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

by Joshua Becker

Minimalism isn’t about removing things you love. It’s about removing the things that distract you from the things you love. #minimalisthome

Minimalism, as I’m referring to it, is not about taking something away from you; it’s about giving something to you. My definition of minimalism is “the intentional promotion of things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from them.”

minimizing is actually optimizing—reducing the number of your possessions until you get to the best possible level for you and your family. It’s individual, freeing, and life promoting. It’s a makeover that you can do on your own, in your current house, just by getting rid of stuff.

Goals shape us and goals change us. Our goals in life determine the actions we take and how hard we work to reach them. When we know what our goals in life are, we set our priorities accordingly. And as long as we keep them in sight, we won’t be as likely to turn back or lose the trail.

The Becker Method Have goals for your home and your life in mind as you start minimizing. Try to make it a family project, if you live with family members. Be methodical: Start minimizing with easier spaces in the home and then move on to harder ones. Handle each object and ask yourself, Do I need this? For each object, decide if you’re going to relocate it within the home, leave it where it is, or remove it. If you’re going to remove it, decide if you’re going to sell it, donate it, trash it, or recycle it. Finish each space completely before proceeding to the next. Don’t quit until the whole house is done. As much as you can, have fun with the process. Notice and articulate the benefits that appear along the way. And celebrate your successes. When you’re done, revisit and revise your goals, aiming to make the most of your newly minimized home and newly optimized life.

Most people, I find, have similar goals for their home. They want their home to take less time to care for and cost less money to maintain. They want less stress and distraction. They want more peace and space, more comfort and contentment.

A home that is filled with only the things you love and use will be a home that you love to use. #minimalisthome

Some initial de-owning and de-cluttering decisions are easy to make, but before long we realize that we’re not sure what we want to keep until we know what we want to be doing with our time. And so minimalism becomes a lens through which we see the world and ourselves.

Never organize what you can discard. #minimalisthome

Minimizing Checklist How will you know when you’ve cleared out enough clutter and excess from your living room and family room or great room? Ask yourself these questions: ☐ Is this space calming? Does it reduce stress? ☐ Does this space encourage conversation? ☐ Is this space inviting to my family? To my friends? ☐ Is this space easy to maintain? ☐ Does this space highlight what is important to our family? ☐ Does this space encourage my family to live life to the fullest? ☐ Does this space promote our family’s values?

Writing for J. Crew a few years ago, Alice shared her decision to simplify her wardrobe to one specific style that she would wear every day—a black long-sleeve shirt and fashionable jeans. She called it her “uniform.” But uniform isn’t the word that got me. Amid her reasons for dressing like this, she stated that having a simple outfit you are known for wearing is “iconic, it’s a cheap and easy way to feel famous.” Iconic. That’s it. Minimalist clothing can convey a classic and memorable sense of personal identity. Alice argues that wearing a similar outfit every day is a way of asserting your status as a protagonist in life. “This is the reason why characters in picture books never change their clothes: Children—like adults, if they’d only admit it—crave continuity.” So along with the ease of no longer having to create a new look every day, you have the comfort of feeling like yourself all the time.

All-Natural, All-Purpose Cleaner Combine 1 teaspoon borax, ½ teaspoon washing soda, and 1 teaspoon liquid Castile soap in a spray bottle. Add 2 cups warm distilled water. Add a few drops of the essential oils of your choice (such as lemon, lavender, or orange). Put the spray top on the bottle and shake well. Use on bathroom surfaces, kitchen counters, and elsewhere. —courtesy of Katie Wells, Wellness Mama4

Ready-to-Go Laundry Soap Grate an unscented bar of soap (such as Dr. Bronner’s or Ivory) until finely ground. In a large bowl, mix bar of grated soap, 1 cup washing soda, and 1 cup borax. Store in a closed container. Use between 2 tablespoons and ¼ cup per laundry load. —courtesy of Katie Wells, Wellness Mama5

I found an article in the New York Times titled “A No-Frills Kitchen Still Cooks” in which professional chef Mark Bittman told how he decked out an entire kitchen for about $300 including every cooking utensil someone would need to cook like a pro. Not only did he list every utensil you’d need to create even the most elegant of dishes, but he listed exactly how much to spend on it. Throughout the piece, he promoted this philosophy: “It needs only to be functional, not prestigious, lavish or expensive.”7

Mark Bittman is the New York Times’s “minimalist cook” and author, whose books include: How to Cook Everything, The VB6 Cookbook, and The Food Matters Cookbook. Bittman says you can do virtually all the cooking you need to with just these cooking supplies.6 Use this list as your guide when minimizing your kitchen: eight-inch, plastic-handle stainless alloy chef’s knife instant-read thermometer three stainless steel bowls sturdy pair of tongs sturdy sheet pan plastic cutting board paring knife can opener vegetable peeler colander small, medium, and large cast-aluminum saucepans medium nonstick cast-aluminum pan large steep-sided, heavier-duty steel pan skimmer slotted spoon heat-resistant rubber spatula bread knife big whisk food processor salad spinner Microplane grater coffee and spice grinder blender knife sharpener

I was sitting in a Colorado radio studio in the middle of recording an interview when the interviewer said he wanted to play an audio clip for me. I was stunned to hear my daughter’s voice coming over the speakers. She was responding to a question about how her father’s passion for minimalism had influenced her life. “I learned that I don’t need as much stuff as I think I do,” then-eleven-year-old Alexa said. “Because you think you need all this stuff, but you don’t actually end up using most of it.”