“The Minimalist Way,” by Erica Layne

First, a word from the book’s publisher: Discover how to apply the minimalist mindset to every aspect of your life by changing the way you think about your home, career, relationships, family, and money. The Minimalist Way will help you take it one step at a time with simple exercises and activities. Ease into minimalism at your own pace and learn how to let go.

In short, this work discusses minimalism, or living an intentional life that aligns with your values and brings you joy. Read on to learn the pros and cons of the work, as well as discover other books you might enjoy.

Pros:

• Short, digestible, and comes with companion PDFs to help solidify the concepts explored
• Covers minimalism in a wide variety of contexts (e.g. work, finances, relationships, etc)
• Offers practical advice to both start and sustain minimalist practices in the aforementioned contexts

Cons:

• The work was felt a tad condescending at times (or at least the narrator did).
• The work was not as charming as Marie Kondo’s seminal work; it didn’t feel as groundbreaking, either, but that’s not really a fair comparison
• While I agree with the author’s stance that people should be given more consideration than things, I was disappointed that the author stopped short of discussing “minimizing relationships,” and asking the difficult questions about who you want in your life. In my opinion, a person can do a lot less than, “be abusive,” (the main metric the author uses in this context) and still merit being booted from my social circles.

Conclusion:

As an introduction to minimalism, you could do worse. If you’re well-read on the concept, though, this one isn’t likely to wow you. Ultimately, if you can get it at a discount and you’re interested in minimalism it’s worth a look.

Check it out here.

You may also enjoy…

• The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
• Goodbye, Things, by Fumio Sasaki

Affiliate Disclosure: I sometimes use affiliate links in my content. This won’t cost you anything, but it helps me to offset the costs of maintaining this blog. Thanks for your support!