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

by Joshua Becker

What if the problem isn’t that we don’t own enough stuff or aren’t managing our stuff well enough? What if the problem is that we’re living in the homes that advertisers and retailers want us to have instead of the homes that deep down we really want and need?

My definition of minimalism is “the intentional promotion of things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from them.” As I sometimes like to say, minimizing is actually optimizing—reducing the number of your possessions until you get to the best possible level for you

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

For something to be necessary and help you fulfill your purpose and potential, it needs to be so useful, lovely, or meaningful that you must keep it. Some objects will meet those criteria. Many others will not. The reality is, in our overcrowded homes today, most possessions are not truly “belongings”—they don’t really belong in our houses anymore. They are only distracting us from the things that do belong. You’re going to have to make a decision about object after object as you go through your house to minimize it.

Never organize what you can discard.

Removing Duplicates When I was just getting started on my minimalist journey, I ran across an article in which the writer said you need only two towels—one in use and one in the laundry. I remember thinking, Huh, I guess she has a point.

To help you make the harder choices in de-owning, or the ones that you and another member of your household disagree over, try doing without an item for a set period of time. I often recommend twenty-nine days. Only afterward decide whether it’s necessary to your home or superfluous. I call this experimenting. After your trial period, if you find yourself wishing you had the item because it would have come in handy or you otherwise missed it, then maybe you should keep it. On the other hand, if you find yourself getting along without it just fine, then go ahead and get rid of it. Either way—experiment

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.

Contrary to what you’ve heard, you just don’t need to buy and own a lot of clothes.

In his well-known book The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz argued that it is not. He said, “Freedom and autonomy are critical to our well-being, and choice is critical to freedom and autonomy. Nonetheless, though modern Americans have more choice than any group of people ever has had before, and thus, presumably, more freedom and autonomy, we don’t seem to be benefiting from it psychologically.”14 His argument, stated throughout the book and reproduced in studies, is that more choice does not mean better living.

Turn around all the hangers in your closet so the open side of the handle is facing toward you. When you return a piece of clothing that you’ve worn to a hanger, place it back on the rod with the handle curving away from you, so you know at a glance you’ve worn this piece. After a set period of time, remove every article of clothing on a hanger that is still pointing toward you. You may want to consider one or two months as a good time for your current season’s clothes. And then start the experiment again once a new season begins. These are the clothes you haven’t worn since you started the experiment. I guess you don’t really need them, do you?

Lao Tzu is credited with saying, “Care about what other people think, and you will always be their prisoner.”

The temptation for you right now is to continue to use your storage spaces to mask your “stuff problem.” Out of sight, out of mind, right? It seems so much easier to put off till “someday” the hard work you know it will be to sort through everything you’ve got stored. So let’s go make a sandwich. Not so fast. The tougher—but smarter—choice is to choose now to drastically reduce the number of things you’re packing away and then to change your approach toward storing unnecessary items so you don’t ever get such a buildup in your storage spaces again.

make a distinction between (1) hobbies or arts and crafts that you actually do; and (2) those that you used to do, or thought that you would do, but don’t really do these days.

Francine Jay says minimizing can cause us to recognize and get rid of our “fantasy self”—an identity that we tried to create by buying stuff that never really fit us. “We’re empowered to evict that fantasy self and all her accouterments,” Francine said. “It may seem cruel and heartless and difficult at first, but I promise you this—you’ll feel a huge sense of relief when she’s gone.”

Hiring. If keeping the lawn mowed and the shrubbery trimmed isn’t something you enjoy, then maybe you could get rid of all your lawn care equipment and hire a lawn care company (or neighbor kid) to do that work for you. According to one study, “People who spent money to buy themselves time, such as by outsourcing disliked tasks, reported greater overall life satisfaction.”

A lot of outdoor hobby stuff, such as camping, fishing, and rock climbing gear, collects in the garage. If you have these kinds of collections, think carefully about which items you actually need and which ones you don’t. Remove outdated, broken, or already replaced items, along with any items you simply never use. You might be able to remove an entire hobby collection if it’s been years since you took part in it or it represents a different stage of life. Get rid of the old hobby clutter to make room for new passions.

It’s always better to avoid bringing home a new item that you don’t need than it is to have to get rid of it later. Apply the Do I really need this? question before an item crosses over from being in the retailer’s possession to being in yours.

Become a savvy buyer. By this, I mean understanding the strategies that marketers use to convince you to buy things you don’t need. Don’t be seduced by sales tactics or let yourself feel pressured by limited-time offers. Calculate in your head the “clutter cost” and add it to the price tag. Is the benefit greater than the burden

When you’re diligently tidying an area daily (which isn’t hard if you stay on it), you are less likely to lose control of that area. If you see any space in your home that gets cluttered with unnecessary things more frequently than every two or three days, it’s a place that you should put on your daily habit list. These practices will get you started: Straighten up the bedroom. Make the bed, put away clothes, and unclutter dresser tops. Establish rules with your kids about straightening up their own rooms. Put paper where it belongs. Stay on top of incoming paper and office clutter by handling it the day it arrives. Junk mail and newspapers in recycling. Important papers in folders.

away. Likewise, put away utensils or pots and pans that don’t belong on the counters. It’s a wonderful thing to go to bed knowing that you’ll wake up to a clean kitchen for breakfast. Return things left out in the bathroom. When we’re in a hurry getting ready in the morning, it’s easy to leave out things such as hairbrushes, makeup applicators, razors, and blow-dryers. Rectify that problem when you get home by putting everything back where it belongs.

Different seasons, turning points, and special occasions that we cycle through each year offer opportunities for refreshing the minimalism of our home. Make creative use of these times to bring your home minimalism up to date:

If you have a boomerang child coming into your home, explain your minimalist beliefs and put some boundaries on what she can bring with her.

The minimalist’s home-buying motto is “Buy the house you need, not the house you can afford.”

“My dream is to rent an apartment in walking distance of a train station that can take me to an airport, where I can reach anywhere in the world.”

if you are interested in downsizing, you should at least consider renting,

minimalism is intentionally promoting the things we most value by removing everything that distracts us from those things. That means creating a minimalist home is not an end in itself. Sure, having a decluttered place to live is great. But beyond that, minimalism is a pathway to an end: a life of newly recovered passion, purpose, and margin in life to pursue the things that matter most.