Learn More About The Minimalists

About The Minimalists

At first glance, people might think the point of minimalism is only to get rid of material possessions: Eliminating. Jettisoning. Extracting. Detaching. Decluttering. Paring down. Letting go. But that’s a mistake.

True, removing the excess is an important part of the recipe—but it’s just one ingredient. If we’re concerned solely with the stuff, we’re missing the larger point.

Minimalists don’t focus on having less, less, less. We focus on making room for more: more time, more peace, more creativity, more experiences, more contribution, more contentment, more freedom. Clearing the clutter frees up the space.

Minimalism is the thing that gets us past the things so we can make room for life’s important things—which aren’t things at all.

For The Minimalists, it all started with a lingering discontent. Nearly a decade ago, while approaching age 30, we had achieved everything that was supposed to make us happy: six-figure careers, luxury cars, oversized houses, and all the stuff to clutter every corner of our consumer-driven lives.

And yet with all those possessions, we weren’t satisfied. There was a gaping void, and working 80 hours a week just to buy more stuff couldn’t fill it. The long hours only introduced more debt, stress, anxiety, fear, loneliness, guilt, overwhelm, depression.

What’s worse, we didn’t have control of our time, and thus we didn’t control our own lives. So, in 2009, we took back control using the principles of minimalism. (Read about our 21-day journey into minimalism.)

Since starting this website, in 2010, we’ve been fortunate enough to establish an audience of more than 20 million people. The Minimalists have been featured throughout the media, and we have spoken at Harvard Business School, Apple, and Google.

In 2011, we walked away from our corporate careers and published our first book, Minimalism: Live a Meaningful Life. That same year, we went on an international book tour and eventually began contributing to people through Joshua’s online writing class and Ryan’s minimalist-budgeting course.

After we left the corporate world, we found time to contribute to several worthy causes. Over the past decade, The Minimalists have built two orphanages, provided relief to the victims of Hurricane Harvey, supported the survivors of the Orlando and Las Vegas mass shootings, funded a high school for a year in Kenya, installed clean-water wells in three countries, constructed an elementary school in Laos, and purchased thousands of mosquito nets to fight malaria in Africa. We recently raised money to build a not-for-profit grocery co-op in our hometown, Dayton, Ohio, which has one of the largest food deserts in the United States.

We moved from Dayton to a cabin near Philipsburg, Montana, in 2012, as a four-month writing experiment, followed by a move to beautiful Missoula, in 2013, where we cofounded Asymmetrical Press, a publishing house for the indie at heart.

We published our most popular book, the critically acclaimed memoir Everything That Remains, in 2014, and then embarked on a 100-city bookstore tour.

We published our third book, Essential: Essays by The Minimalists, in 2015. That book presents a minimalist perspective on twelve different areas of life—from decluttering, gift-giving, and finances to passion, health, and relationships. That year, we also hit the road with five other authors and one musician for Asymmetrical Press’ first-ever WordTasting Tour.

We launched The Minimalists Podcast, where we discuss living a meaningful life with less, in 2016. That same year, we, alongside our friends Sarah and Joshua Weaver, opened a coffeehouse in St. Petersburg, Florida: Bandit Coffee Co. Then, on May 24, 2016, our documentary, Minimalism, was released in 400 theaters in the United States and Canada, opening as the #1 indie documentary of 2016. It is now available on Netflix, iTunes, and Amazon.

Once Minimalism was streaming on Netflix, we hit the road for a 50-city speaking tour. In each city, we presented an in-depth talk about minimalism. Pieces of that talk formed the foundation for our second documentary, Less Is Now.

We built a podcast and film studio in Hollywood, in 2018, in an effort to produce more meaningful audio and video creations, and we journeyed to the South with Dave Ramsey’s team for our Simply Southern Tour.

Throughout 2019 and 2020, we once again teamed up with director Matt D’Avella and the folks at Booklight to produce our second film, Less Is Now, a Netflix Original documentary about starting over with less, which was released worldwide on January 1, 2021, and was nominated for an Emmy in 2022.

Joshua and his wife, Rebecca, launched How to Love, a podcast about relationships, sex, and parenting, in January 2021.

The Minimalists’ fourth book, Love People Use Things, which examines life’s seven essential relationships, was published by Celadon/Macmillan on July 13, 2021, and became an instant New York Times–bestseller.

After multiple appearances on The Minimalists Podcast, the philosopher and educator T.K. Coleman officially became Joshua and Ryan’s podcast cohost in August 2022.

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About Joshua Fields Millburn

I was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1981. Because we grew up poor, I suspected our lack of happiness was birthed out of a lack of money. So when I turned eighteen, I skipped college and applied for an entry-level corporate job and spent the next decade climbing the corporate ladder, forsaking everything except the pursuit of money—because that was sure to make me happy, right?

In time, I became the youngest director in our company’s 140-year history. Even though I earned a remarkable income, I didn’t feel remarkable. I had accumulated the trinkets of success, but something was missing.

Then, in late 2009, my mother died and my marriage ended in the same month, which caused me to question everything: finances, freedom, the future. That’s when I discovered minimalism. Now, more than a decade later, I probably own fewer than 288 things, but I don’t actually count my stuff.

A dozen years into chasing the American Dream, I quit my six-figure job, at age 30, to focus on writing full-time.

After spending the first 31 years of my life in Ohio, most recently in a minimalist apartment in downtown Dayton, I moved to Montana, in 2012, where I met my wife, Rebecca. We lived in a minimalist home in Missoula with our daughter, Ella, until we moved into our minimalist apartment in Los Angeles, in 2017.

I’m not a Stoic, and I’m certainly not a Luddite, but I enjoy conducting stoical experiments from time to time, like living without the Internet, living without a phone, living without purchasing things, living without a television, and living without goals.

As an introvert (INTJ), I used to be an extremely private person. Then I discovered Twitter. You can follow me for pithy musings and smart-aleck remarks. If that’s not enough, you can listen to some of my favorite music and read my maundering answers to these 20 questions about minimalism.

Ryan’s Comments About Joshua

I’ve known Josh since the fifth grade. My favorite memory is the first time I saw Josh eat an entire ten-pack of White Castle hamburgers at age ten. He was literally the fattest kid in our school. Oh, and he had a mullet until he was twelve. [I can’t deny this unfortunate fact because there are pictures to prove it. —JFM]

About Ryan Nicodemus

I was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1981, and grew up in Southwest Ohio by way of Upstate New York. I now live in Los Angeles with my wife, Mariah. You can see a photo tour of our previous apartment in Missoula here and watch a video tour of our current apartment in Los Angeles here.

Although I grew up in a dysfunctional home without much money, I eventually struck gold in the corporate world. I was living the American Dream until I was laid off, but that’s actually one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. Now, ever since my Packing Party, in 2010, I’m focused on living a meaningful life with less stuff, and I’m pursuing my passions.

My deepest passion is mentoring people. I had a decade of mentoring and leadership experience in the corporate world, which I’ve repurposed to help people get unstuck in their personal lives. But mentoring isn’t my only passion; I’m passionate about many things: snowboarding, wakeboarding, paddleboarding—pretty much any kind of boarding (except waterboarding).

As an extrovert (ENFP), I’m the more social half of The Minimalists. If you like interesting, silly updates, you can follow me on Twitter or Instagram.

Joshua’s Comments About Ryan

Ryan and I have nearly identical thought processes and values, but we are completely different people: I’m OCD, he’s ADD. I’m an introvert who loves alone time, Ryan is always the life of the party. I’m 6’2″, Ryan is … well … let’s just say he’s shorter than six feet. [Hey, I’m 5’11¾”, and that totally rounds up to six feet! —Ryan]