated in the text so that you could easily tweet them, by the way):
“Buy the house you need, not the house you can afford.”
“At the same time our houses are getting bigger, our families are getting more broken. Coincidence?” (Wow. Profound. ::eyeroll::)
You know… I do get the thought process behind this concept. I do. Larger does not have to equal better. Living in a smaller space may be more comfortable (it’s easier to clean it up, for example). And in the later part of this chapter, where Becker talks about considering downsizing one’s house in response to changes in life (children moving out of the house, getting older and less mobile), it’s all quite reasonable. But at the same time, who are those people who just go around buying huge expensive houses? Because in my generation, in order to buy a house, most of us have to go get a huge bank loan.
Who is this book even addressed to? How wealthy do you have to be to afford Becker’s kind of minimalism?
(As a side note, maybe I don’t get the big house thing, because I’m very much not American, and most of us over here don’t live in houses, but in apartments?)
Towards the end, Becker explains that minimalism has made it possible for his life to be more open to his family, to thoughtful and mindful experiences, and to Jesus. I’m sure there’s nothing Jesus would appreciate more than judging people on the contents of their bookcases, folks.
In conclusion: not a good book. Not a kind book. A lot of what Becker says has already been said more simply and elegantly in many Internet articles. And there are a good few books on decluttering that give better, more specific tips than “get rid of what is not necessary” and are not so hollier-than-thou while doing so.
Rating: really liked it
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wow, this book helped me with a momentous move. My husband and I are newly empty-nested after decades of kids and a mother-in-law on board in a much larger house than our new 2 bedroom condo. It's not easy to scale back. That means you have to throw away things you thought you would always have. But, as Joshua Becker so effectively points out, they are just things! He made me realize that we should use things and treasure people. Not the other way around! A simple, yet revolutionary thought process.
Becker has a helpful step-by-step approach to achieving the minimalist home of your dreams. He goes room by room and you better believe I used his method for cleaning out my house. We couldn't be happier in our new urban, industrial loft. It is easy to clean and entertain friends. A real breath of fresh air in the city.
Becker gave me the courage to throw out/recycle up anything that wasn't earning its space in our newly small home. Oh, yes, it is hard. Your grown daughter's kindergarten coloring books? out. To be truthful, I did take a lot of pics of anything I threw away. And one day, I will edit those digital pics-haha.😊
Rating: really liked 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.
Rating: really liked it
Nah. Boring imitation of Marie Kondo's philosophy but without her charm and excitement, but with drive-by Jesus stories. I'm not amused with evangelicals hiding their message/tone. You want to organize your home or wash your face while using biblical stories, fine, just mention it in the subtitle so I can stay away from it.
Rating: really liked it
"The goal of minimalism is not just to own less stuff. The goal is to unburden our lives so we can accomplish more." This is a quote by Joshua Becker in The Minimalist Home. Minimalism in your home and life simplifies every aspect of living. The author offers room-by-room examples to streamline possessions and furniture. Objects that are not necessary can be relocated, sold, donated or recycled. This book is not for hoarders: minimalism could apply to most of our homes. Joshua Becker guides through the process to make life simpler and allow more time to do things that really matter. The Minimalist Home is well-explained and provides easy-to-follow suggestions on how to proceed. This is definitely an example of less is more. A useful tool. Thank you to Waterbrook & Multnomah and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
I received this book from Netgally in exchange for an honest review!
Have never heard of the author, I thought it would ve refreshing. But sadly was not. It was a very repetitive, and I found his writing style a bit messy. He kept saying things like "in the next chapter". "We'll talk more in the coming pages" etc.. which really bother me. He talks about how to declutter your house room by room, and its mixed. With his experience and real life testimonies,he also added some data about the average American.. so it's pretty much the same book as most of the subject.
This book would benefit from having some charts and images to help the reader visualising his home office, or his house and the kids rooms, etc.
I think this book is better suited for people who are a bit curious on the subject.
The structure of the text is also a bit strange, at 83% we read the acknowledgements, at 85% the notes from the chapters, at 93% there are more testimonies, which could've been better suited in the main body of the book. At about 80% he starts defining what minimalism is a little more detail, which could've been better at the introduction. So I find quite ironic that the book is very messy cluttered with words that are not necessary.
Rating: really liked it
Mini Review to follow..
Rating: really liked it
3 stars
For such a popular book, I found it about average in the world of home 'decluttering' books. It may have gone into a bit more detail about where to clean and how to eliminate "stuff" than some other books. It also did not lecture about what to keep and what to get rid of. It kept referring back to a couple of questions to ask yourself if you had any hesitation between keeping or discarding.
I believe that the average American probably does not live in a home that limits their mobility or impedes their social life. There are much larger causes that burden people than an extra picture on their wall, coat in their closet, or nicknack on their table. Putting hoarders aside I believe that most people feel more health, more wealth and more loved surrounded by those things that bring back good memories and resinate happiness in their life.
So, in my opinion, do your everyday house cleaning, clean a little deeper twice a year, discard "stuff" as you see that you no longer need it and in your leisure time read something that fulfills you.
Rating: really liked it
3 stars for those who have already downsized and don't need advice, but 4.5 for those who have a house full of stuff and need inspiration.
I've read so many books on minimizing belongings and housing that this seemed like a rehash of what been published only with more theory and philosophizing and a smidge of a spiritual bend. I felt the author sometimes got a little "judgey" when observing others' households but there were a few insights I thought were valid. For example, as one who goes to a lot of estate sales as entertainment, I'm always astounded at how much "stuff" people have collected which seems to have absolutely no value to anyone but them. This perplexed me until I read this from Becker: "In psychological theory, the "endowment effect" [original text was italicized] is our tendency to consider an object more important than it really is simply because we own it. ... It's OURS!"
If you need a good nudge to get you on the "tidying up" bandwagon, give this a try as he also has practical advice. For more titles on this topic, check out my blog - https://robinsbooks.blog/2019/03/02/s...
Thanks to the publisher for the advance digital copy.
Rating: really liked it
THE MINIMALIST HOME by Joshua Becker, considered one of the movement’s gurus, provides a simple room-by-room approach to clearing your home of excess clutter and living more happily with less. I was struck by his assertion — one I’ve found true in my own life — that by making literal space in your home, you make “space” in your life for untapped dreams to come forth. He describes the benefits that he derived in his own life ... less financial outlay when you own fewer things, more time for what matters, better example for his kids of being satisfied with less. All of that rang true, hence my 5-star review.
Thanks to WaterBrook & Multnomah and NetGalley for the ARC. Opinions are mine.
#TheMinimalistHome #NetGalley
Rating: really liked it
I am a minimalist and read a lot of books like this and this guy clearly does too because there’s nothing original in here except for the frequent and irrelevant references to Jesus Christ.
The “Becker Method” (laughed aloud when he first said that) is the “Konmari Method” except it’s shallow, vague, disorganized, arrogant, and relies on shame and condescension rather than empowerment and joy.
I would recommend this book for passive aggressive dads looking for stocking stuffers to piss off mom.
Rating: really liked it
I appreciated a few of the random helpful hints, but they were hard to find amongst all the judgmental stories. The one about a family going to stay with other family and the kids noticing the clutter, saying, "I'm glad we don't live like this anymore." How rude! They were guests in someone else's home--family at that! I'll bet the other family will think twice before inviting them back again.
Rating: really liked it
Marie Kondo says it more interestingly and succinctly. Minimalism is for words, too. :)
