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8 Minimalism Books to Help You Declutter Your Entire House

14 minute read

You don’t need to read all of these books to declutter your house.

Each one will help and you may want to read a few, but we all handle clutter differently.

These books aren’t just to help you get some strategies for clearing clutter; they’ll also help you stay motivated through the process and take a new mindset on your stuff.

If you want to get started, start before you feel like it. You may get the motivation before you start, but more often than not, action is what creates motivation.

Choose a book or two and start. You don’t have to have the best method. You don’t need to get everything right; you just need to get started.

1. The Minimalist Way

Minimalism Strategies to Declutter Your Life and Make Room for Joy

By Erica Layne

The Minimalist Way

If you want practical ways to declutter each area of your home, this book is for you.

I loved the ideas she shares and the questions she asks about each item in her home.

This book starts by addressing your heart and your mind and then proceeds into practical ways to start decluttering and downsizing.

Publisher Description:

Discover how to apply the minimalist mindset to every aspect of your life by changing the way you think about your home, career, relationships, family, and money. The Minimalist Way will help you take it one step at a time with simple exercises and activities. Ease into minimalism at your own pace and learn how to let go.

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2. Decluttering at the Speed of Life

Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff

By Dana K. White

First off, she emphasizes the purpose of her book is not about cleaning, but decluttering. As tempting as cleaning will be, decluttering is the goal, but yes, you can clean as you go if you can’t help yourself.

I really like the questions she introduces to ask yourself about each item:

  1. Ask yourself where you would look for the item, then take it to that location
  2. If you can’t think of where you’d go to find the item, ask yourself if it would occur to you that you already had the item (if it wouldn’t, donate it)

It’s amazing how helpful these questions are. On top of that, I feel like she had been to my house, discussing everything from the box of old t-shirts we keep, planning to make a t-shirt quilt, to the expired food in our pantry.

Publisher Description:

You don’t have to live overwhelmed by stuff–you can get rid of clutter for good! While the world seems to be in love with the idea of tiny houses and minimalism, many of us simply can’t purge it all and start from nothing. Yet a home with too much stuff is a home that is difficult to maintain, so where do we begin? Add in paralyzing emotional attachments and constant life challenges, and it can feel almost impossible to make real decluttering progress.

In Decluttering at the Speed of Life, decluttering expert and author Dana White identifies the mind-sets and emotional challenges that make it difficult to declutter. Then, in her signature humorous approach, she provides workable solutions to break through these struggles and get clutter out–for good!

But more than simply offering strategies, Dana dives deep into how to implement them, no matter the reader’s clutter level or emotional resistance to decluttering. She helps identify procrasticlutter–the stuff that will get done eventually so it doesn’t seem urgent–as well as how to make progress when there’s no time to declutter.
Sections of the book include

  • Why You Need This Book (You Know Why)
  • Your Unique Home
  • Decluttering in the Midst of Real Life
  • Change Your Mind, Change Your Home
  • Breaking Through Your Decluttering Delusions
  • Working It Out Room by Room
  • Helping Others Declutter
  • Real Life Goes On (and On)

As long as we’re living and breathing, new clutter will appear. The good news is that decluttering can get easier, become more natural, and require significantly fewer hours, less emotional bandwidth, and little to no sweat to keep going.

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3. The Minimalist Home

A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life

By Joshua Becker

The Minimalist Home

Exactly as the sub-title says, this is a room-by-room guide. He goes through every room and gives some practical ideas and ways to declutter each one.

I love how practical this book is and it’s actionable stuff you can do immediately. However, it’s not a get-it-all-done event, it’s a process. He shows you how to declutter slowly.

Joshua popularized the minimalism movement online, with his blog, Becoming Minimalist. This is one of his more recent books, so it encompasses everything he’s learned about decluttering over the last decade.

Publisher Description:

One of today’s most influential minimalist advocates takes us on a decluttering tour of our own houses and apartments, showing us how to decide what to get rid of and what to keep. He both offers practical guidelines for simplifying our lifestyle at home and addresses underlying issues that contribute to over-accumulation in the first place. The purpose is not just to create a more inviting living space. It’s also to turn our life’s HQ—our home—into a launching pad for a more fulfilling and productive life in the world.

View on Amazon: Hardcover | Paperback | Audible | Kindle

4. The Art of Minimalism

A Simple Guide to Declutter and Organize Your Life

By Olivia Telford

This book has a 30-day challenge that can get you on track. It’s in between getting it all done in one weekend and taking 10 years to declutter your house. I think her strategies are actionable and easy to implement.

This is also a short, 146-page read or an under-3-hour listen.

Publisher Description:

Have you ever felt overwhelmed, suffocated, and stressed out by the amount of clutter in your life?

Are you ready to break free from the confines of having too much “stuff” but not sure where to start?

The truth is… you probably have too many things taking up unnecessary space in your life. But what you might not know is that those things are weighing you down in more ways than one…

Think about it: all the dirty dishes piling up in the kitchen, those “just in case” items you keep in the garage, or Christmas presents you stuck in the back of your closet (which you knew you’d never use) aren’t just taking up physical space — they’re stealing your mental space, too.

Sure, you might be able to ignore all the clutter for a short while, but it’s only a matter of time before the messiness causes unwarranted stress, embarrassment, and anxiety.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way… clearing out the clutter to make space for more money, time, creativity, and relaxation is easier than you think.

How to Change Your Life with Minimalism

Contrary to what many believe, decluttering and tidying up your home isn’t just about shuffling things around or throwing away items. It’s about consciously organizing your life to make room for prosperity, abundance, and happiness. In The Art of Minimalism, you will discover:

  • The best way to utilize minimalism to be more productive and add hours to your day
  • How to effectively use the “Pomodoro Method” to simplify your minimizing process
  • The one thing you should do in the morning to create a “declutter domino” effect (hint: most people forget about this!)
  • A fool-proof 30-day challenge to effectively organize your space
  • Tips for spotting a “messy” relationship (and what to do about it)
  • Why a “cluttered brain” equals a cluttered home and how to clear the mental mayhem
  • How to use a simple, yet powerful organizational trick (this helped one mom build a multimillion dollar business)

Imagine… in just a few months from now, you could have a transformed space that’s stress-free, relaxed, and serene. Every time someone visits your home, they’ll continue to ask how you keep things so organized!

Even if you have hoards of unnecessary things piling up like mountains, Olivia Telford shows you the little-known ways to declutter your life top to bottom. With easy-to-follow steps and a simple approach to minimalism, you too can experience the joyful and carefree life which comes along with tidying up.

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5. Goodbye, Things

The New Japanese Minimalism

By Fumio Sasaki

Goodbye, Things

A Japanese approach to the subject. He got into the art of Japanese Minimalism, it worked for him, then he decided to share what he learned. It’s written from the perspective of the average person. He’s not a guru. He’s just following principles he’s learned along the way and showing you what he’s learned.

It’s practical and actionable advice. It’s simple, but like most decluttering, it’s not always easy.

Publisher Description:

The best-selling phenomenon from Japan that shows us a minimalist life is a happy life.

Fumio Sasaki is not an enlightened minimalism expert or organizing guru like Marie Kondo―he’s just a regular guy who was stressed out and constantly comparing himself to others, until one day he decided to change his life by saying goodbye to everything he didn’t absolutely need. The effects were remarkable: Sasaki gained true freedom, new focus, and a real sense of gratitude for everything around him. In Goodbye, Things Sasaki modestly shares his personal minimalist experience, offering specific tips on the minimizing process and revealing how the new minimalist movement can not only transform your space but truly enrich your life. The benefits of a minimalist life can be realized by anyone, and Sasaki’s humble vision of true happiness will open your eyes to minimalism’s potential.

View on Amazon: Paperback | Hardcover | Audible | Kindle

6. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing

By Marie Kondō

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

You’ve probably heard of this one. She’s increasing in popularity daily, especially with her Netflix show. Her KonMari Method is one of the most popular methods now. If you haven’t heard of it, there is a big difference from most of the other books on decluttering: she does it all at once. If you want to declutter your bedroom, you do the entire room in a day. Ideally, you’d declutter your entire house in a week or a weekend.

This method can be overwhelming. It works, but only if you prefer to knock it all out at one time.

Publisher Description:

Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?

Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again. Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results. In fact, none of Kondo’s clients have lapsed (and she still has a three-month waiting list). 

With detailed guidance for determining which items in your house “spark joy” (and which don’t), this international bestseller will help you clear your clutter and enjoy the unique magic of a tidy home—and the calm, motivated mindset it can inspire.

View on Amazon: Hardcover | Audible | Kindle

7. The Power of Less

The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential…in Business and in Life

By Lea Babautu

The Power of Less

This was one of the first popular books about minimalism. While it’s not a step-by-step guide to decluttering like many of the other books on this list, it is a guide to your mind. It’s about wanting less and appreciating what you have.

Think of this as more of a productivity book. Ideas you can use to help you declutter your house and your life. He goes into everything from becoming more efficient to creating new habits — all which will help you tackle your clutter.

Publisher Description:

With the countless distractions that come from every corner of a modern life, it’s amazing that were ever able to accomplish anything. The Power of Less demonstrates how to streamline your life by identifying the essential and eliminating the unnecessary freeing you from everyday clutter and allowing you to focus on accomplishing the goals that can change your life for the better.

The Power of Less will show you how to:

  • Break any goal down into manageable tasks
  • Focus on only a few tasks at a time
  • Create new and productive habits
  • Hone your focus
  • Increase your efficiency

By setting limits for yourself and making the most of the resources you already have, you’ll finally be able work less, work smarter, and focus on living the life that you deserve.

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8. Minimalism Room by Room

A Customized Plan to Declutter Your Home and Simplify Your Life

By Elizabeth Enright Phillips

Minimalism Room by Room

Now we’re back to the manuals for decluttering. This last book is one of the best for an approach you can use immediately upon reading it.

All of these books are practical, but this may be the most practical one. At just over 200 pages, it’s a pretty quick read as well.

Publisher Description:

Imagine the life you’ve always wanted. Neat. Tidy. Free from unwanted clutter and surrounded by peace, calm, and serenity. Now you can learn how to love your space more by owning less and organizing the rest. Minimalism Room by Room is an essential guide for streamlining your life―one room (and one mess) at a time.

By cultivating minimalism, you can focus on what matters most like your loved ones, traveling, and making lasting memories together. Minimalism Room by Room delivers easy, actionable strategies so you can save time and money, and get on the path to living simpler. Take a deep breath. It’s time to start sorting.

This essential beginner’s guide to minimalism includes:

  • Make room: room-by-room―Learn how to tackle cleaning challenges in every part of your home―the kid’s room, the kitchen and dining room, the master suite, and more. Even small spaces like studio apartments are covered!
  • Practical makes perfect―Get useful minimalism tips and tricks, including money-saving, sustainability, and attitude adjustments.
  • Live with less (and love it!)―Powerful tools like checklists, sorting guides, and tracking sheets help you plan and stay focused along the way.

Discover how you can live your best life―with less―by embracing minimalism.

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Those are my top eight for decluttering.

Feel free to share your favorite books on minimalism and decluttering!

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