Francine Jay

This slim book is packed full of practical advice on how to minimize our belongings, and our 'footprint' on this earth! Just the kind of inspiration needed to get your butt in gear to start purging unneeded belongings!! The book is divided into 4 parts. The first is 'Philosophy', and deals with our 'relationship' with our belongings. It divides our belongings into 3 categories: useful stuff, beautiful stuff, and emotional stuff: why we feel the need to hang onto stuff, and how to let go, and show more just how much do we really need to be happy! Part 2 is on 'Steamlining', how to go about deciding what you 'need', and what needs to go, and just how to go about that. Part 3 further breaks this down into 'Room by Room'....with specific ideas on how to minimize our possessions in each room, and what we want each room to actually contain. Great tips on paring down your wardrobe! Part 4 is 'Lifestyle', and gives pointers on how to remain a clutter-free family after you've gone through the 'decluttering' of your house. It discusses how to get your family onboard, and how to help them also embrace a clutter free lifestyle.
I found myself highlighting many points in this book.....it just makes total sense, and is exactly what I need to hear to get me motivated to clear out 'stuff' !! I have also read The Life‑Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and while that book had some useful points, I found the OCD aspects to be very distracting, and annoying. This book was much more logical and helpful! show less

I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up about a year ago, which led me to significantly cut back on my possessions. In case you're wondering, I haven't regretted it and I've only had to replace one item eliminated in that purge. I found this book to be a slightly less extreme version of that book. For example, this book talks about arranging your wardrobe to have your current season's clothes in easy reach and out of season pieces in more remote storage, while the first would argue that show more your entire wardrobe should be out at all times and should fit comfortably in your current storage (something I now do, actually). I do appreciate that The Joy of Less acknowledges that minimalism has different definitions for different people, and that the amount of needed stuff will similarly vary for different people. It really is freeing to look at all you own and eliminate anything that isn't needed or doesn't bring happiness in some way. This book gave me inspiration to take another close look at my possessions, and I suspect there will be another box heading to my local charity store soon.

In addition to the organizational section, this book also has a shorter section on living a minimal life style. While I can embrace the idea of reducing consumption, buying used where possible, and recycling, I'm not so sure about changing my hobbies around to involve less stuff. Sure, singing would take up less room than my piano, but it would bring me considerably less enjoyment (not to mention the neighbors that had to listen to me!), and I doubt anyone who plays enough hockey to own their equipment is going to give it up for soccer or yoga in order to own less. It was an interesting mental exercise to read this section, but less useful to me compared with the organization section. show less

Hilariously American and over the top decluttering advice for the upper middle class, but I really enjoyed the audiobook version and it's chipper reader as motivational background noise in my process to adjust my home to having half the number of people it used to. There is something to be said for presenting downsizing as a fun activity rather than a grim necessity.

I started becoming more interested in the idea of minimalism when I literally stumbled across Francine Jay’s blog, Miss Minimalist. When I became aware of the book, I had been hoping for more minimalist philosophy along the lines of many of her blog posts. Really, though, it’s more of a guide on how to streamline and declutter your life, written perfectly for the audience who should (and likely will) read it most - people deeply ingrained in, and sick of, the seemingly neverending race show more to acquire more stuff.

The lion’s share of The Joy of Less is a room-by-room pseudo-guide on how to effectively declutter your home. For those with so much stuff they wouldn’t even know where to start, this book will be a godsend. Seeing as I was looking for more minimalist ideas, which Jay touches on in the beginning, I mostly skimmed over the room portions. However, the schedule-decluttering tips at the end were quite helpful.

What makes this book genuinely entertaining, as well as an excellent introduction into this “unusual” lifestyle, is Jay’s barely-contained enthusiasm about the whole thing. I enjoy listening to or reading the thoughts of people who are passionate about a topic. This is something more than your average self-help book. Hopefully, The Joy of Less will start bringing minimalism into the mainstream, and more people will embrace the concept of living lightly and freely, not chained down by the endless cycle of consumerism. show less