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The Joy of Less, a Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life Paperback – June 25, 2010

4.5 out of 5 stars 2,424

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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 trim your to-do list and free up your time, and explains how saving space in your closets can save the planet.

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.

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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lightning Source Inc (June 25, 2010)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 286 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0984087311
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0984087310
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 out of 5 stars 2,424

About the author

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Francine Jay
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Francine Jay, also known as Miss Minimalist, writes about living with less at www.missminimalist.com. On her website she provides advice, shares her experiences, and discusses the joys of minimalist living with a vibrant community of kindred souls.

Francine has helped hundreds of thousands of people declutter their homes and simplify their lives with her bestselling book, THE JOY OF LESS. It was named one of Amazon's Best Books of the Year and has been translated into twenty languages worldwide. With her latest book, LIGHTLY, Francine offers a complete philosophy for serene and simple living--one that invites readers to lighten not just their stuff, but their schedules, stress, and spirits as well.

Her advice has been featured widely in the media, including on CNN, BBC, Today, and in The New York Times, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Forbes, The Huffington Post, Le Parisien, ELLE Espana, House Beautiful, Woman’s World, Dr. Oz The Good Life, and others.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing book! Couldn't put it down, fast and easy read. Gives some helpful advice and helped me declutter my drawers and closets. I have recommended this book to many.
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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2014
I use to really struggle with keeping my house remotely clean. I tried FLY Lady and various apps and making a cleaning schedule but nothing helped. Then one day I was browsing a used bookstore and stumbled upon The Joy of Less by Francine Jay and it was exactly what I needed.

It's about minimalism, but not rigid "100 items" minimalism. It's about having *enough*. What's enough for one person will look different than what's enough for another. Like a gourmet chef's "enough" in the kitchen will look different than the "enough" of a single guy who eats take-out all week. I have a lending library, so my "enough" looks different than someone who relies on an e-reader. The point is to have your needs and wants met but not to excess. Every book I own deserves its spot on my shelf, and I do cull my collection regularly because books do still sneak in. (That is the nature of books, haha)

It's also about the value of space. If your table is full of clutter then you first have to clear it off before starting a project. That could deter you from getting started in the first place. But if your table is clear, if you have that *space*, you could start a project on a whim. Doesn't that sound like a more enjoyable way to live? Plus space just plain feels better. Clutter clogs the air flow but when the space is clear it's easier to breathe and there's less weighing on your mind. It's more relaxing. Spas aren't cluttered for a reason ;)

The book also helps you reframe your relationship to your stuff. It makes you be honest about why you're hosting this stuff. Is your stuff serving you or are you serving it? Is your stuff worth the time and hassle of its upkeep, of maintaining it, of putting it away? Does it deserve the space it occupies? Where did it even come from? The book helps you deal with gifts and freebies and sentimental items and back-up items (if your coffee machine breaks are you really going to get and use your old one from the garage or go buy a new one?). It helps you evaluate every item.

The book has practical suggestions on how to downsize too. For example, take items out of "their spot" when you're evaluating them. Like items in a junk drawer, they might trick you into thinking that they belong in that drawer because that's where they always are. But if you dump the drawer out to go through the contents, suddenly you realize that you don't need or want those seventeen ink pens that you never use. Empty your closet to go through your wardrobe, take books off the shelf, empty your pantry.

Also in the book is how to keep the clutter from building up again. Be a gatekeeper, don't let new things in without an interview. Try the "one in, one out" rule. Don't accept freebies at conferences (yay... an advertising magnet, thaaanks....).

The last chapters walk you through decluttering room by room. Do you really want all those expired cosmetics in your bathroom? What's that stuff in the back of your closet?

The author wrote the book before she became a mother (she has one child last I heard - she has a blog, that's how I know), so her advice on kids' clutter is... well she wrote it before becoming a mom ;) One piece of advice is to ask for experiences vs things for their gifts. For example, my daughter is receiving ballet classes for her birthday. Her physical gift will be ballet shoes. That's from my parents. I'm giving her new pajamas (the girl loves pajamas, and she has a lot of sleepovers). The craft at her party will be an art project to decorate her new bedroom. It'll be made with love and will remind her of her friends AND it's useful (because being beautiful IS a use). I get my kids involved in downsizing their possessions regularly too, but I never force it. I gently guide them and every decision about their stuff is theirs to make. We make it fun and they feel good about donating their things for other kids.

I have a friend who said she's impressed by how little stuff we have. We haven't always been this way! Our walls use to be lined in furniture and clutter. Our closets were packed with clothes we never wore. The playroom was insane!!! We still have more than I'd like to have (that happens when you have three kids), but our house feels way better and is so much easier to maintain now. It's a constant effort though. Stuff still sneaks in, and if a clutter pile forms it can get out of hand (clutter attracts clutter. It does).

Anyway, this book helped us improve our quality of life. We're sacrificing much less time to fussing with our stuff now that we have less stuff. And I don't miss the stuff! I now see stuff as a burden to an extent. We use to stop at a thrift store weekly and buy random crap. Now it's been months since we've been to one, and even then we went with a purpose!

OH! And now that we have less stuff I no longer fail at housekeeping. I didn't need FLY Lady, I didn't need a cleaning schedule. I needed less stuff. That's it. Now it's easy and enjoyable to maintain my home. I just put a little bit away and suddenly my home is peaceful and serene.

BTW, this book has earned a permanent spot on my shelf. I re-read it sometimes when our clutter starts sneaking back in. I loan it to others. It very much deserves the space which it occupies!
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Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2024
I've read a lot of decluttering/minimalist books and this one is definitely at the top of my list. I have read it multiple times as its always good to have a little refresher during your journey of minimalism. They way she explains things is like a lightbulb goes off in every chapter. Perfectly worded.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2019
I have a problem with clutter. Not to hoarder levels, but I’m definitely a collector of:

- Shelves upon shelves of unread books.
- Plastic bins full of yarn, shoved in a closet.
- Clothes that are put away but which I never wear.
- Boxes upon boxes of shoes, despite the fact that I wear the same two pairs of shoes every week.
- So. Many. Books.

When it first hit the bestseller list, I read Marie Kondo’s treatise on sparking joy, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Did I agree with all of her ideas? Definitely not. I refused to dump all of my clothes in one big pile, handling them one by one. I did go through my closet and drawers and donate/trash a bunch of items, however. Did I ask myself if each item “sparked joy”? Not necessarily. But I got real with myself and decided what was worth keeping or not. I also refused to thank the items I was letting go of prior to them leaving the house—I just didn’t see the point of personifying my stinky old shoes that way, but hey, whatever works for people, right?

The problem with becoming clutter-free is that it’s an ongoing process and that’s the part I have trouble with: keeping up with it. Keeping things tidy. The process. Try as I might, I struggle with “collecting” a little too enthusiastically and find myself needing to purge every few months when my book stash reaches critical mass (along with my other collections).

I ran across Francine Jay’s book, Lightly, when it was the Audible Daily Deal recently. I saw that she had another book, The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify. Unlike Kondo’s book, Jay’s book seemed more straightforward and practical, so I bought the audiobook, put in my earbuds, and got to work.

I don’t know if I was just in the perfect mood to declutter or if the book is solely responsible, but I decluttered SO much while I listened to this book. I’m talking three trash bags full of clothes and shoes for donation, not to mention A LOT of books (six bankers boxes worth). Plus a bag or two of things that just needed to be recycled or thrown away.

As with Kondo’s method, I haven’t put everything in Jay’s book to practice. Jay emphasizes the importance of putting things away immediately after you’ve used them, rather than leaving them out. For example, not having a lot of random things on the coffee table or nightstand all the time. For me, that doesn’t quite work, because too often out of sight equals out of mind, which means if everything is put away I forget that certain things are there to begin with. But I get the concept and it’s part of that process I’ve always struggled with. I can definitely put certain things away immediately (dishes, clothes, mail) but my books are pretty non-negotiable in terms of being out in each room.

Something else I love about Jay’s method is the idea of having a place for everything. Before, our mail would sit on the dining room table, piling up, when most of it was junk that could be recycled immediately anyway. It even got to the point where we had so much clutter on the dining room table that we stopped using it for its intended purpose. Now, the mail gets dealt with every day and the table is clear. We use it as an actual table again! For sitting at! And having meals on! What a concept! And any mail that needs to be looked at more closely or dealt with later goes in a small basket. Just thinking about that tidy basket versus the table, previously covered in junk, gives me joy.

I still have a ton of work to do—while the closet is tidier, it’s not as clear as I’d like it to be. Next up are my plastic bins of knitwear, purses/bags, and who knows what else. I also have a second closet that’s stuffed with yarn I never use and things I’ve held onto for a decade or longer…but why? Just to sit in a dark closet? I cannot wait to tackle that space next.

I’m not sure if the full minimalist lifestyle is for me. Jay, the self-proclaimed Miss Minimalist, shares that she and her husband live in a sparsely furnished bedroom. That’s fine for some, but personally I like having a big, comfy bed and lots of storage for clothes that I do actually wear.

All this being said, Jay’s book really resonated with me because I love the idea of having fewer things with the intention of creating more space. There’s something freeing about that concept. My challenge is to resist the urge to fill that new space with more random stuff, but like I said—it’s a process. And the things that are worth keeping are the ones that are truly meaningful to me, which means that when I look around, I see things that—dare I say it?—spark joy, rather than panic or stress.
161 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Josée Forgues
5.0 out of 5 stars putting a lot of this into action right now!!!
Reviewed in Canada on October 2, 2022
Great detailed book on how to do this on a daily basis and how to become conscious of our consumption. I’ve already shipped loads of stuff to goodwill and sold many items just while reading the book.
Amrita
5.0 out of 5 stars A fresh outlook on minimalism!
Reviewed in India on August 2, 2022
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 A great read. All minimalism book that i have read seems similar but this one emphasizes on being content with less.

The book was received in great condition. Page quality was great as well.
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Amrita
5.0 out of 5 stars A fresh outlook on minimalism!
Reviewed in India on August 2, 2022
A great read. All minimalism book that i have read seems similar but this one emphasizes on being content with less.

The book was received in great condition. Page quality was great as well.
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Leseratte aus Schweden
5.0 out of 5 stars Gesammelte Informationen
Reviewed in Germany on July 30, 2021
Die Autorin gibt in ihrem Buch einen guten Überblick über Minimalismus in unterschiedlichen Bereichen, warum es gut ist, minimalistischer zu leben und wie wir dahin kommen können. Besonders gut gefällt mir, dass die Autorin Vorschläge macht, wie man unterschiedliche Räume etc entrümpeln kann ohne jedoch darauf zu bestehen, dass es nur den einen richtige Weg gibt. Sie schreibt, dass Minimalismus für jeden anders aussieht.
Ein sehr gutes Buch für den Einstieg, aber auch eine schöne Lektüre für alle, die sich bereits auf dem minimalistischen Weg befinden.
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Bagpuss
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and life-changing book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 14, 2018
When I saw the reviews saying that this book is 'life changing' I did not believe it for one minute - how can a book that helps you clean out your drawers be life changing?!!! But I was wrong - it really can change your life. This book has a no-nonsense approach and gets down to the nitty-gritty from the start. It explains exactly how to declutter your home, room by room... and really gets you questioning why you are hanging on to objects that really don't mean that much to you any more. As if that wasn't enough, the book goes far wider and deeper, questioning our habits as consumers, making us look about why we buy so much 'stuff' - but it's not just our personal clutter that is the problem - it looks at the effect that buying and disposing of all this stuff is having on our world and questions how others can manage to live with so much less stuff than we do. A truly thought-provoking, life-changing and excellent read - extremely well written and thought out.
23 people found this helpful
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Charlotte D.
5.0 out of 5 stars A lire pour transformer son logement en un espace de vie agréable et clair
Reviewed in France on July 11, 2017
Ce livre (en anglais) en lui-même est très beau, la qualité m'a surprise.
Le contenu donne envie de s'y mettre immédiatement ! D'ailleurs, je n'avais pas fini de le parcourir que j'avais déjà sorti des bacs pour trier mes tiroirs, mes placards, la pièce entière ! Les conseils sont faciles à suivre et clairs, l'auteure parle de toutes les pièces de la maison et de tout style de famille.
Un conseil à retenir, c'est d'y revenir et d'y remettre à plusieurs semaines ou mois d'intervalles, pour épurer de mieux en mieux son intérieur et arriver à un espace de vie spacieux, confortable, joli et pourtant fonctionnel et qui convient à toute la famille.
Ce livre motive, apprend à se détacher de ses objets et de les voir pour ce qu'ils sont vraiment, et non pour ce qu'on y projette. Et ça marche ! J'ai déjà fait deux "séances" de tri et je respire mieux dans mon petit logement.

Une remarque, toutefois: si les techniques et l'état d'esprit que l'auteure veut nous apprendre sont applicables par tous, on sent nettement que l'auteure est une américaine de la classe moyenne à supérieure. Quand elle parle des causes qui font qu'on accumule des tonnes de choses inutiles et/ou encombrantes, elle appuie surtout sur le fait qu'on achète ou qu'on s'endette pour acheter ce qui va nous permettre de rivaliser avec ses voisins ou son entourage, ou même les célébrités. Je n'ai pas l'impression qu'il y ait une telle pression sur les consommateurs en France, mais peut-être que je me trompe. J'aurais aimé qu'elle parle plus du fait qu'on hésite à se débarrasser de quelque chose pour la seule raison qu'on l'a payé un jour et que s'en débarrasser reviendrait à jeter l'argent qu'on a dépensé pour l'acheter. Et ce même si aujourd'hui il n'a plus ou peu de valeur et/ou qu'il soit difficile de le revendre. Personnellement c'est la raison n°1 pour laquelle certains des mes proches gardent des choses qui s'entassent dans la cave et dans les placards…
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