While I don’t think you need to be a minimalist to embrace simple living, it’s easy to see how the two lifestyle philosophies compliment one another. As minimalism promotes the reduction of excess in our life, it enables a more simple life by reducing consumption and making room for intentional living.
Joshua Becker, of becomingminimalist.com, is an excellent writer on minimalism. He was actually one of the people that helped to inspire my own move towards a more minimalist life. I was provided an early copy of his new book, The Minimalist Home, and wanted to share my thoughts with you.
A Room-By-Room Guide
The book is organized to provide a room-by-room guide to minimalism. This allows you to think about how each room provides it’s own purpose, and thus needs to be minimized in it’s own way.
Joshua writes about how you should have a goal for a room. Why does the room exist? What “stuff” in the room helps accomplish that goal? This is a refreshing viewpoint, and a way to more easily make intentional decisions about what belongs in each room in your home.
By following the room-by-room strategy in the book, you are also able to work through from easy areas to more difficult ones. Joshua starts with the Living Room, and then ends in more traditionally cluttered areas like storage spaces or the garage.
Practical Approach
You’ll find that The Minimalist Home offers a practical approach, that can be implemented based on your own goals.
I’m a strong believer that each of us needs to find our own meaning of how to live a simple life. Joshua leaves room for your own minimalism interpretation as he guides you through how to minimize your home. Throughout the book, he provides suggestions, but does not enforce strict black or white rules.
Also included is a “Maintenance Guide”, that serves as a reminder for ongoing ways to keep your home minimal. Daily, weekly, monthly, and other life events are addressed in the context of keeping out clutter.
A Powerful Conclusion: It’s About Your Life
Joshua ends on the central truth of The Minimalist Home – it’s not about your house, it’s about your life.
…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.
–The Minimalist Home
At the end of the day, embracing a minimalist life is about learning to find purpose. You are escaping consumerism, and making room for what you are passionate about. Maybe it’s spending more time with family, helping people in need, or developing your career.
If you are looking for a practical guide on minimalism in your home, I recommend you check out The Minimalist Home. It will be on sale December 18th, 2018.
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