Joshua Becker

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 show more 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. show less

One benchmark I use for evaluating the quality of non-fiction works involves how many insights/observations I logged on my trusty digital notepad. Becker’s book spurred me to jot down nearly 30 nuggets – a sum that skews higher than my average. I had not given much thought to the concept of “minimalism” before (I hadn’t read Becker’s earlier work). I found many of his ideas intriguing and even enlightening. I certainly understand why some reviewers were turned off by some of his show more notions (page 236, for example, contains this proclamation: “Don’t retire until you need to.”) While I don’t agree with some of the author’s contentions, I do relate to the book’s basic premise. Our lives are flooded with distractions – both obvious and not-so-obvious – and conquering these distractions can lead to a more fulfilling and meaningful life. As a longtime journalist and communications professor, I was especially interested in Becker’s exploration of digital distractions, media consumption habits, “digital detox” and “tech-free zones.” I expect to touch on some of the author’s ideas in future media literacy classes. Overall, “Things That Matter” is an informational and highly readable book that lives up to its self-help label. show less

The Minimalist Home is my new favorite book on the subject. This book takes you to step by step (with lists!) through each room in your home, guiding and advising you on how and why to de-clutter that area.

Joshua has such an easy-going tone that you’ll find yourself nodding along in agreement with him, even if at first you think you NEED all that stuff. You can go slow and start with one closet or one drawer and soon you may find that by making literal space in your home, you make show more “space” in your life for stuff other than stuff.

Being minimal with seven people under one roof is hard. However we have made great strides in ridding ourselves of excess clutter, and I credit a lot of that to reading what Joshua has to say in this and his other books on the subject.

My only complaint is the anecdote about someone getting “cured” of depression after going minimal. I’m not sure if that’s a great example. I do agree that having clutter certainly won’t help any mental health issues, but not having it won’t cure them either.

The rest of this book is gold. Even if you’ve read a lot on the subject, go pick this up, you’ll find something new. show less

This is not a book for my classroom, because is not my topic, but I found it very useful. I'm in my way to try a life with less things. More sustainable for the planet and for my life, so this book it's perfect for this moment in my life. Has a lot of tips of how to start to clean your house of unnecessary things.
If you want find that your house has more spoons that your family members, even your visitors, this book is for you. It's not about an empty house, it's more like a house with the show more things you love and really use. show less