The Minimalist Home by Joshua Becker

Book Description:

A popular minimalist blogger and author of The More of Less shows you how to methodically turn your home into a place of peace, contentment, and purposeful living.

One of today's most influential minimalist advocates takes us on a decluttering tour of our own houses and apartments, showing us how to decide what to get rid of and what to keep. He both offers practical guidelines for simplifying our lifestyle at home and addresses underlying issues that contribute to over-accumulation in the first place. The purpose is not just to create a more inviting living space. It's also to turn our life's HQ--our home--into a launching pad for a more fulfilling and productive life in the world.

My thoughts:

Joshua Becker's new book, The Minimalist Home released on December 18th.  Within a matter of 5 hours, it sold out at all major online retailers.  Currently, there is a wait time when you order it on Christianbook.com & Amazon.com.  I decided it is going to be my manual for decluttering my home in 2019, and it seems like a lot of other people had the same idea too!

Inside there is a room by room guide on how to declutter and minimize each room in your home for optimal living.  There is also a minimalism maintenance guide, financial charts for home buying, and encouragement for exploring new possibilities in your life once you have minimized what is keeping you from those possibilities.

I recommend this book for people who feel like they are drowning in stuff!  I recommend it for that mom who wants to stop cleaning so much and spend more time with your children.  I recommend it for those who have visions of what they would like life to be like, but don't know how to make space or how to get there.

Removing stuff from our lives open up new possibilities and allows us to dream and imagine again.

Many blessings to you in the new year as you remove the stuff,  and discover new life!

~Beth

To read an excerpt, go here to Amazon.com. 

To learn more about the author, Joshua Becker, you can visit him here at his blog, Becoming Minimalist.

You can also find him at his new YouTube channel, Joshua Becker.

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Disclosure: There above is an affiliate link. If you click on and purchase the Unclutter Course, I will receive a commission from that purchase.

Simplify: Five Minute Friday

Photo by Victoria Bilsborough on Unsplash

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday where we freewrite for five minutes flat on the prompt, Simplify.

Simplify.  Ahhhh.  One of my favorite words.  It was actually my word about 7 years ago.  It started a string of words that just seemed to blend all together.  But I believe “simplify” or “simplicity” was the first.

I became very interested in minimalism a few years after that. Minimalism is the art of simplicity.  It is reducing the amount of clutter and making room for the important.  That is a practice I have tried to implement in my own life.

For Believers I believe simplifying is incredibly important. In Mark 4, in the Parable of the Sower, Jesus talks about the different type of ground seed is sown on.  Later he explains the parable to His disciples.  

The third type of ground is where the cares of this life and things of this world come in and choke the word, causing it to be unfruitful.  What does that mean?  I believe it means that when we are so consumed with worry about anything, or when we are bombarded with an endless amount of things to do, and stuff to care for, the Word can have no place in our lives.  It has no room to grow and produce fruit.

The good news is that this is something we can change, simply by simplifying.  We can simplify our thoughts.  We can simplify our consumption.  We can make room for God’s Word and it will produce in our lives.

A Time To Throw Away

"This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it."-Psalm 118:24 (NKJV)

I have spent all day cleaning my house.  Seriously.  (Well, except for when I stopped to make homemade jello as a science/math activity for homeschool.) 

We just moved, so everything is still out of sorts.  The house we are living in now, is about 300 sq. ft., I think, less than the house we were living in, and we don't have a garage, just a little storage closet outside for outdoor type stuff.

So, this journey with minimalism continues. I continue to think this is important, getting rid of the unimportant to make room for what is really important.  It is changing my life and filtering across other areas like my walk with God, our homeschool journey, and even my health. 

I heard another scripture yesterday that has motivated me on this journey some more.  It is found in Ecclesiastes.  I will share two scriptures, just to put it in context.

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens...

a time to keep and a time to throw away..."

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 6b (NIV)

Now is definitely my time to throw away.  I am feeling a lot of momentum at the moment.  We lived for two months without most of our stuff.  And it was freeing.  And more comfortable.  So, now is the time to let go of some more.

I think a vision is starting to form of what I want the final picture to look like, and it is very much at the heart of what minimalism is all about.  I want only the important stuff.  A place to sleep, my Bible, educational items for the kids, the important dishes to cook with...these things are very simplistic in nature.

I look forward to what is to come and where this journey takes us.  

Tips to Help You Start Your Minimalist Journey

This topic, minimalism, gets me very excited!  I love to throw stuff away!  Funny, huh?  Why would that be?  Because it is a very freeing experience.  The more stuff goes, the more free and focused I become.  

When you get a new washing machine, usually it comes with a user’s manual AND a quick startup guide.  I wanted to give you a quick startup guide to minimalism, so listed below are a few tips to help you begin.  This is a process and a journey, so you will continue to repeat these steps as needed.  Let’s get started.

1.  First you will want to talk to yourself.  Why do you want to do this?   For me, I want a simple life.  We have a large family, so I want to focus on them, and not our stuff, as much as possible.  I want my kids to find the amazing in the ordinary. I want our family to be outdoors and exploring and experiencing life and not constantly maintaining what is going on in our house.  And, quite honestly, I can be a little lazy at times.  I don’t want to spend all day cleaning.

2.  Get a vision and set some goals.   Begin with the end in mind.  What do you want the final outcome to look like?  How will you go about accomplishing your task?  For me,  I want to feel like I am on vacation all the time.  You know that feeling when you travel somewhere and all you have to take care of is what you brought with you?  I want that.  I want that peaceful relaxed feeling so I can focus on my family and not always on stuff. How I am accomplishing this is by letting go of at least 1 item per day whether it be in the trash, or the special place I have set aside for stuff, which leads us to number 3.

3. Create a space to put items you want to get rid of whether it be to sell, or donate.  It can be in your garage, or a closet, or even a room if you have space.  I have a closet in a room we don’t use where I place my items that I want to sell or donate.  I put items in there, and wait to see if I need it again, or one of my children wants something from that place.  If it needs to come back out, no biggie, but I try to keep it in there.  

4.  Put like items together.  For example, put all toys together.  I find toys all over my house, often in every room.  It is important for me to put them all in one area to determine what we can keep and what can go.  

5.  Start the decluttering (minimizing, simplifying) process.  Go through your home and get rid of all trash first.  Trash might include the empty soap box under the sink, empty medicine bottles, empty shampoo or dish liquid containers, etc.   Next work on the easy stuff.  The easy stuff might be clothing that doesn’t fit anymore, items you don’t use, or stuff you don’t like.  Don’t start with baby memorabilia or things that have a lot of sentimental attachment.  Once you gain some momentum, you can work with those items.  Start putting those items in the designated spot.  Eventually, when the pile gets large enough, you will want to permanently get rid of the items via whatever way you choose.

6.  Stop the inflow.  This is a biggie. You cannot reduce the amount of stuff in your home if you continue to buy more stuff.  Give yourself some time to practice this new skill.  Pick a specific amount of time, something that is doable for you, and don’t buy anything new other than necessities (food, gas for your car, etc).  This will help you target those areas where you continually are spending.  Weak areas I have found in my own life were purchasing clothing and books.  Stopping the inflow is really important so you can visually see the progress and success!

I hope this list has given you a few ideas to get you going.  There is lots of information out there about minimalism and simplicity for you to research!  Many blessings to you in your endeavors!

Beth

My First Experience As a Minimalist

My first experience of being a minimalist came in the summer of “94. I loaded what I could get in my car and some more stuff in another friend’s car and headed out for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to live with some friends. There, in a 3 bedroom house, a couple of blocks away from the beach with 2 other roommates, I had my own bedroom, a closet, but no dresser and only a twin mattress on the floor to sleep on. I reflect on that time often as probably the most tranquil time in my life. I didn’t have much stuff. I worked, partied at night, and went to the beach on almost a daily basis. I didn’t know it then, but that summer experience would be seed for what is happening in my life right now.

Fast forward to the winter of 2012. My husband and I were having financial problems. I don’t remember the exact moment, but at some point during that time, I “stumbled” across this blog called Becoming Minimalist. There I began to learn about a new way to look at money, and stuff. Minimalism, at it’s heart, is getting rid of the bad, so all the good can shine through. As I learned more about minimalism, I realized this was something I craved.

A well known quote that circulates among aspiring minimalists is “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”-William Morris. I also like what Jesus said, “Stop storing up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. Instead, store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust don’t destroy, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. Your heart will be where your treasure is.”- Matthew 6:19-21 

Minimalism looks different for everybody. What is important to me, will not always be important to you. I am a homeschool mom. We need crayons, pencils, paper, etc. But, I don’t need fourteen books on homeschooling. I also don’t need every piece of artwork from when my child was four. Because we are a large homeschooling family, working toward a minimalist lifestyle has become something very important to me, because there have been days I have felt like I was drowning in stuff.

So how does minimalism solve financial issues? You stop the inflow of stuff. Easy. Simple. While you are taking steps, to reduce the amount of stuff or clutter in your home, you stop buying stuff you don’t need. Examine every purchase. How long will you use it? Do you really need it? Can you live without it? Minimalism doesn’t mean you never buy anything again. It just means you get rid of the junk, so the good stuff can shine through. Make room for the important.

It has been twenty years this summer since those seeds for a simple, minimalist life were watered in my heart; I say watered because I think they have always been there. I have accumulated a lot of stuff. It is easy to do when you have a large family. I am slowly making my way out of it, so I can uncover all of the important things in my life. It is a life journey. I am not there yet, but we are on our way.

One last thing. When we start removing the unnecessary physical stuff in our lives, it impacts us in other ways, spiritually even. You see, that summer, in “94, when I went to the beach with just the stuff I could carry, that was the year Jesus sought me out and brought this sheep back home.

One Sign You've Got Too Much Stuff

One sign that you've got too much stuff is...

You can't keep up with it.

That might seem very logical, but sometimes it takes us a little while to wrap our minds around that fact.  We might think if we were just more organized, or if our kids quit making messes, or if I just had more energy, when in reality we have more stuff than we can keep up with.  

Having too much stuff is something I am thinking about often these days.  I could probably create a full time job out of just doing laundry.  I am never finished.  There is always dirty laundry waiting to be washed, laundry in the clean basket waiting to be put away, and laundry on the floor that is in a questionable state.  I am thankful that we have more than enough.  But if I cannot keep up with it, maybe I need to pare it down a bit.

I started this minimalist journey about a year and a half ago, and I live in constant shock and amazement that I have been taking care of all this stuff for so long.  Since we  have started getting rid of various items, papers, videos, clothing, dishes, books, etc., I have noticed we have a lot more time to focus on something besides cleaning the house.  Even though I constantly feel overwhelmed with the laundry, and the dishes still (I am not a fan of dishes), I can tell the difference in the amount of time we spend cleaning and the amount of time we spend as a family getting out and exploring.

Challenge yourself today.  Look at how you spend your time.  Do you have time to adventure and learn with your family or are you just constantly maintaining stuff?

The Beginning of My Journey With Minimalism

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."-Matthew 6:19-21 ESV

I am not sure when my minimalism journey really started, but I became acquainted with the term "minimalism" sometime between winter 2012 and early 2013, due to stumbling across Joshua Becker's blog, Becoming Minimalist.  Since then, my life and my vision for stuff has changed.

Traveling lightly has always appealed to me, but things have never really ended up that way, until now.  I would always pack more than necessary, "just in case."  Leaving my house always felt lighter, even if I had too much stuff.  Visiting my parents when I was single, or working at a summer camp, my car was always loaded down with stuff, but even then being away from home, and all the stuff there to take care of, still felt better.

After I got married, my husband and I accumulated a lot of stuff.  We combined our stuff.  Things were given to us.  We inherited stuff from family.  Right before the birth of our 1st child, we had enough stuff to fill a two bedroom apartment, and an approximately 10 x 8 storage building.  We continuously gave stuff away, but still kept acquiring more stuff.

There is more story in between, and maybe I will share later, but fast forward to 2012.  We were having financial issues, which I am assuming catapulted us into minimalism.  We had put our house up for sale, but it was not going well.  No buyers.  So, were making a house payment on a home we were not living in.  Ugh.  We started having to scrutinize every dollar.

Sometime around that time or early 2013, I found Joshua Becker's blog on minimalism.  It was amazing.  I started changing the way I looked at our stuff, and our money.  Things that were once so important, now, not so much.  I began to make a shift in my perspective on the accumulation of stuff, wealth, and purpose.  I started becoming freed from the need to "store up riches on earth."  

We had always given away stuff, but now we were giving away more.  And, we stopped buying things that were unnecessary.  We began thinking about every purchase.  We stopped accumulating.  Life was becoming more simple.

Now, my life is different.  I see a lot more possibilities.  I don't have so much stuff to take care of, and can focus on the important details of life with my family, and the service God has called us to.  I am not bound in my thinking.  I know that we have not arrived, but we have come so far.

If you are wondering what minimalism is at this point, the definition that works for me is "simplicity," and "getting rid of the unnecessary to make room for the important."

What do you know about minimalism?  How has it changed you?

Sent by Hilary Alan

"God is working in your life even when you don't realize it."-Hilary Alan, Chapter 2, Sent


It is a guiding thought in my everyday life that God has a purpose and a plan for each one of us. This is one of the themes in the book Sent. God is constantly at work to propel us into that plan, if we will let Him. Sent is the story of the Alan family and how God propelled them into part of His plan for their lives.

In December of 2004, a devastating tsunami hit Southeast Asia. The magnitude of the devastation cannot be understand I am sure unless you have personally experienced it. In response to that event, many people were sent or went to help those affected. The Alan family was a family that God commissioned to go. The book shares the story of the process they went through from God leading them to go and their journey there and back.

While reading this book, many strong words come to mind. Commitment. Faith. Love. Obedience. These are all words to describe this family. This was their response to God and to the people of Southeast Asia.

Recently I have been reading about minimalism. Minimalism is a philosophy about living with less. More is not always better. I thought about this while I was reading this book. You will find out when you read the book all of the stuff they had to strip themselves of to be obedient to what God was asking them to do. The only thing you can take with you to Heaven is people. In the book, Hilary Alan shares the experiences of her family and the people that came into their lives that they got to deliver God's Word to because of their obedience to Him.

While reading this book, there was something that bothered me however. I don't know everything. The older I get and the more I walk with Him, I realize I don't know as much as I thought I did. There were times in the book when the author prayed for people and because it wasn't answered instantly or in the way she prayed, she thought it wasn't God's will or He answered her prayer in another way. I get that about answering in another way, but I just felt like it wasn't a consistent belief with scripture because of the way she believed about some things. God wants us to pray according to His Word. He is faithful to that. If the answer is delayed, it doesn't mean that God doesn't want to or won't answer. He will answer according to His Word. Maybe we need to change our belief about a certain area, to believe that we can have what God's Word says we can have. He is faithful.

This book was very inspiring. It was one that I had a hard time putting down. I have a heart for missions, so this stirred my soul greatly. It was very refreshing to witness a family whose major focus was fulfilling the plans and purposes of God, no matter what He asked them to do.

Many blessings to you as you read. My prayer for you today is that you hear His voice when He leads and obey as He guides you into what He created you for! The rewards will be eternal.


“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” -Romans 10:15

~Beth



Disclosure Statement: I received this book free of charge as part of a free books for bloggers program from Waterbrook Multnomah. I was not required to give a favorable review. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are entirely my own.