Article Overview: Sharing the Best Books on Decluttering
The first step towards a simpler life is decluttering what you no longer need, and that isn’t always easy to determine.
This is why reading books about how to declutter your life is great because you can get a step-by-step guide or gain inspiration from how someone else simplified their life.
In this post, you’ll find books for decluttering I have read and recommend, as well as books I wish to read.
Even though I’ve decluttered my life, I love reading books to continue inspiring my simple living journey.
Best Books on Decluttering that I Recommend
These are the best books on decluttering that have inspired my decluttering journey or that I’ve read and believe you’ll find great value in reading. They are listed in no particular order.
1 // Declutter Your Home Workbook by Erin Tannehill
Starting with a shameless plug to my 92-page, step-by-step Declutter Your Home Workbook.
I created this to give simple and actionable tips for the person who is ready to create a clutter-free, organized home without the overwhelm.
You’ll also find a maintenance plan for after you’ve gone through your home so that you can keep it clutter-free.
2 // Goodbye, Things by Fumio Sasaki
Fumio shares his minimalist story in such a way that it helps you see your home differently. Even though my home was already decluttered, this book helped me create a stress-free home that I truly enjoy.
I actually followed his advice by mailing his book to a friend instead of keeping it, and while I don’t regret that, I do want to add it to my Kindle library to read again.
Synopsis: 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.
Check current price on Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
3 // The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
This is a staple for anyone decluttering their home. Marie declutters by category, even though some of them are very broad categories.
This was the first book I read that offered an organized approach to decluttering and helped me amp up my decluttering efforts.
Synopsis: 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.
Check current price on Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
4 // Cozy Minimalist Home by Myquillyn Smith
In full disclosure, I did not complete this book, because I gained what I needed from it before finishing it.
I still highly recommend it, because it helped me change how my home looks and feels in a way that keeps people saying, “Your home always feels so calm!”
Cozy Minimalist Home helped me see how I can have a beautiful home without things I don’t need. I’ve curated a home I love and find peace within.
Synopsis: Go beyond décor trends to make your home beautiful, stylish, and comfortable. . . on any budget.
Writing for the hands-on woman who’d rather move her own furniture than hire a designer, Myquillyn Smith–author of the The Nesting Place–helps you think through every room in your house, one purposeful design decision at a time. With people, priorities, and purpose in mind, you can create a warm, inviting, and timeless home that transcends the latest trends and centers around your personal style.
You’ll have the tools to create a home you’re proud of in a way that honors your unique priorities, budget, and taste. And best of all, you can completely transform your home starting with furniture and décor that you already have!
In Cozy Minimalist Home, Smith helps you:
- Recognize your role as the curator of your home who makes smart, style-impacting design choices
- Know what to focus on and what not to worry about
- Discover the real secret to finding your unique style
- Find a sofa you won’t hate tomorrow
- Deconstruct each room and re-create it step by step
- Create a pretty home with more style and less stuff
- Make your home look the way you’ve always hoped so you can use it the way you’ve always dreamed
- Fall in love with the space you’ve created
Discover how creating a cozy minimalist home goes beyond pretty and sets the stage for the true connection, relationship, and rest that you deserve.
Check out current prices on Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle
5 // The Minimalist Home: A Room-by-Room Guide to a Decluttered, Refocused Life by Joshua Becker
I look at this book as a starting point to get your wheels turning about what you can declutter.
When I read it, I had already decluttered most of my things. However, I feel like it would have served me well at the beginning of my minimalism journey, which is why I’m recommending it as one of the best books on decluttering.
Synopsis: 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.
Check current price on Amazon: Hardcover | Kindle
6 // The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter by Margareta Magnusson
OMGoodness I adore this book! Everyone needs to read it at some point in their lifetime.
While she says it is for retired people, I believe anyone can benefit from this book. I read it a few years before getting pregnant with my first child and gained so much from it.
Now that I’m close to having my Baby Girl, I plan to read it a second time as a guide to help me through the nesting phase of my pregnancy.
It is a bit sad to think one day you won’t be living anymore, but that’s countered with the idea of making the transition easy on your loved ones.
You can have fun with it and tell a story of your lifetime so they find ways to enjoy the process, even though you’re gone.
Synopsis: A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life.
In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming.
Margareta suggests which possessions you can easily get rid of (unworn clothes, unwanted presents, more plates than you’d ever use) and which you might want to keep (photographs, love letters, a few of your children’s art projects). Digging into her late husband’s tool shed, and her own secret drawer of vices, Margareta introduces an element of fun to a potentially daunting task. Along the way readers get a glimpse into her life in Sweden, and also become more comfortable with the idea of letting go.
Check current prices on Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
7 // Essentialism by Greg McKeown
Aww… another book I wish I would have read at the beginning of my minimalism journey.
Many people get a lot out of this book, and I would have as well if I found it earlier.
Greg is intriguing with his thought process of having just what’s essential and letting go of the rest.
I love his book Effortless, so it’s a must read after you read Essentialism.
Synopsis: Have you ever:
- found yourself stretched too thin?
- simultaneously felt overworked and underutilized?
- felt busy but not productive?
- felt like your time is constantly being hijacked by other people’s agendas?
If you answered yes to any of these, the way out is the Way of the Essentialist.
Essentialism is more than a time-management strategy or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution toward the things that really matter.
By forcing us to apply more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy—instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.
Essentialism is not one more thing—it’s a whole new way of doing everything. It’s about doing less, but better, in every area of our lives. Essentialism is a movement whose time has come.
Check current prices on Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
8 // The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store by Cait Flanders
This is a great read to gain inspiration for changing your life. I think challenges that force changes you want to make are fascinating to read about.
This is a quick read, so if you’re interested in how you can reduce your own shopping habits and dramatically change your life, I encourage you to give this book a read.
Synopsis: In her late twenties, Cait Flanders found herself stuck in the consumerism cycle that grips so many of us: earn more, buy more, want more, rinse, repeat. Even after she worked her way out of nearly $30,000 of consumer debt, her old habits took hold again. When she realized that nothing she was doing or buying was making her happy—only keeping her from meeting her goals—she decided to set herself a challenge: she would not shop for an entire year.
The Year of Less documents Cait’s life for twelve months during which she bought only consumables: groceries, toiletries, gas for her car. Along the way, she challenged herself to consume less of many other things besides shopping. She decluttered her apartment and got rid of 70 percent of her belongings; learned how to fix things rather than throw them away; researched the zero waste movement; and completed a television ban. At every stage, she learned that the less she consumed, the more fulfilled she felt.
The challenge became a lifeline when, in the course of the year, Cait found herself in situations that turned her life upside down. In the face of hardship, she realized why she had always turned to shopping, alcohol, and food—and what it had cost her. Unable to reach for any of her usual vices, she changed habits she’d spent years perfecting and discovered what truly mattered to her.
Blending Cait’s compelling story with inspiring insight and practical guidance, The Year of Less will leave you questioning what you’re holding on to in your own life—and, quite possibly, lead you to find your own path of less.
Check current prices on Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
Books on Decluttering that I want to read
I love reading books on decluttering because they show different perspectives and teach different methods for decluttering, which always seems to help me declutter more.
This list of books on decluttering is in no particular order. I’ve included a synopsis for each book, and if there is a specific reason for wanting to read a certain book, I’ve included that as well.
1 // They Left Us Everything: A Memoir by Plum Johnson
I’m intrigued by this book because it goes through the process of handling their parents’ estate.
I know I’ll have to do it one day, and I think this book will help show me what it could look like.
Synopsis: A warm, heartfelt memoir of family, loss, and a house jam-packed with decades of goods and memories.
After almost twenty years of caring for elderly parents—first for their senile father, and then for their cantankerous ninety-three-year old mother—author Plum Johnson and her three younger brothers have finally fallen to their middle-aged knees with conflicted feelings of grief and relief. Now they must empty and sell the beloved family home, twenty-three rooms bulging with history, antiques, and oxygen tanks. Plum thought: How tough will that be? I know how to buy garbage bags.
But the task turns out to be much harder and more rewarding than she ever imagined. Items from childhood trigger difficult memories of her eccentric family growing up in the 1950s and ’60s, but unearthing new facts about her parents helps her reconcile those relationships, with a more accepting perspective about who they were and what they valued.
They Left Us Everything is a funny, touching memoir about the importance of preserving family history to make sense of the past, and nurturing family bonds to safeguard the future.
Check current price on Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
2 // The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker
This is a staple for many people starting their minimalism journey who enjoy reading books on decluttering. I believe it is important to try reading the books the masses recommend, but they recommend them for a reason.
Synopsis: Don’t Settle for More
Most of us know we own too much stuff. We feel the weight and burden of our clutter, and we tire of cleaning and managing and organizing.
While excess consumption leads to bigger houses, faster cars, fancier technology, and cluttered homes, it never brings happiness. Rather, it results in a desire for more. It redirects our greatest passions to things that can never fulfill. And it distracts us from the very life we wish we were living.
Live a better life with less.
In The More of Less, Joshua Becker helps you…
• Recognize the life-giving benefits of owning less
• Realize how all the stuff you own is keeping you from pursuing your dreams
• Craft a personal, practical approach to decluttering your home and life
• Experience the joys of generosity
• Learn why the best part of minimalism isn’t a clean house, it’s a full life
The beauty of minimalism isn’t in what it takes away. It’s in what it gives.
Make Room in Your Life for What You Really Want
“Maybe you don’t need to own all this stuff.” After a casual conversation with his neighbor on Memorial Day 2008, Joshua Becker realized he needed a change. He was spending far too much time organizing possessions, cleaning up messes, and looking for more to buy.
So Joshua and his wife decided to remove the nonessential possessions from their home and life. Eventually, they sold, donated, or discarded over 60 percent of what they owned. In exchange, they found a life of more freedom, more contentment, more generosity, and more opportunity to pursue the things that mattered most.
The More of Less delivers an empowering plan for living more by owning less. With practical suggestions and encouragement to personalize your own minimalist style, Joshua Becker shows you why minimizing possessions is the best way to maximize life.
Are you ready for less cleaning, less anxiety, and less stress in your life? Simplicity isn’t as complicated as you think.
Check current prices on Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
3 // The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life by Francine Jay
This is another staple book on decluttering that so many seem to enjoy.
Synopsis: Having less stuff is the key to happiness.
Do you ever feel overwhelmed, instead of overjoyed, by all your possessions? Do you secretly wish a gale force wind would blow the clutter from your home? If so, it’s time to simplify your life!
The Joy of Less is a fun, lighthearted guide to minimalist living. Part One provides an inspirational pep talk on the joys and rewards of paring down. Part Two presents the STREAMLINE method: ten easy steps to rid your house of clutter. Part Three goes room by room, outlining specific ways to tackle each one. Part Four helps you get your family on board, and live more lightly and gracefully on the earth.
Ready to sweep away the clutter? Just open this book, and you’ll be on your way to a simpler, more streamlined, and more serene life.
Check current prices on Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
4 // Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff: Declutter, Downsize, and Move Forward with Your Life by Matt Paxton
I got into watching Hoarders after moving into my new home. Matt Paxton is one of the show’s organizers and also teaches people how to let go of their things so they can live their lives again.
I think it will be a fascinating read!
Synopsis: America’s top cleaning expert and star of the hit series Legacy List with Matt Paxton distills his fail-proof approach to decluttering and downsizing.
Your boxes of photos, family’s china, and even the kids’ height charts aren’t just stuff; they’re attached to a lifetime of memories–and letting them go can be scary. With empathy, expertise, and humor, Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff, written in collaboration with AARP, helps you sift through years of clutter, let go of what no longer serves you, and identify the items worth keeping so that you can focus on living in the present.
For over 20 years, Matt Paxton has helped people from all walks of life who want to live more simply declutter and downsize. As a featured cleaner on Hoarders and host of the Emmy-nominated Legacy List with Matt Paxton on PBS, he has identified the psychological roadblocks that most organizational experts routinely miss but that prevent so many of us from lightening our material load. Using poignant stories from the thousands of individuals and families he has worked with, Paxton brings his signature insight to a necessary task.
Whether you’re tired of living with clutter, making space for a loved one, or moving to a smaller home or retirement community, this book is for you. Paxton’s unique, step-by-step process gives you the tools you need to get the job done.
Check out current prices on Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
FAQs
How will reading the books for decluttering help you?
Decluttering books provide motivation that helps you make a change in your life, and many of these books on decluttering provides guidance for a clutter-free life.
How do you start decluttering when you’re overwhelmed?
I’ve written an in-depth post about this to walk you through the process of decluttering when you’re overwhelmed.
Here’s the link if you’d like to read it: How to Start Decluttering When Overwhelmed & Where to Start
My first tip is to always start with your mindset so it’s easier to start the physical decluttering process.
Reading books on decluttering can help adjust your mindset, which is why I’m providing these recommendations for you.
What is the first rule for decluttering your home?
There are no rules to decluttering your home. There can be starting points, but no one can walk into your home and tell you that you’re doing it wrong.
Each and every person on Earth is unique and so is their decluttering process.
My suggestion is to always start with identifying why you want to declutter your home and what you hope that looks like. This five-minute exercise provides clarity to the process, which I feel makes it easier.
What’s the best way to read and implement books on decluttering?
Read and implement one book at a time. Go through someone else’s entire process and see how you feel about it.
What things did you like? What would you do differently?
Of course, never force yourself through a book or decluttering process that you hate. That won’t help you declutter.
But give everything a solid try and see how it goes.
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