Productive Reading: The Minimalist Home – TPW324

In this episode we’re continuing our recurring “Productive Reading” series, this time talking about my key takeaways from The Minimalist Home, by Joshua Becker. Living the minimalist lifestyle in your home This week we are continuing our Productive Reading recurring series. In Episode 133, we talked about lessons from Gary Keller’s The ONE Thing. In Episode 147, we talked about lessons learned from The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. In Episode 166, we discussed 3 books written by Brené Brown, in Episode 182, Soulful Simplicity, by Courtney Carver, Episode 211, The Free-Time Formula by Jeff Sanders, Episode 230, Atomic Habits, by James Clear, Episode 250, Free to Focus, by Michael Hyatt, and Episode 271, Attention Management, by Maura Nevel Thomas. This time we’re talking about another book with a little bit different focus, as I’m sharing some of my most important takeaways from The Minimalist Home, by Joshua Becker. (Unless otherwise noted, each quote below comes from the book.) Who is Joshua Becker? From the back cover copy: “Joshua Becker is the founder and editor of Becoming Minimalist, a website that inspires over one million readers each month to find more life by owning less. He is also the cofounder of the popular online magazine Simplify and the best-selling author of several books, including The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own. Joshua is a contributing writer to Forbes and has made media appearances in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and the CBS Evening News. Joshua and his young family live in Peoria, Arizona. He and his wife, Kim, are the founders of the Hope Effect, a nonprofit organization that helps orphans around the world.” Why did I read this book? I’ve been on a journey over the past couple of years to make more space in my life by reducing the amount of stuff I own, so when I saw this book the title appealed to me. We as a society, especially in the U.S., have become so consumer-oriented, so obsessed with stuff, at a tremendous cost in dollars, time, and peace.  A few statistics quoted in the book give food for thought:  * “Americans spend $1.2 trillion annually on nonessential goods.” * “The United States has more than fifty thousand storage facilities--more than the number of Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Subway restaurants combined.” * “The home organization industry--benefitting from our desperation to try to manage all our stuff--earned retail sales of $16 billion in 2016 and is growing at 4 percent per year.” * “Over the course of an average lifetime, because of all the clutter we live in, we will spend 3,680 hours, or 153 days,