The Joy of Living with Less: How to downsize to 100 items and liberate your life

by Mary Lambert

Follow this unique programme to discover the joy of living with less items and discover how liberating and fulfilling life becomes when you learn to live with less.

The premise of this book is if you don't love it, lose it! Many people think that the more they own, the more contented and happy they will be – their lives become defined by their possessions. In fact, the opposite is often the more we have, the less happy and contented we are in mind, body and spirit. Decluttering expert Mary Lambert explains how having too much clutter can stop you moving forward in life, and how learning to let go of items we neither love or need is liberating and fulfilling. The challenge starts with an inventory of your personal possessions, then you begin the process of clearing out your items, addressing each area at a time, from clothes, to jewellery, to hobby items. Once you've tackled your personal items, you can get started on the rest of your household goods.

Genres: Nonfiction

180 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 21, 2020

Reviews

[B · Rating 1 out of 5]

So, so much repetition. It was essentially the same content per category: “okay, pairing down your clothes feels nice because it does, refer to page 44 for our list, put things in separate bags”. Replace “clothes” with electronics, hobbies, etc. and you too have read this book.

[Lorilin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s fine. Just very basic. And kinda boring.

[tesa stickybook · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you are interested in downsizing or decluttering I’d suggest opting for a different book

[tine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't like the idea of grouping items and counting it in your 100 items as one item. It doesn't make sense. They stated here in the book that one item = your bag collection. I ended up doing the 100 item challenge but I did not do it by collection. I did it as in per item = 1. I agree on the part about consumerism topic stated in the book however there are also specific areas that doesn't resonates me.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book did inspire me to start cleaning out my house and minimizing my belongings, it felt pretty repetitive and I don’t feel like the focus really was on living with 100 things when you could group times to make the group one thing. I liked the pictures in the book and it had a very pleasant and bright feel but probably could have just been an article instead of a whole book.

[Esther · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a decent book for beginner minimalists. It provides gentle prompts to assist in getting all the areas in the home decluttered. The photos are nice to look at and can be a bit of inspiration if you like the style. For me, this was a quick 30 min scan. I enjoyed the easy read/layout, but nothing substantial for someone who's been on the minimalistic journey for a decade.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very basic and repetitive. I would say it's okay if you want just the basics to getting to 100 items. There are better books about living with 100 things.

[Naomi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of a visual representation on how to reduce your items to only 100.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very repetitive, with little new information of interest. Perhaps if it was the first book on decluttering I'd seen I'd feel more charitable. I recommend looking elsewhere for inspiration.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[Bonnie]

DNF
Repetitive,

[Daniell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute pics and a couple tests and lists will make this helpful for beginning declutterers. If you already live pretty simply, you may not find anything new here.

[Rowland Crawte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very little useful information in this book other than labelling bags to go to different places. A huge amount of repetition. It could have been 20-30 pages long and not lost any content.