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Below you will find our most popular essays, our full essay archive, and a list of our essays featured on other sites, as well as links to our print, radio, and TV interviews. If this is your first time on this site, it might be best to start here.

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Most Popular Essays Ever

Tour My Minimalist Apartment
Everything I Own: My 288 Things
Why I Quit My 6-Figure Job
Health: How I Lost 70 Pounds
18 Minute Minimalist Exercises
30 Life Lessons From 30 Years
Minimalism Scares the Shit out of Me
Fight Club: Minimalist Tyler Durden
Letting Go of Sentimental Items
Letting Go of Shitty Relationships
How To Make a Damn Decision
The UnAmerican Dream
Getting Rid of Gifts
The Blackest of Fridays
Getting Rid of the Internet at Home
Why I Don’t Own a Television
Why I’m Getting Rid of My Phone
Getting Rid of Just In Case: 20 Dollars, 20 Minutes
How I Got Rid of 2,000 Books and Started Reading More
Life’s Most Dangerous Question: What Do You Do?
First Thing in the Morning: Why I Wake at 3:30am
The High Price of Pursuing My Dream
How to Start a Successful Blog Today
10 Life Changing Links
Debt Free

All Essays on Our Site

• $1 Simplicity
• $5 Simplicity
• ‘Follow Your Passion’ Is Crappy Advice
• 10 Life Changing Links
• 10/10 Material Possessions Theory
• 18 Minute Minimalist Exercises
• 3 Reasons People Seek Out Other POVs
• 30 is Not the New 20
• 30 Life Lessons From 30 Years
• 30 More Life Lessons From 30 Years
• 31 Somewhat Brief, Somewhat Banal Personal Things You May or May Not Know About Me
• 3pm Happiness Updates
• 5 Ways to Create Solitude with Minimalism
• 6 Authentic People We Know
• 600 Hugs Later
• 7 Ways to Make Conversations Meaningful Using Minimalism
• A Celebration of Sorts
• A Day in the Life of a Minimalist
• A Minimalist’s Thoughts On Diet
• A Minimalist’s Thoughts on Meaningful Relationships
• A Minimalist’s Thoughts On Money
• A Quiet Place
• A Single Tweet Changed My Life
• A Sort of Gift Nobody Asked For
• A Supposedly Fun Thing We’ll Never Get To Do Again
• A Well-Edited Life
• A Year End Review: How Everything Can Change in a Year
• Accessible, Affordable Content for Everyone
• Accomplishments Without Goals
• Adding Value
• Alberta, Canada Mini-Tour
• An Irresponsible Christmas
• And for My Next Magic Trick…
• Announcing How to Write Better
• Announcing the First Leg of The Minimalists National Meetup Tour
• Are you sure you want to do this?
• As 2012 Fades: A Year of Euphony
• As a Year Begins: 2012 Recap for The Minimalists
• Ask For Better Christmas Presents
• Asking Friends & Family to Embrace Change
• Asymmetrical Value
• Authentic People
• Be On The Mountain
• Being Laid Off from My 6-Figure Job Is One of the Best Things that Ever Happened to Me
• Building Your Trust Muscle
• Can I Get Him to Stop Watching the Damn TV?
• Can You Hear Us Now?
• Celebrating 100,000 Monthly Readers (and 10,000 Hours Per Month)
• Changes in the Rearview
• Channel Surfing
• Check Email Like a Minimalist
• Clear Your Damn Plate
• Cola and Politics: Follow Your Heart
• Collecting Is Dangerous
• Comments Killed the Internet Star: Why The Minimalists Killed Comments on Their Site
• Considering the Audience
• Consumerism
• Course Correction
• Create More, Consume Less
• Create Your Masterpiece, a 16-Step Guide
• Creating Daily Writing Habits
• Creations Over Consumer Goods
• Dark Friday
• Dealing with Overwhelm
• Debt Free
• Deciding to Live with Less
• Decluttering Doesn’t Work Like That
• Decluttering Your Mental Clutter
• Deleting the Music You No Longer Listen To
• Digital Clutter Is Different from Physical Clutter
• Dislike, Discomfort
• Do You Know What Your Neighbors Are Up To?
• Does Minimalism Make You Complacent?
• Does This Thingy Add Value to My Life?
• Don’t Flinch: A Conversation with Julien Smith
• Don’t Upgrade
• Downsizing Your Life to Live Your Dream
• Driving Northwest
• Elementary School and Grad School
• Email for Minimalists
• Ending the Tyranny of Cool
• Eschewing Advertising in Favor of Authentic Marketing
• Establishing Deeper Connections with People
• Every Little Thing You Think That You Need
• Everything I Own: My 288 Things
• Everything You Need
• Fact and/or Fiction
• Favorite Clothes of a Minimalist
• Feel Free to Unsubscribe, Unfollow
• Fight Club: Tyler Durden Is a Minimalist
• Finding a Mentor
• Finding Your Writing Voice
• First Thing in the Morning: Why I Wake at 3:30 a.m.
• Food Is Not Entertainment
• Forever Does Not Exist
• Getting Rid of Gifts
• Getting Rid of Just In Case: 20 Dollars, 20 Minutes
• Gift Experiences, Not Stuff
• Gift Love: Save $646 on Christmas Shopping This Year
• Giving Away Your Best Work for Free
• Giving Is Living
• Giving Nicodemus’s 31st Birthday to Charity
• Going with the Flow in DC: Accidentally Planning Life’s Most Memorable Events
• Good Problems in Denver
• Growth Through Minimalism
• Helping Hands: Mark’s Story of Contribution
• Here, Have an Organ
• Home Is Where the Red Phone Is
• Honey I’ll Be Back, I’m Going to Go Meet These Two Guys I Found on the Internet
• How Minimalism Is Changing Entrepreneurship
• How To Make a Damn Decision
• How to Sleep Sitting Up
• How to Start a Successful Blog Today
• How We Woke Up
• I Could Never Do That!
• I Counted All My Stuff then I Threw Away the List Because I Didn’t Want It to Count as One Item
• I Don’t Need Much
• I Got Rid of 2,000 Books and Started Reading More
• I Was Not a Minimalist, Until I Was
• I Will Always Be OK
• If, Then
• Imperfect Is the New Perfect
• Important Things We Put Off Because We’re Scared to Death of Death
• In Too Deep
• Inbox Minimalism
• Is Location Independence Bullshit?
• Is This What You’ve Been Waiting for Your Entire Life?
• It’s 8:33 A.M.: Do You Know Where Your Productivity Is?
• It’s Complicated
• Jealousy Is a Wasted Emotion
• Joshua Fields Millburn on Publishing
• Kick Off The Holidays with a Hug
• Killing the Internet at Home Is the Most Productive Thing I’ve Ever Done
• Killing Time: Over Time I Got Rid of Time
• Labels Are Necessary
• Learning to Let Go
• Less Clothes, More Routines
• Let It Go
• Letting Go of Control
• Letting Go of Sentimental Items
• Letting Go of Shitty Relationships
• Letting Go of Your DVD Collection
• Life’s Most Dangerous Question: What Do You Do?
• Live a Meaningful Life
• Live a Meaningful Life for Less
• Living with No Goals
• Making Money as a Writer Is a Curious Thing: The Dollars and Cents of Full-Time Writing
• Marketing vs. Advertising
• Minimalism & Happiness Through Scientific Eyes
• Minimalism Is Healthy: How I Lost 70 Pounds
• Minimalism Is Not a Radical Lifestyle
• Minimalism Is Not the Path
• Minimalism Kills Fear
• Minimalism Saved My Life
• Minimalism Scares the Shit Out of Me
• Minimalism: The Fine Print
• Minimalist Desktop
• Minimalist Family: 12 Useful Links
• Minimalist Family: Start With Yourself
• Minimalist Finances and Budgeting
• Minimalist Interview: Colin Wright (Video)
• Minimalist Interview: Karol Gajda
• Minimalist New Year Resolution
• Minimalist Resolution: April Update
• Minimalist Resolution: February Update
• Minimalist Resolution: January Update
• Minimalist Resolution: March Update
• Minimalist Tool Kit
• Missoula and the Third Minimalist
• Mistakes vs. Bad Decisions
• More Is Less?
• More Wins Than Losses
• Motion Creates Emotion: 3 Simple Ways To Break Your Pattern
• Moving Beyond Goals
• My Exile Lifestyle: A Video Interview with Colin Wright About Minimalism, His New Book, and Genghis Khan
• My First Fiction Book
• My Minimalist Workspace
• My Whole Process
• Need, Want, Like
• Never Happier
• Never Leave the Scene of a Good Idea Without Taking Action
• Nightmares of a Perfectionist
• Not a Natural
• Not Utopia
• Of Course It’s Unreasonable, Dummy!
• On Becoming a Better Writer
• On Living in Caves and Fighting Distractions
• On The Road with The Minimalists
• One Thing Each Day
• Organizing Is Often Well-Planned Hoarding
• Our First Book
• Overcoming Self-Doubt
• Please Masturbate in Your Own Room
• Point of No Return: I Quit My Six-Figure Corporate Job To Pursue My Passions
• Post-Post-Minimalism: An Interview
• Preaching to the Congregation
• Prime Optimist
• Pushing Through Frustration, and Why I’m Getting Rid of My Phone
• Questioning Stuff
• Quitting Your Job Is Easy
• Real Priorities
• Reasons For Waiting
• Reasons I Don’t Own a TV
• Reasons I Don’t Take Photos During Vacation
• Reclaim Your Time
• Reprogramming the Twitch: Lessons Learned from Two Months Without a Phone
• Resolving to Learn from Failure
• Security Is a Misnomer
• Shopping or Finding Meaning
• Simple Triggers
• Singing Stones: Finding Life’s Beauty & Meaning
• Sleep, Sex, and Reruns
• Sleepless Outside Seattle, Not the End of the World
• Sold Out
• Soup Kitchen Christmas
• Spring Into Minimalism 2013: Montana, Colorado, Texas
• Stoicism and Minimalism
• Stop Trying
• Struggling with Choices
• Successfool
• Take It to the River
• Take the Red Pill: Embrace Minimalism
• Tell a Better Story, 3 Tricks that Aren’t Tricks at All
• Thanks. Giving.
• The Beauty of Starting a Micro-Business
• The Best Present Is Presence
• The Blackest of Fridays
• The Commodification of Love
• The Compelling Beauty of Free
• The Consumption Continuum
• The Death of the Marketing Penny: Avoiding Silly Advertising Tricks
• The Definition of Success
• The End of the World Is Right Past the Horizon
• The High Price of Pursuing My Dream
• The Impact Equation
• The Invention of Our Discontent
• The Man Who Dies with the Most Stuff
• The Mess We Made in Rochester
• The Minimalists Holiday Happiness Tour 2012
• The Number One Lesson of Minimalism
• The Power of a Hug and Five Other Lessons Learned on the Road
• The Pressure We Put on Ourselves
• The Problem with Common Sense
• The Problem with Corporations
• The quickest way to give yourself a pay raise
• The Rats in the Tunnel
• The Rules We Live By
• The Short Guide to Getting Rid of Your Crap
• The Troubling Nature of Pop Culture
• The UnAmerican Dream
• The V-Day Free-Trade Agreement
• The Worst Christmas Ever
• They’re All Just a Bunch of Hippies!
• This Is Why I Do What I Do
• Too Much Branding These Days
• Tour My Minimalist Apartment
• Tour The Minimalists’ Montana Cabin: A Photo Essay
• Two Years Later
• Updates, Interviews, Books, and Tour Stops
• Video & Audio: Meetup with The Minimalists
• Vying for Attention
• We Can’t Fix the Problem with the Problem
• We Have No Problems
• We Love to Say Hi and Buy Less
• What If You Accidentally Spilled Bleach on Half Your Wardrobe?
• What Is My Outcome?
• What Is Your Mission?
• What the Hell Are You Talking About?
• When Everything Is Your Favorite Thing
• When Goals Are Important & When They Are Not
• When Would Today Be a Good Day to Start?
• Who The Hell Reads Your Blog Anyway?
• Who to Emulate?
• Who’s Preventing You from Being Totally Free?
• Why?
• Winning Without Playing the Game
• Woodshedding and the Pseudo Thoreau Thing: The Minimalists Are Moving to Montana
• You Are Inadequate
• You Are Not Impressing Me
• You Are Not Your Khakis: How To Donate 90% Of Your Stuff Without Even Realizing It
• You Are What You Desire
• You Don’t Have To Explain Yourself
• You Should See My Car
• Your Own Advice Is the Hardest Pill to Swallow
• Your Past Does Not Equal Your Future

Guest Essays on Other Sites

• 10 Lessons From Publishing the #1 Bestselling Short Story (Think Traffic)
• 100 Days with No Goals (Zen Habits)
• A Day in the Life of a Minimalist (Zen Habits)
• Awareness: The Most Precious Kind Of Freedom (Castles In The Air)
• Everybody Worships Something (Becoming Minimalist)
• Grow Yourself, Not Your Stuff (Positively Positive)
• Homework: Start Your Masterpiece (In Over Your Head)
• I Am Not The Center Of The Universe (Exile Lifestyle)
• Launching a Book in Real Time (Asymmetrical)
• Let Freedom Ring With Minimalism (Be More With Less)
• Letting Go Of Sentimental Items (Rowdy Kittens)
• Real Life Minimalists (Miss Minimalist)
• Russian Version of Live a Meaningful Life (Synderesis)
• Screw You, I Quit! (Illuminated Mind)
• Simplicity in Action (Be More with Less)
• Stop Living the Lie; Start Living the Life (In Over Your Head)
• The Downside of Minimalism (Be More With Less)
• The Minimalist Secret to Productive Writing (Goins, Writer)
• The Minimalists On Happiness (100 Thing Challenge)
• The Short, 16-Step Guide to Getting Rid of Your Crap (In Over Your Head)

Interviews & Media Appearances

The Minimalists have featured on CBS This Morning, ABC, NBC, FOX, NPR, CBC Radio, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, New York Times, Elle Canada, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Austin American-Statesman, Seattle Times, Toronto Star, Globe & Mail, National Post, Vancouver Sun, LA Weekly, Zen Habits, and numerous other outlets.

Press Photos: media outlets can find high-res photographs here.

TV & Video Interviews

• Breakfast TV with The Minimalists (Breakfast Television)
• Can Minimalists Put an End to "Swipe & Spend"? (The Big Picture)
• Decluttering Your Way to Happiness (CBS This Morning)
• Good Day Chicago (FOX TV)
• How The Minimalists Built an Audience of 100,000 (Think Traffic)
• How To Live a Meaningful Life (Ryan Nicodemus on A Life of Blue)
• Intrepid TV Interview with The Minimalists (Intrepid TV)
• JFM on Minimalism and Productivity (Firepole Marketing)
• Living the Minimum TV Interview (FOX 45 Television)
• Meet The Minimalists (CBS Interview)
• Packing Party: A New Way of Living (Breakfast Television)
• Photos of The Minimalists on TV (Photos)
• The Minimalists Living On Purpose (Sensophy)
• Tips for Creating Ultra Sticky Content (The Rise To The Top)
• TV Interview with The Minimalists (FOX 31)
• When Is Enough, Enough? (Video with Thom Hartman)

Radio & Audio Interviews

• Audio of The Minimalists' Seattle Meetup (Town Hall)
• Author and Minimalist Joshua Fields Millburn (Intrepid Radio)
• Beatnik Radio Interview (Beatnik Radio)
• CBC Homestretch Interview with The Minimalists (CBC Radio)
• Conversation with Joshua Fields Millburn (Conversations w/ Lizz Sommars)
• Dayton Pulse Audio Interview (Dayton Pulse)
• How Minimalism Is Changing Entrepreneurship (SXSW 2013)
• How They Grew to 100,000 Monthly Readers in a Year (Blogcast FM)
• JFM Reads from Days After the Crash (Intrepid Radio)
• Living a Meaningful Life Radio Interview (Intrepid Radio)
• NPR Radio Interview with Don March (NPR)
• NPR's On Point Radio Program with Tom Ashbrook (NPR)
• Standing Out in an Already Crowded Niche (Smart Passive Income)
• Talking Writing with JFM (UM Podcast)
• The Open Dream Radio Interview (The Open Dream)
• Thom Hartmann Interview (Thom Hartman Radio Program)
• What Do You Get By Letting Go of Your Stuff (Ryan Nicodemus on CBC)
• What It Means to Live a More Meaningful Life (CBS Radio)

Print & Written Interviews

• 23 Incredibly Useful Insights to Becoming an Expert (Expert Enough)
• 27 Simple Sages Reveal How They Simplify (Value of Simple)
• Chilled Blogs: Interview with The Minimalists (Chilled Soda)
• Clear Your Mind Clutter: Q&A with The Minimalists (Happy Momentum)
• Come Learn a Thing or Two from The Minimalists (Village Voice)
• Could Minimalism Help You Save Money? (Business Insider)
• Could You Be a Minimalist (Mint.com)
• Dayton Originals (City of Dayton)
• Do as the minimalists do (Dayton City Paper)
• Does a less-is-more life bring happiness? (Globe and Mail)
• Don’t quit your job and start blogging-that’s silly (How To Make My Blog)
• Empty Closets, Full Lives (The Delicious Day)
• Fact or Fiction: Interview with Joshua Fields Millburn (Life Rapture)
• Favorite Things (Simple Black Coffee)
• Friends Pursuing Minimalist Lives Find Montana Fitting (Missoulian)
• German Interview (Mr. Minimalist)
• Graphic: Lessons Learned from Minimalism (Will Hopkins)
• Helping Us End Our Obsession With Stuff (LA Weekly)
• HORNE Minimalism Design Interview (HORNE)
• How families can simplify their lives (Colorado Parent Magazine)
• How JFM Makes Money as an Author Entrepreneur (Winning Edits)
• How Lack of Furniture Can Enhance Your Life (Mac ‘n Cheese Productions)
• How Less Can Be More (Unlimited Magazine)
• How Minimal Are You (InTreehouses Magazine p. 47)
• How to have it all, with less. (Huffington Post)
• Interviewing The Minimalists (Eminent Human)
• Leverage Trends to Grow Your Business (Forbes)
• Like Henry David Thoreau, but with WiFi (Boston Globe)
• Living a better life…with less stuff (National Post)
• Meet Generation M (Toronto Star)
• Minimalism has brought happiness to two former executives (Vancouver Sun)
• Minimalism Interview (San Francisco Chronicle)
• Minimalism: A Chat with Joshua Fields Millburn (A Healthy Balance)
• Minimalism: Losing life’s excess baggage (The Province)
• Minimalist guys want to rid the world of excess (Culture Map Dallas)
• Minimalist Wallet Series: Joshua Fields Millburn (Everyday Minimalist)
• Minimalist Wallet Series: Ryan Nicodemus (Everyday Minimalist)
• Minimalists Make the Most of Living with Very Little (Chicago Sun-Times)
• Minimalists maximize lives by letting go selectively (Austin 360)
• Minimalists share thoughts on how less is more (San Francisco Examiner)
• Minimalists Start Unique Publishing Company in Missoula (Missoulian)
• Pared Down Dream (The Independent)
• Paring down, branching out (Chicago Tribune)
• Preaching the Gospel of Less (Edmonton Journal)
• Pull Up a Box and Have a Minimalist Holiday (USA TODAY)
• Shop ‘Til You Stop (Wall Street Journal)
• The Minimalists, An In-Depth Book Review (Book Hurricane)
• The Rise of Less, a Story of Minimalists (Wand’rly Magazine)
• They Just Might Give You a Hug (Dayton Daily News)
• Top Picks: The Minimalists' Simple Lives (Christian Science Monitor)
• Two guys paring life down to its essentials (Sightline)
• We are none too young to sing the blues (Panamerican)
• We’re not against having fun (Seattle Times)

Tour Reviews

Tour Photo Albums:

10-City Holiday Happiness Tour 2012
33-City Meetup Tour 2011/2012

Reviews of our various tour stops:

• 10 Hacks to Attract Anything or Anyone (21 Switchbacks)
• 365 Days of Minimalism (Right Mix)
• Audio of The Minimalists' Seattle Meetup (Town Hall)
• How to Live Maximally (Health Demystified)
• Lindsey Fox’s Review (Soulful Contrarian)
• Meeting The Minimalists in Dallas (Between the Temples)
• Meeting the Mins in Toronto (A Breath of Simplicity)
• Meetup with The Minimalists (The World 4 Realz)
• Spyr Media’s Photos of the Austin Meetup (Spyr Media)
• St. Louis Meetup Review (Danger Dame)
• The Minimalists Aren’t Bullshit (Almost Bohemian)
• The Minimalists Were Here (Livin’ Like a Freebird)
• The Minimalists’ Tour Lands in Milwaukee (Morning’s Light)
• We’re All Deeper than Our Resumes (Cultivating Eccentricity)
• Why You Should Meet The Minimalists (Unbridled Existence)