Book Review – simplify. by Becoming Minimalist

Today I am reviewing a new eBook by Joshua Becker called simplify – 7 Guiding Principles to Help Anyone Declutter Their Home and Life. (- affiliate links).  Joshua is the principal blogger over at Becoming Minimalist.

Joshua is a thirty-something husband with two young children who shares his story at the beginning of this fine eBook about how they decided to become minimalists after having a chat with a neighbor during a frustrating weekend of cleaning out the garage.  This puts him in a different category from many of the other minimalist books out there.  He addresses minimalism from a family’s point of view in simplify.

Yes, Leo Babauta (author of the Minimalist Guide) is also married and a father of six but I did not feel his book covered things from the family-perspective as thoroughly and consistently as Joshua’s does.  Leo’s book is great, it just wasn’t his focus to cover family for more than a chapter.

Joshua’s approach appeals to me, first of all, because I’m also a thirty something husband and father of young children (triplets under one year).

So, despite my fantasies of being an elder Everett Bogue (which I mean with great reverance) I’m not going to be able to pick up my family and go live out of a backpack at this stage of my life.

So, let’s take a look at each of the seven principles in simplify and what they can do for you.

Principle 1 – Be Convinced

Joshua starts the principles off by walking through some convincing reasons why minimalism can make your life much improved.  I’d like to share some, but really, he covers them quite well and it’s a nice way to get you psyched for the rest of the material in the book.

Principle 2 – Make it Work for You

Talks about how Minimalism is a personal journey – primarily, “It is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it.”

Remove all the clutter from your lives.  Most people start with physical clutter, start to feel good about it and then move on to non-physical clutter.

Decorate in a minimalist style – I have most difficulty with this.  As my “stuff” is the only thing I can really control, I’ve worked very hard to pare down my personal possessions, but having triplets means an influx of stuff, as well as additional stuff coming in from well-meaning and loving family and friends.

Perhaps my favorite minimalist point of the book, minimalism allows you to use your money for things more valuable than physical stuff.  That’s what I’ve tried to do, by spending money on local merchants, contributing to local conservation groups, and supporting the products of minimalists and personal development bloggers who are furthering the development of our minds and souls with their products.

Principle 3 – Jump Right In!

Start small and just get started, just like running a marathon, you take care of your small victories first like running a mile.  The author gives a quick hit list of the areas he physically decluttered first, starting with his vehicle.  For me, I hit the Home Office first because it symbolized my greatest headache.
Then the process of decluttering is described – Grab everything in a particular area and sort ALL of it into Keep, Move or Discard piles.

Principle 4 – Stop the Trend (of Consumerism)

Possessions do not equal joy – the author relates about the many trips he’s taken with students to third world countries where people, supposedly worse off, are often happier than we are with all of our stuff.

Principle 5 – Persevere

There are a lot of nice tips in this chapter.  Again, very few minimalist writers address the topic of children and family because most of the bloggers are young, single and mobile.  Since my situation is more similar to the Becker family, I found the advice of gift-giving valuable

Why rob your children of the joy of receiving gifts, and your well-meaning family of giving gifts?  You can set some ground rules, maybe no more than one gift per child, per occasion, and even provide a “want” list.  This, I think, is terrific advice.

I worry, with the triplets that my house is being overrun with stuff that belongs to them, while I whittle my own possessions down to nothing, thus creating a zero sum scenario.  There is advice in this chapter as well on involving your children in decisions on what stays and what goes, allowing room for new things into their lives.

Principle 6 – Share the Joy

By not being reluctant to tell your story when people ask.  This is the way to help others who may or may not know that part of what’s bothering them is the constant onslaught on their senses from the environment they’ve created.

Principle 7 – Simplify Everywhere

There are some nice tidbits here about simplifying your choices so that you can concentrate more on relationships without the distractions.  This is brilliant advice and is truly why each family should ask themselves whether minimalism wouldn’t be a better path overall for you.

Conclusion – So, is simplify worth reading?  At a cool 77 pages, simplify absolutely is a great book if you have a family, are in a relationship, or want to cultivate some roots.  If you’re a “live out of a bag” type minimalist, which I often fantasize about, you can still get some great advice here if you’re far from your ideal, but you’ll need to continue your search beyond this book with The Art of Being Minimalist and some of the Nomadic life books out there.

Tagged as: guiding principles, joshua becker, Minimalism, minimalist, principles, seven principles, simplify