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Pick one or two from this list of books on declutter, and let it be your guide and inspiration towards a clutter-free home!
Books are the best sources of information and inspiration. When it comes to decluttering, there are a handful of books that can teach, encourage, and inspire you to accomplish your decluttering goals.
So if you are looking for a good book to help you declutter your home, this list is for you!
Here are 14 books written by authors who have experienced decluttering their own homes and have also helped other people to declutter theirs.
Let’s do this!
1. It’s All Too Much: An Easy Plan for Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff
Best for you when: You are decluttering because you want to find a clearer direction for your life.
What’s in it: A step-by-step guide to a system that you can use to declutter your home, organize your possessions, and reclaim your life.
This book will encourage you to reexamine your priorities and discover what’s keeping you from reaching your goals. It gives real-life examples and advice for different home sizes and personalities.
This book comes with a lot of humor and insight, making it an easy read!
About the author: Peter Walsh is a professional organizer and is more known for being an organizational guru of TLC’s TV show “Clean Sweep”. He has a passion for transforming chaos into order, home renovation, and mid-century architecture.
Buy other versions of the book at Amazon.
2. Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff
Best for you when: You have a hard time getting started to declutter and organizing the home is just not your thing.
What’s in it: This book will teach you to identify the emotional challenges and negative mindsets that could stand in the way of your decluttering goals.
After identifying these problems, realistic solutions with a touch of humor are provided to get rid of them.
About the author: Dana White is a decluttering expert who is also a blogger and a podcaster. Her journey as a decluttering expert started when she started her blog, “A Slob Comes Clean” where she wrote about her struggles with housekeeping.
She started out with a really messy home. She’s a procrastinator – a real slob when it comes to decluttering and organizing their home. That’s why this is one of my favorites among these books on declutter!
If decluttering and organizing is just not your thing, you will be able to relate with her experience. And if she can transform her home from chaotic to clean, so can you!
Dana White is also known for her funny storytelling and her messages of hope for the messy, so I’m sure this book will inspire you to declutter your home too!
3. The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own
Best for you when: You hoard and own a lot of excess.
What’s in it: This book will help you realize how all the excess stuff that you own is actually keeping you from pursuing your goals and dreams.
Then, it will help you craft a personal and practical method that will work best for you when it comes to decluttering not only your home, but your life too. You will see the benefits of owning fewer possessions. It will also encourage you to experience the joys of giving.
About the author: Joshua Becker is among my favorite minimalists, the founder and editor of the website Becoming Minimalist.
This website is dedicated to intentional living and has been named as one of the Top Ten Personal Development Websites by SUCCESS Magazine in 2015.
Joshua Becker has written numerous articles on different media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. He is also a known philanthropist being the Founder of The Hope Effect, which helps care for orphans around the world.
4. Clutter’s Last Stand: It’s Time to De-Junk Your Life!
Best for you when: You seriously want to learn how to declutter and be more organized but you hate serious reading.
What’s in it: This book will guide you to declutter and organize your home, office, and life. It is filled with humor and it encourages you to work on your relationships, emotional well-being, and personal growth.
After all, decluttering is not just about the stuff, right?
About the author: Don Aslett is an entrepreneur who specializes in housekeeping. You will find his own catalog of cleaning products and supplies on his website. He is the co-founder of a house cleaning service – the Varsity House Cleaning Company.
Here’s a newer version of the book.
5. Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism
Best for you when: You are thinking of starting a minimalist lifestyle very soon.
What’s in it: It’s about a regular guy – not an expert, not a guru, more like you and me, sharing his personal experience as he shifts to a minimalist lifestyle.
The journey started when he felt so stressed out from constantly comparing himself to others. One day, he decided to get rid of everything he did not need. There he found a new sense of focus and he learned to be grateful too.
You will get tips on the decluttering process and be shown the benefits of a minimalist life – from the point of view of a regular guy whom I’m sure you’ll be able to relate to.
About the author: Fumio Sasaki is the co-founder of the Minimal&ism website. He is also an editor and a minimalist expert.
6. Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter & Organize to Make More Room for Happiness
Best for you when: You are experiencing the heavy weight of physical and mental clutter.
What’s in it: This book revolves around the idea that outer order will contribute to your inner calm. It’s packed with ideas that can help turn your chaos into order so you can live a happier, healthier, more creative, and more productive life.
When you have more control over your possessions, you’ll also feel more control over your life.
About the author: Gretchen Rubin is a recognized New York Times bestseller author for several books, the most popular of which is The Happiness Project – one of my favorite books!
She also has an award-winning podcast named “Happier with Gretchen Rubin” and writes about happiness and habit formation on her blog.
7. The Joy of Less, a Minimalist Living Guide: How to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify Your Life
Best for you when: You seem to have it all but you feel that there is still something missing in your life.
What’s in it: This is a light-hearted and fun guide to minimalist living. It starts with a pep talk to inspire you to declutter and downsize.
Then, you will be given the steps to decluttering and how to apply them room by room. You will also learn how to trim down your to-do list so you can have more free time.
As a result, you will have a simpler and more serene lifestyle!
About the author: Francine Jay is considered to be one of the pioneers of minimalist living with her blog, Miss Minimalist.
In 2009, she and her husband decided to sell all their possessions and each was left with only one suitcase. They traveled the world as digital nomads for three years before settling down to start a family.
8. Clutter Busting: Letting Go of What’s Holding You Back
Best for you when: You often link your identity and status on the things that you own.
What’s in it: This is an insightful book that will show you how to get rid of the things that no longer serve you.
The author believes that when you eliminate the unnecessary items, you are actually eliminating negativity. As a result, you are freeing up energy, which you can use to unlock your full potential.
About the author: Brooks Palmer is a professional “Clutter Buster” whose clutter busting business has become a hit. He and his business have been featured in different media outlets like the Oprah Winfrey Network, The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, and Fast Company Magazine.
Here’s the Kindle & Audiobook version.
9. The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life
Best for you when: You have a hoarding problem and you have a hard time decluttering because almost every item has sentimental value.
What’s in it: This book helps you deal with the emotional pull of acquiring and keeping things. It also helps you get a stronger grip on the clutter around you by providing an organizational method that will not only reduce clutter but also anxiety.
The book also cites examples of serious cases of hoarding that the author has encountered in her profession as a therapist and how these cases can be overcome.
About the author: Dr. Robin Zasio is a therapist that specializes in hoarding and other anxiety-related conditions. She is also the featured therapist in the A&E series entitled “Hoarders.”
10. New Order: A Decluttering Handbook for Creative Folks (and Everyone Else)
Best for you when: You consider yourself creative or an artist who need to declutter her space.
What’s in it: This book is all about how a decluttered space can block a creative mind.
You will get basic decluttering rules and a guide on how to foster new habits that will give you more time for the things that you are truly passionate about – your art.
The author also shares apps that help improve your productivity. It also mentions where you can donate your clothes and other items.
About the author: Fay Wolf is a professional organizer who is also an actress, singer, songwriter, and pianist.
She has appeared as an organizing expert on the show “Home Made Simple” in the Oprah Winfrey Network. She makes regular contributions to Apartment Therapy.
11. Organize Now!: A Week-By-Week Guide to Simplify Your Space and Your Life
Best for you when: you just have no clue, no idea on how to declutter and put your life together.
What’s in it: This book gives you quick and effective ideas to help you become more organized. It comes with easy weekly checklists that you can tick off to help keep the clutter away long term.
It comes with tips for managing almost anything such as mental clutter, toys, paperwork, pets, and holiday celebrations. You will also be getting financial organizing tips to help you cut costs around the house and save money.
About the author: Jennifer Ford Berry is both an organizational expert and a best-selling author, entrepreneur, podcaster, and public speaker. She has 17 years of experience as a professional organizer.
See more versions of the Organize Now books here.
12. Secrets of an Organized Mom: How to Declutter and Streamline Your Home for a Happier Family
Best for you when: You’re a parent – a Mom who have a hard time cleaning and maintaining your home.
What’s in it: This book focuses on decluttering family homes to lessen the chaos. The author believes the keys to decluttering are simplicity and consistency.
You will get a room-by-room guide, with the book pointing out the usual problem areas for every room. Cleaning and organizing tips are also included.
This book is Part 2 of the 4-part Declutter Workbook Series
About the author: Barbara Reich is a professional organizer and is the founder of Resourceful Consultants, LLC. She has been featured in different media outlets like The New York Times, Real Simple, New York Post, and the TV show Today.
13. Declutter Workbook: Illustrated DIY Projects for your Home
Best for you when: You need a very detailed step by step instructions to start decluttering. This is also for you when you are a visual learner, thanks to the book’s illustrations.
What’s in it: You will learn how to avoid being overwhelmed by the task of decluttering whether it is your home or office. The author provides hundreds of projects with illustrations that can help you free up space one step at a time.
About the author: Luigi Harbin has been part of the Quality Management Industry for more than a decade. He is known for his series of Declutter workbooks.
Buy all the books in the Declutter Workbook series. This is Kindle version.
14. The Art of Happy Moving: How to Declutter, Pack, and Start Over While Maintaining Your Sanity and Finding Happiness
Best for you when: You are decluttering because you are moving into a new home.
What’s in it: This book understands how complicated the process of moving is from start to finish and offers effective strategies for decluttering, packing, and starting over.
Aside from this, the author also discusses how to make the move easier for your kids and how to decorate your new home.
About the author: Ali Wenzke owns the blog, The Art of Happy Moving. It gives effective advice and tips on how to handle moving. Ali Wenzke has lived in six states across America and has moved 10 times in 11 years.
All these books on declutter will help you transform your home.
Each book on this list has its own unique strategies for decluttering.
With the expertise and guidance of its authors, you will surely find the comfort that you need when you feel overwhelmed by your stuff and by the decluttering process that you need to go through.
All these books on declutter can help you, but, perhaps there’s just one or two that can really help you best.
So do take your time to go through the product pages of each book. Then get one or two that interests you the most.
It’s not about reading.
When all is said and done, it’s not really about reading these books on declutter that matters.
What matters more is what you do with what you read.
Will you apply what you read? Will you do what it says?
You can read all these books on declutter and still have a messy home after.
We don’t want that. You don’t want that.
So whatever books you choose to read, just one thing to do – apply what you read, and that means declutter your home!
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