A simple gathering for simple people. Join The Minimalists for our upcoming Sunday Symposiums in Southern California. Tickets are free thanks to the kind people at Earthing. Register soon because seats are limited:

Santa Barbara – Jul 27 (free tickets)

Orange County – Aug 31 (coming soon)*

Los Angeles – Sep 28 (coming soon)*

Each event includes free coffee, a sound bath, a talk from The Minimalists, an audience Q&A, and more. Together we’re creating a loving, dogma-free community—and we’d like you to be a part of it. All beliefs and non-beliefs are welcome. All ages. Free hugs!

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The post Sunday Symposium appeared first on The Minimalists.

The Minimalists speak with Kapil Gupta about letting go of nonsense, the many ways humans waste their lives, what happens when you minimize ambition, and much more.

Listen to the Episode

Apple · Spotify · YouTube · Patreon

Discussed in This Episode

Minimal Maxims

Joshua, Ryan, and T.K.’s pithy, shareable, less-than-140-character responses. Find more quotes from The Minimalists at MinimalMaxims.com.

• There’s nowhere in the world that the world is not.
• If the poor man is happy, he certainly isn’t happy because he is poor.
• Consumerism is the ideology that acquiring more will make you a better person.

Links Mentioned in This Episode

• Added Value: Cataclysmic End
• Book: Overcoming the World
• Podcast: No Prescriptions
• Website: Dr. Kapil Gupta

Follow Our Team

• Joshua Fields Millburn
• Ryan Nicodemus
• T.K. Coleman
• Post-Production Peter
• Matt Savidakis
• Jeff Sarris
• Dave LaTulippe

The post Podcast 498 | Nonsense appeared first on The Minimalists.

The perfect closet exists, but it is not located on the other side of your next purchase.

According to the Public Interest Research Group, the average American buys 53 new articles of clothing each year. That’s more than one new thing per week and four times as much as in the year 2000. Accordingly, garment manufacturers are now producing more than 100 billion pieces every year.

It’s easy to blame fast fashion for our overconsumption. Indeed, rapacious corporate greed is a part of the problem. But companies are ceaselessly churning out new attire only because we shoppers keep demanding more.

Just like everyone else, you and I yearn to be trendy. When you think about it, though, trendy is just marketing jargon that really means “soon to go out of style.”

Next time you look in the mirror, consider doing more than a ‘fit check. Consider being honest with yourself about those misplaced desires and insecurities that lead to discontent and debt and piles of cheap clothes, not a perfect closet.

As a recovering perfectionist, I know it feels like that new belt, those new shoes, that new dress will scratch your consumer itch. After all, you’re just a few outfits away from a flawless closet, right?

No.

You see, the word perfect comes from the Latin word perficere, which breaks down into per- (“completely”) and facere (“do”). In other words, perfect does not mean flawless; it means completely done.

Thus, the key to a perfect closet is not addition—it is subtraction.

The wardrobe you want won’t be crafted by acquiring more costumes. (How many years have you been sold that lie?) No, perfect is uncovered when you jettison the clutter that incompleted your closet in the first place.

So, instead of buying a new item every week, just like your fellow trendsetters, what would happen if you let go of ten old items this week?

You can start with anything you haven’t worn in the last year. Soon, you will find yourself donating everything you haven’t worn in the last 90 days.

In the end, with all the excess out of the way, all that remains are your favorite clothes. Perfect was hiding in your closet this whole time. No purchase necessary.

The post The Perfect Closet appeared first on The Minimalists.

What if you could remove all the clutter from your life?

Not just physical clutter, but also emotional clutter, mental clutter, financial clutter, digital clutter, career clutter, calendar clutter, and even relationship clutter?

After helping millions of people heal their relationship with stuff for more than a decade, The Minimalists created our first-ever decluttering course. We’re calling it Simplify Everything.

Here’s what to expect:

• 5 distinct weeks
• 17 video lessons
• 45 clutter problem areas
• 135 decluttering solutions
• 50 minimalism resources
• 30-page workbook
• Student forums

Enrollment is now open (for just 72 hours). You can watch the official trailer, read graduate testimonials, and enroll at SimplifyEverything.xyz.

The post Simplify Everything appeared first on The Minimalists.

Mark your calendar! Our next Friday Afternoon Minimalist Zoom will be August 1 at 3 PM ET.

Everyone who attends will have the opportunity to interact face-to-face with Joshua, Ryan, and T.K., so bring your questions, comments, and tear-jerker decluttering stories (if you prefer not to interact, you can turn off your camera and watch silently).

These monthly FAMZ calls take place on the first Friday of every month and are available to anyone who subscribes to our Audio+ tier on Patreon. Patrons will receive a Zoom link via email one hour before the call.

While we prefer you join us live so that you can participate in the conversation, we record each FAMZ session and make it available for folks who can’t watch live.

See you soon!

The post Monthly Zoom Calls with The Minimalists appeared first on The Minimalists.

The tenth anniversary edition of our #1 bestselling book, Everything That Remains, enhanced with a beautiful new cover, is now available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

Synopsis

What if everything you ever wanted isn’t what you actually want? Twenty-something, suit-clad, and upwardly mobile, Joshua Fields Millburn thought he had everything anyone could ever want. Until he didn’t anymore.

Blindsided by the loss of his mother and his marriage in the same month, Millburn started questioning every aspect of the life he had built for himself.

Then, he accidentally discovered a lifestyle known as minimalism … and everything started to change.

In the pursuit of looking for something more substantial than compulsory consumption and the broken American Dream, Millburn jettisoned most of his material possessions, paid off loads of crippling debt, and walked away from his six-figure career.

So, when everything was gone, what was left? Everything That Remains is the touching, surprising story of what happened when one young man decided to let go of everything and begin living more deliberately. Heartrending, uplifting, and deeply personal, this engrossing memoir is peppered with insightful (and often hilarious) interruptions by Ryan Nicodemus, Millburn’s best friend of twenty years.

Available formats: Paperback · Kindle · Audiobook

The post Everything Is Final appeared first on The Minimalists.

Clothing clutter accumulates at the checkout line, well before it overflows your closets, hampers, and dresser drawers.

According to the EPA, the average American throws out more than 81 pounds of clothing each year, even though 95% of it could be reused or recycled.

Sounds like we are burdened by the residue of regret.
Sounds like we own more than enough.
Sounds like we don’t need more.

Yet we keep buying more: more shirts and pants and belts and shoes and dresses and shorts and jackets and wallets and purses and accessories, 85% of which will soon occupy space in a landfill.

Why are we so addicted to purchasing new clothes that will shortly become trash?

The answer involves many factors—false promises from marketers, slights of hand from advertisers, unconscious peer pressure from friends and coworkers—but the core characteristic of our overconsumption is consumerism.

Consumerism is the ideology that externalities will complete you—that buying more will somehow make your life more complete.

We believe this nonsense only because we don’t understand what enough is. So we accumulate more than enough, hoping that eventually we’ll get to the point at which our wardrobes, and thus our lives, are perfect.

And yet it doesn’t work.
Consumerism can’t complete you.
Because you are already complete.

Even when you’re standing alone in an empty closet,
dressed in the simplest attire,
you are complete.

Think about it.

Have you ever looked at a newborn and said,
This baby is incomplete
so I better buy her a bunch of new things
to perfect that imperfect little child?

Of course not.

So…

If you were complete when you were born—
when you owned zero possessions—
then at what point did you become incomplete?

You became incomplete
the moment your consumer culture
convinced you to burn yourself
with the flame of consumerism.

Thankfully, that fire
can be extinguished by
the gentle waters of simplicity.

Be it clothes, cars, or commodities, no material possession will complete you or make you happy, even though it feels like they can when you’re steeped in a retail frenzy. If anything, excess possessions cover up your happiness, which means, in a real way, new purchases don’t complete you—they incomplete you!

However, a complete life does exist—it exists on the other side of letting go, letting go of the past by donating and recycling the waste, and then letting go of the future by letting go of the stuff in advance.

You see, the simplest way to get rid of an item is to avoid bringing it home in the first place.

The post Letting Go in Advance appeared first on The Minimalists.

Fragments, The Minimalists’ new short-film series, directed by Danny Martinez and starring Joshua Fields Millburn, Ryan Nicodemus, and T.K. Coleman, is now streaming on YouTube 100% advertisement-free.

Episode 1: The Other Clutter

Episode 2: The Shopping Cart

Episode 3: No Problem

Episode 4: The Boundaries of Discontent

Episode 5: The Museum of Things

Episode 6: Success Does Not Exist

The post Fragments appeared first on The Minimalists.

Letting go does not require a trip to Goodwill
or a purchase from The Container Store.

Because…

Letting go is not something you do.
It is something you stop doing.

You stop pretending every thing is precious or sentimental.
You stop holding on to unworn clothes and jewelry and makeup.
You stop sheltering crusty camping gear and worn-out workout equipment.
You stop cherishing musty stacks of unread books and magazines.
You stop storing dusty home decorations in clutter coffins.
You stop buying new things that will soon turn into old clutter.
You stop fantasizing that more square footage will lead to more fulfillment.
You stop tethering your identity to your car and house and bank balance.

Like carrying an oversized suitcase for a great distance,
you would benefit greatly by setting down
any possession that weighs you down.

However…

Letting go extends beyond your material clutter.
If you truly want to let go…

You stop binding yourself to toxic relationships.
You stop acting like busyness is a good thing.
You stop trying to “fix” every imaginary problem.
You stop turning to breaking news for information.
You stop mistaking information for wisdom.
You stop posturing as if achievements make you, you.
You stop assuming that success equals satisfaction.
You stop chasing happiness because you finally realize that externalities will never satiate your insatiable desire for more.

You see, letting go is not something you do.
It happens naturally when you stop clinging.

Like clutching a hot coal in your hand,
you must stop holding on
to stop the pain.

No matter the fixation—
be it possessions or people or prosperity—
clinging always leads to suffering.

Always.

Yet when you let go of the clinging,
you pick up freedom, peace, equanimity.

But if you hold on,
you will get dragged.

The post Stop Clinging appeared first on The Minimalists.

Decluttering Tips. The Minimalists stopped using social media in 2024. Now we are returning in a different way in 2025—creating short, useful decluttering videos for our audience. As we ease back in, what kind of minimizing and purchasing tips would you like to see from us? Let us know in the comments on this Instagram post.

Minimalist Home Tours. JFM will also be sharing home-tour photos on his personal Instagram Stories throughout January. Follow along if you’re looking for minimalist home-decluttering inspiration.

Favorite Reels. While you’re on IG, feel free to DM us your favorite decluttering Reels, like this one, so we can share the most useful and funny insights with our audience.

Household Clutter. Speaking of clutter, we’re recording a five-part Household Clutter series on The Minimalists Podcast, featuring many of your favorite minimalists. If you have a question about livingroom, closet, garage, bedroom, or cabinet clutter, email a voice recording to podcast@theminimalists.com so we can feature your voice on the show. Deadline is January 13, 2025.

Exciting times!

The post Breaking Silence: The Minimalists Return to Social Media appeared first on The Minimalists.