Minimalism Room by Room: A Customized Plan to Declutter Your Home and Simplify Your Life

by Elizabeth Enright Phillips

Discover the beauty of less and focus on what really matters

The minimalist lifestyle promotes peace and intentionality through the act of decluttering. This indispensable manual uses inspiration, positive reinforcement, and an efficient room-by-room guide to lead you from cluttered living to clarity of purpose.

What sets this book

The fundamentals of minimalism—This life-changing how-to book illuminates the principles and benefits of minimalism, and provides a blueprint for realizing a less stressful life by prioritizing relationships over objects.Simple steps to declutter—With easy, actionable strategies, Minimalism Room by Room eases you into the process of eliminating the excess, so tidying up is a manageable and rewarding experience.Tips and resources—This book provides organization tools to make embracing minimalism easier, such as checklists, sorting guides, and guidance to help get past inevitable emotional and physical obstacles.

Learn to live a life of purpose and calm by owning less and appreciating more with Minimalism Room by Room.

Genres: Nonfiction, How To

181 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 31, 2019

Reviews

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book guides the reader through the decluttering journey with chapters for each room. The writing style is excellent with practical advice on how to make decisions for keeping or tossing your possessions. One of the things I really enjoyed about this book was the way it encourages the reader to examine their emotions about their home and possessions. The book provides affirmations and inspirational advice to fuel your motivation and create a new way of living.

It was odd to me that Bathrooms were lumped together with the Entryways in the same chapter. What do Bathrooms have in common with an Entryway? It made no sense to have those two areas together and made for a very confusing chapter. And the Laundry Room is included in the chapter with the Master Bedroom. The information is poorly organized.

There are also long lists of needed decluttering materials like storage tubs and trash bags. And it just repeats the same list for the next room and the next room. I'm not sure why it was necessary to repeat the list several times in every chapter.

I did NOT like the advice to move clutter to other rooms while you are decluttering one room. Sounds like a great way to shuffle things around and never get anything done. The book also advises that you should store items away and see whether or not you need them later. That's another terrible way to keep boxes of unused items sitting around that you will never end up actually getting rid of. This is not very good minimalist philosophy.

The author even encourages the reader to keep clothing that doesn't FIT them! Why would you keep clothing that is too small or too large for you? The author says to keep it in storage until you need it again. Unless we're talking about maternity clothes that you might need in the future, that is just unhealthy.

This book's system of decluttering gives the reader too many ways of keeping things. It would be much better to get rid of things at once, instead of dithering around and not making the decision to keep or toss or donate. Make the decision. Get the stuff out of the house immediately. Get it done. This system leaves too many loopholes.

I also did not like the way that the author included a few paragraphs about finding your vision for your space at the END of each chapter. You should think of your vision for the space, what you want to feel in that space, and what function the space should have BEFORE you begin decluttering or else you will lose focus as you move things around. Why would you put together a vision board for the room AFTER you've already finished decluttering the room? It's completely backwards!

While decluttering, you should be able to ask yourself, “Does this item fit my vision?” If yes, then you keep the item. If no, then you trash the item. It is so much simpler if you already have a vision for that space. It helps with the decision making process.

The book is mostly geared toward families with children, and as a single person, I didn’t find much in there that applies to me. I wish the writing included more scenarios and examples for people in a variety of home/family situations. There is a chapter at the end that addresses minimalism in studio apartments and small spaces, but I didn't get much from it.

Some of the advice in this book is just strange, such as a tip to hang T-shirts on the same hanger to save space. First of all, who hangs up their T-shirts? And secondly, wouldn't it be difficult to squeeze multiple shirts onto the same hanger and equally difficult to see and remove the chosen shirt? There are no other guidelines or explanation given for this strange tip.

The author also has a chart where the reader can tick off a box for every item they get rid of, and then give themselves a reward when they have reached their goal. But the goal and the focus should not be on decluttering a certain amount of items. The focus should be on what you keep to enhance your life and bring you joy in your home, NOT on the trash you threw out. Why would I want to reward myself for trash? I want to track and reward myself for the good things I love to keep.

This book is okay. 2 stars means "okay" but not great. There are some good ideas, but I've read better. There is good advice, but the information is badly organized.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a free and honest review. All the opinions stated here are my own true thoughts, and are not influenced by anyone.

[Bonnie DeMoss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Minimalism Room by Room is a decent instructional guide for organizing your home or office. The decluttering chart on page 173 gives you a guideline of what to do when parting with items.

The pictures in the book do not appear to have anything to do with the instructions. Showing pictures of what you are describing would be very helpful.

If you would like a plan for organizing your home or office, this book may work for you.

I received a free copy of this book from Callisto Media. My review is voluntary.

[Lindsi (Do You Dog-ear?) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a complimentary review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book has seen a lot of action over the last few weeks! We've been stuck at home, so I thought it would be a good time to declutter our house. We always get rid of some unnecessary stuff before a big move (which we had in January), but I felt like there was more we could do to lessen our belongings.

A quote that really stuck with me: "Just because something made you happy in the past doesn't mean you have to keep it forever." –Joshua Becker

There are a lot of things I've kept because they have sentimental value, like my letterman's jacket from high school, a gorgeous formal gown that I wore to prom, yearbooks and clothes that I want to one day fit into again. I tell myself that my kids might want them someday, but we all know it's unlikely. There's no real reason for me to keep those items, although I'm sure my mother would be delighted if I mailed them to her. (She's DEFINITELY a hoarder; keeps everything.)

After reading through this book, which really does take you from one room to the next, my husband and I have significantly lessened the number of THINGS we have. We went from having two dressers (his and mine), to one (my stuff on the left, his on the right). We took down any hanging clothes we hadn't worn in the last year, and realized that no one person should have that many socks (him) or shoes (me). It's been a very eye-opening experience, and one we've both enjoyed. His old dresser was converted into additional pantry space in the kitchen (the new house doesn't have a pantry), that also doubles as craft storage for the kids. Doing this also helped remove excess items from the kitchen/dining room area, so that was a bonus!

I would highly recommend this book if you're looking to create more space within your home, or simply need the motivation to get rid of some nonessential items. Did I follow this book EXACTLY? No. However, I made significant improvements and that's progress. There are just some things that I'm not willing to let go of yet, but this book helped me realize there were a lot of items that no longer held any value. It's also a great organizational tool!

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[Oak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minimalism Room by Room: A Customized Plan to Declutter Your Home and Simplify Your Life by Elizabeth Enright Phillips is an excellent guide for organizing your house and decluttering your life. Phillips discusses how to organize bedrooms, bathrooms, closets, living areas, kitchen and dining areas, kids’ bedrooms and playrooms, studio apartments, home offices, and other spaces in your home. Even if you are not a minimalist, the book has great tips for organizing your items. I like how Phillips creates action plans for cleaning rooms; for example, as part of her first step in organizing a particular room, she outlines how to sort items, such as by designating one plastic tub for items to be given away to specific people, and one tub or black trash bag for donating to others. I like how the book explores feelings that people have towards their items; some items may evoke nostalgia, whereas other items may bring back negative emotions. The book has a lot of good advice on how to design rooms, save money, and invest in sustainable items.

I received this book for review.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I like the room by room approach described in this book, and there are several practical suggestions, the book is EXTREMELY repetitive, with pretty much every chapter using the same list of materials needed (think this could have been printed once and then referred to?) and "feelings check" about the process. The book also encourages keeping a decluttering journal, which may be good for some folks, but since I started this project last year and have already eliminated so much, I am kind of over having feelings about stuff- I just need to periodically (looks like annually) re-focus on getting rid of shit that piles up in the house and figure out how to deal with little pitfalls, like remodeling, my son's stuff, and my husband's penchant for keeping shit I want to toss. I did, however, like the photos, and liked the part at the end that talked about color palettes (I'm ready to decorate and we've spent this whole weekend painting) and multi-use areas/objects to help keeping areas streamlined and uncluttered. A good book for people just starting this practice, and less intimidating that Kondo's method, but not really valuable for anyone who has already started their path towards minimalism.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm interested in minimalism as a concept, but it's so easy to get overwhelmed by the process of decluttering. Which is why I love author Elizabeth Enright Phillips' approach. She breaks everything down into steps, including questions to ask yourself before you start, supplies to have ready, and even time limits for each stage (the idea being not to overthink the whole thing). She offers suggestions of common items you can easily get rid of (good bye, broken coat hangers!).

She also includes feelings that might come up as you downsize and "obstacle ahead" warnings to be alert for, as well as journal prompts, if you're into that sort of thing (I found these helpful to think about but didn't actually journal). A handy guide whether you're ready to take the minimalism leap or just curious to learn more.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely the most complete and helpful book I have seen on minimalism.

So many books have already been written on minimalism, but there are also lots of wrong ideas about it circulating. I think the author of Minimalism Room By Room: a Customized Plan to Declutter Your Home & Simplify Your Life is trying to refocus the conversation on what’s really at the center of minimalism, and is giving us practical ways to do it.

My full review: https://wordsandpeace.com/2020/01/16/...

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book for people who need to declutter, and I am amongst those who do.

However, keeping a journal? If I wanted to journal, I would journal. I find it absurd to do that. But, for those who don't, perhaps it helps to write about what they are throwing out, or giving away.

I do like her having the piles of things, and setting times to do this, and starting in one spot, and moving on to others. I also liked that she suggested doing it in bits, taking 30 minutes to an hour for each sorting.

I am currently going through my late mother's things, and discovering things I want to keep, and things I never knew about. It has to be sorted, and there are the easy things to throw away, as well as the hard ones that I want to keep, such as family albums.

Life is not stuff. And it is because my mother, and her mother, and her grandfather hung on to things, that we have some of the things we have today, historic things, things that have been forgotten about, such as an original Mark Twain manuscript.

So, no, although this book is good for the mundane, and the stuff the people fill their lives with, and is often good advice, there are certain things that this book doesn't cover, such as family heirlooms, that are going to be a bit harder to get through in the coming months.

On the positive side, the book is a good size, and has a whole bunch of helpful hints. It is not meant for writers who keep old journals and old writings, because I have no way to declutter that. :)

Thanks to Rockridge press for making this book available for an honest review.

[Amy Navarre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Callisto Publisher's Club and Rockridge Press for this free book. The following review contains my honest opinion.
This is a very detailed guide, but I feel that it is also very repetitive. There are a lot of very good tips throughout the book (including a feelings checklist). The author recommends journaling about the decluttering process; journaling is not for everyone.

[Melissa Borsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good organizational guide to clearing clutter for each and every room in the house. I would have liked to have seen more pictures but it was a good, useful read. I thank Callisto Publisher's Club for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Irida · Rating 5 out of 5]

The topic of living an uncluttered life to create space and thereby having an uncluttered mind is a very current topic. Many of us have come to realize that we have cluttered our lives and holes with a lot of stuff and unnecessary things. The author, Elizabeth Enright Phillips has approached this topic in a beautiful way. First, Just the minimalist cover of the book, picture of an uncluttered entryway and the colors are giving you a zen feeling and you want to step in and read this book to achieve this zen vibe for your own home. Secondly, The book is very easy to read and has a great flow. You can read it in one session or you can choose to go step by step and read it room by room as you are going through your own decluttering journey.

As the author describes the approach to declutter each room, she leads you to ask yourself questions about the space as it is and what you would like it to be. She provides a list of materials needed and yes, a journal is one of the items on that list. I can see that some readers may find that overbearing, but the book is written to appeal to all and if it is not your thing just skip it. She also gives warnings of the challenges you may phase. With this she tackles the emotional issues you may face or family members who are unwilling to jump onto the journey with you. She provides ample examples of how to go through these emotional feelings that are holding you back. The action items are what makes you finish your decluttering so that stuff does not get piled up in another area of your house, very good advice. She also provides ample examples of repurposing items from one room to another. Great ideas are duplicate bins to put way duplicate items from your kitchen into your basement( if applicable) and take them out when you need visitors or figure out how much you really need. Another great idea is create a Pinterest vision board to plan how to use your new decluttered spaces.
There’s so much more to this book so please go and order this book. I highly recommend it!
Thank you to Rockridge Press for providing me with an ARc of this book. This review is written voluntarily and is my honest opinion.

[Jennifer Hottinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minimalism Room by Room by Elizabeth Enright Phillips breaks down decluttering into small chunks, which makes it more doable, rather than overwhelming. The author discusses the minimalistic lifestyle and the benefits associated with decluttering your life. One line touched me and reminded me as to why decluttering is important. She states, “In the process of choosing less, we find more: more hope, more authenticity, more freedom, more opportunities to serve, and more connection to those we love and to our larger communities” (p. xi).

Chapter one focuses on real benefits, such as “a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle...moving beyond self-centered living to serving others” (p.4). The benefits are so encouraging and important to our lives in our current world. Throughout the following chapters, room by room tips are offered for decluttering. I like the idea of taking it slowly room by room, so as to alleviate any overwhelming feelings.

Style and design ideas are also offered, with accompanying photos. Pinterest board suggestions are also options for suggestions. Children’s room suggestions are incorporated into their own chapter and will bring my teens into the process.

I have started small, but hope to work on rooms throughout the spring and summer. Emotionally connected items, such as my dad’s books, my children’s art work and special blankies and clothes will remain, but as the book reminds the reader, it is a process.

The publisher gave me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book provides an excellent way to organize and declutter your home. The author provides information, ideas and examples for every room in your house. The book will provide an excellent overview on organization of your home even if minimalism is not your thing. The author includes action plans to clean, declutter and ultimately organize rooms, with lots of good examples, as well as the need to schedule the cleaning and decluttering (which, I think, is very important). One thing that might throw people off is the fact that the book is longer than many, and people maty not want to spend the time reading it. However, it is then possible to read the book in bits and pieces. I am not sure how the book could have been shorter and still have covered what it did while providing as many tips and examples. Today, when so much is written about this subject, it is heartening to see the author provide us a way to look at things and go about cleaning/decluttering our houses in an organized manner. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

[Kristina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phillips is a self described "professional minimalist" and financial planner, after turning her passion into her profession. Throughout this book, she shares her intentional form of minimalism, focusing on keeping necessary, utilized items instead of accumulating useless clutter. I would describe this book as a more functional version of Marie Kondo's method of tidying up, as it feels much more approachable and practical. Phillips is not telling you to only keep 5 books in your entire home, but rather to keep what is functional for you and your life-just make sure everything has a realistic utility or purpose. The initial chapters describe the minimalist method in detail, while the book is then split into chapters focusing on specific spaces. Each chapter contains a step by step guide to decluttering with intention and setting your home for success and functionality.

Thank you to Callisto Publisher's group for a PDF review copy of this book!

[Vânia Moreira]

Um guia que nos leva a destralhar divisão a divisão. No entanto, para quem lê muito sobre o tema, acabará por ser um pouco mais do mesmo; para quem está a começar no Minimalismo, será um livro com óptimas dicas.
Ainda assim, gosto sempre de ler sobre o tema e reforçar a ideia de que quanto menos tivermos, mais leve será a nossa vida e, inerentemente, a nossa bagagem quer física quer emocional.
Tem algumas questões interessantes a fazermos no momento do destralhe, e no final ainda tem algumas tabelas para preencher aquando desse momento.
Pode ir-se lendo consoante a divisão da casa que mais interessa, no entanto li de uma assentada. É um livro que se lê bem, e dá gosto ler.
E assim, reforçamos a ideia de que menos é realmente mais.

[Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Repetitive & redundant suggestions in each chapter and kind of obvious tips and tricks, much like many of the other books on decluttering. Maybe I’m being too harsh; what I really need is a book that will simplify my life For me. 😁 I did appreciate that the author addressed the emotional roadblocks that keep you from getting rid of things.

[Shari Craddock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Typical decluttering tips plus design suggestions as well as dealing with emotions that may arise during the process.

[Volkswagen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unless you are new to the world of minimalism...this offered nothing fresh.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I doubt if I'll ever truly embrace minimalism as a design style as I'm simply too interested in too much, but I'd like to find order and reduce clutter. This book offers sound guidance for this even as it looks, including the pictures, like a book on minimalism. The author offers a sound approach, at least as I like to do things, on how to organize a home to fit functional areas such as food preparation, play space for children, home office work space, project areas, etc. instead of an expected idea of how homes work. She breaks large imposing tasks into smaller ones including adding time for reflection and planning. She also recognizes that it's really a work in progress and needs change over time rather than a path to perfection. I love some of the ideas on re-purposing items although caution is needed since people have differing levels of DIY skills and time available. I also like that this book deals, repeatedly for reinforcement, on dealing with emotional issues that can crop up when removing items because minimizing means stuff has to go. This has given me some new ideas and a good way to do what's needed. She gives guidance on working around others in the household meaning leave their stuff alone until they can see the reader's own examples and then let them work with their own stuff, other than perhaps for small children. She references many web resources although suggestions such as Pinterest can offer their own distractions. Throughout the book, the author talked about her log cabin and I was disappointed there were no photos of it in the book. Her blog does have a couple of pictures of at least the outside. Since she has a large family, I can well understand why it wasn't modeled, but I find the white and light neutral colors in the pictures wearisome. I rate this at 4 stars because I found a lot of value with the guidance if not so much with the pictures.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elizabeth Enright Phillips encourages readers to embrace the minimalist life-style and the rewards she feels it has brought to her and her family. Even if you are not ready to move your family to a little house as she has, this book is packed full of very practical advice and great suggestions for decluttering, something that the majority of us know we should do.

Literally taking the reader, room by room, encouraging us to use short, scheduled blocks of time, she offers clear and very doable steps on how to filter through the excessive "mess" of our lives and winnow it done to our necessary and most treasured items. She puts forth the information in very positive, encouraging and supportive way that it's difficult to remain unmoved. Each chapter has tools needed and decisions to be made. The author recognizes that emotions are involved and addresses those as well. Lots of resources are also made available to help the reader in the task set before them.

I undertook decluttering our home two years ago, moving from room to room, type of item, or one piece of furniture at a time in a methodical manner. It felt SO GOOD to have our things placed in their natural 'home', where we used them and could easily find them! It also felt great to dispose of items that we no longer had use for or no longer wanted and recycle what we could by donating to others . It is something easily done in small blocks of time and I now do it each year (some things just seem to naturally migrate to where they don't belong!!).

Ms. Phillips gave me lots of new ideas that I'm eager to try. I highly recommend this book. It earns 4 stars from me!

My thanks to NetGalley and Rockridge Press for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

[Rachel Vryhof · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoying this book! I really appreciate her format for going through areas/rooms in a methodical way, with a quick sweep and a deep dive. Her plan is based on rooms/areas rather than on categories of possessions like other methods, and for myself it is the most practical approach. I would much rather start on my coat closet than on all the clothes in the house!

I especially love the sections on feelings which help bring in the emotional piece of decluttering without feeling too out-there. She gives examples of ways we might be feeling that were pretty spot-on, that I hadn't articulated for myself before. She also has great words of wisdom for anyone who is worried that minimalism/major decluttering is only for the wealthy and ways to work on your mindset.

That being said, I do have two minor critiques of this book. The first is the photos. They seem to be stock imagery of what we've all come to think of as minimalist interiors. Stylish, spare, monochrome. These pictures go exactly AGAINST a lot of what the author is trying to convince people of. Minimalism doesn't only mean stark rooms or high end furniture. Pictures of a variety of interiors embracing their own version of minimalism would have been better. Lastly, and this is arguably silly, but the author mentions her "log home" way too many times! She throws it into sentences where it doesn't add clarity or meaning and just feels a bit self-serving and gratuitous.

Overall a great addition to the home organization section of the bookshelf!

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a complimentary print copy of this book from Callisto Publishing. My review is unbiased and voluntary.

As the names indicates this book explores how to declutter and simplify your life one room at a time. The author addresses the emotional aspects relative to decluttering by suggesting affirmations for each exercise. It describes where to begin which can often be the hardest part of any cleaning task. The step by step approach is logical and easy to follow.

[Cristie Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always had clutter around my home, as I am not the most motivated person when it comes to finding a place for all of the odds and ends that accumulate. I read this book looking for inspiration and ideas on how to finally get an organized home where everything has its place. While the book was filled with tons of helpful tips, I felt that it would have been better with more photos, as I am a visual person and would have found that more helpful. I am happy to report that after utilizing some of the advice in this book, I have less clutter! My home is not clutter free, but that is a promising start!

[Helena#bookdreamer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A great book for those looking to simplify and declutter their homes. The author takes you step by step through the process of getting rid of the things you don't need and understanding the benefits of living with less. My only suggestion is to include more pictures of organizational areas. The before and after. I felt I needed the visual as I went a long.

[Mik Mango · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a very literal step-by-step process to go through the act of decluttering. It lacked inspiration, relevent real-life examples, and/or philosophies on minimalism. The lack of depth prevents readers from generating long-term sustainable growth or changes in their lifestyle, behavior, and habits. The only possible purpose for this would be if it were used as a workbook during a declutter that follows minimalist theories/values/processes shared in other books/media.

[Melissa Overby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I'm moving into a tiny house, this is great help. I've moved from a normal 1200 square foot home, to a 600 square foot home, so this is helping me learn how to downsize.

[marta · Rating 5 out of 5]

li para um trabalho que vou apresentar mas quero ter na minha estante e aplicar algumas coisas.