The More of Less
Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own
By Joshua Becker
WaterBrook Press

Under that heap of mail there’s a kitchen counter. Buried behind the shovels and the tools and the pogo stick lies a garage. And behold, under the towering stacks of folded laundry, craft supplies, and kids’ toys is that—the floor? The average American home has tripled in size over the past 50 years, but we still don’t have enough space for all our belongings, and no wonder: The average house has 300,000 items crammed into it. Organizing that flotsam into “storage solutions” is not the answer, says Joshua Becker, a former pastor who has become one of the leading voices in the simplicity movement. In his latest book, The More of Less, Becker calls on us to liberate ourselves, deepening the message he has introduced to fans on his blog and website, Becoming Minimalist.

“Our excessive possessions are not making us happy,” Becker writes. “Even worse, they are taking us away from the things that do. Once we let go of the things that don’t matter, we are free to pursue all the things that really do matter.” Almost everyone reading this book starts from a place of feeling overwhelmed, I’m guessing, and Becker knows this, gently and confidently leading us to tackle clutter in a step-by-step way, then sharing how to create habits and mindsets for lasting change. Throughout, Becker shares real-life examples of people who have decluttered, showing how reducing the volume of your possessions can grant you more time, energy, money, freedom, and umpteen other benefits. But most important, it provides clarity: What do I want to do with my life? When you can see the floor, and the countertop, it’s amazing how far out into the rest of your world you can see, and how you can move toward fulfilling your life’s purpose.