Five Books for Beginning Minimalists

As someone who has been working on minimizing for the better part of six months, I will admit that it can be a stressful process. It’s tough to know where to start and it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of possessions that you’ve accumulated over the years.

Before I really jumped into creating my own rules for minimalism and actively sorting the billion things I owned into keep, donate, or trash piles, I did what I usually do and looked to the experts for guidelines and advice.

Below are my top five favorite books I’ve read about minimalism. These are the five books for beginning minimalists that I would recommend to anyone starting the process of minimizing their own possessions.

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If you prefer not to shop via my links, I highly recommend checking these out from your local library! It’s the most minimal-friendly option! 🙂

1. Soulful Simplicity by Courtney Carver

I could write multiple full length posts about this book alone, but I’ll try to keep this short. Carver is the creator of Project 333- a capsule-wardrobe project where you keep only 33 items of clothing for 3 months at a time. This results in a capsule for each season of roughly 33 pieces, although a piece can certainly roll from capsule to capsule. I’ve written a bit more extensively about my capsule wardrobe process here, but this is the book that really started my clothing minimizing process and it’s the one I return to again and again.

I knew Carver was behind Project 333 before I began reading the book. I didn’t know how many other takeaways I would have from her book and how many pages I would end up dog-earing in order to remember all of her brilliant insights (sorry library copy and whoever reads it next…hope you find those pages as helpful as I did). While I really would encourage everyone to read the book in its entirety, here are a few of my favorite takeaways:

Stop keeping things “just in case”. When you find yourself using this logic, fill in the blank that is the rest of that sentence: just in case of what? The 20/20 theory says that most “just in case” items can be replaced in less than 20 minutes for less than 20 dollars. Stop using the just in case excuse: it’s a combination of both fear and procrastination.
Morning routines: Your goal is not to be the best morning routine maker ever, but instead to engage in activities that fuel you and to notice boosts in health, happiness, kindness, and inspiration. (Your routine does not have to look like everyone else’s…choose what gives you the most life and momentum for the day…if that’s nothing but coffee and cuddles with your dog, then that is a-okay.)
The “Hell Yeah” philosophy: if someone asks you to do something or places a demand on your time, your instinct should be to only respond to things that make you say “hell yeah”. If you aren’t feeling it, say no.

2. The Year of Less by Cait Flanders

I picked this book up at the library on a whim after it was recommended as similar to other titles I was looking at. I’m so thankful I did. I immediately related to the author on a number of levels: we were the same age and in similar stages of life and states of mind. Flanders doesn’t just focus on minimalism; she also first brought the idea of no-spend months to my attention, and I’ve now completed several of them. I also highly recommend reading this full book, so I’ll just leave you with my two favorite, kick-you-in-the-back-of-the-knees, how-have-I-never-thought-of-this, I-need-these-tattooed-on-my- forehead quotes:

“Treat yo’self does not mean treating yourself to years and years of credit card debt, clutter, and possessions that don’t serve you.”
“Decluttering and purging 70 percent of my belongings came with different lessons. I realized I had spent the first 29 years of my life doing and buying whatever I could to be someone I thought I should be. I kept so many things, and consumed the wrong things, all because I never felt like I was good enough. I wasn’t smart enough or professional enough or talented enough or creative enough. I didn’t trust that who I was or what I brought to the table in any situation was already unique, so I bought things that could make me better. Then I spent a year sorting through the mess and figuring out who I really was.”

3. More or Less by Jeff Shinabarger

This is the book that started it all for me. I’m not kidding when I say it leapt off the library shelf and into my consciousness. I saw the title, pulled it down, and have been enthralled ever since. If you read one book in the next month or year, it should probably be this one.

This book isn’t technically about minimalism, though Shinabarger spends considerable on the concept of what is enough, even talking the reader through a series of “enough experiments” so they are able to arrive at their own definition of what is enough for them. He also turns comparison, which we so often think about as a negative by-product of our social media-filled age into a positive, as he asks each person to find someone who has less than they do. It’s all about perspective.

This is a complex topic, and one I’m worried that I won’t do justice, so I’ll just leave a snippet below so you may experience it for yourself:

We will either be consumed by culture or will choose to define enough by our personal conscience. The good life is NOT found in luxury; rather it is found in a life that enhances the life of another human. We will become known by the choices we make because people will see the lifestyle that we live and how we give to others. If we have more than enough, we have the opportunity to bless others. This is the start to living a life of generosity. You see, generosity is not about giving money. Generosity is a lifestyle that seeks to understand the needs of others and strives to bring an end to that suffering. True generosity is a choice: when those of us living in the black choose to live with less so others can have more. If we choose generosity, we place the interests and needs of others above our own personal gain. To freely give something that you care about to another human is a great act of humility. Every single day you have the opportunity to do something heroic for another person, to make their life a little bit better than it was before.

4. The More of Less by Joshua Becker

A similar title to the book above but quite different books. Becker is the founder of becomingminimalist.com so he is undoubtedly a great resource into minimalism, having devoted much of his life to it. This is a great jumping off point, especially if you have a family, as Becker talks about how to get spouses and children on board with minimalism.

I’ve actually written a full post about this book before, and you can find that post here. I don’t want to rewrite things I’ve already shared, so I’ll just add in this quote that I think deserves repetition and careful consideration:

“You may be buying things in an attempt to fulfill a basic human need such as security, acceptance, or contentment.”

5. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

I could hardly leave this book off the list, especially with the recent launch of the Netflix series and the resurgence in popularity of the KonMari method. I will admit that when I first read this book, I did not consider it a favorite. I found Kondo’s methods a little hokey and questioned the feasibility of touching every single item in my home and taking the time to thank it for its service to me.

I will say that watching the Netflix special made her methods much more relatable. It’s easy to see that Kondo truly believes in this process and that it makes some incredible changes in the lives of the people she works with.

Asking, “does this spark joy?” might sound hokey, but it clearly works.

There you have my top five recommendations!

Even if you aren’t delving into minimalism, I think these books provide some serious life lessons and I would highly recommend them as enjoyable and educational reads. Let me know if you’ve read any of the books above or if you have any other minimal-based suggestions for me!