019: Clutter Free With Kids- Why Family Minimalism Is So Important (Interview with Joshua Becker)

If you've ever felt like living clutter free with kids is impossible, this episode of The Simple Home Podcast is for you. 

Minimalism with a family is possible and as we learn during this interview with Joshua Becker, it may even make the other parts of parenting a bit more enjoyable. 

Being a minimalist isn't about owning a certain amount of items or living in a perfectly clean house. 

Minimalism is about owning the possessions that bring you life and getting rid of the excess. It's about letting go of the things on your schedule that don't fulfill you. Decluttering and living simpler with your family allows you to make room for what matters most. 

In this episode of the simple home podcast, I interview Joshua Becker from becoming minimalist. He and his wife have been on this journey with their two kids for several years and his advice is invaluable. I left this conversation ready to continue simplifying and feeling more at peace with where I am right now. 

For me, letting go of the excess stuff in our lives has opened up a new level of calm. 

I'm not a perfect mom, 

• I still get frustrated and have days when being a mom feels REALLY hard. 
• My house is still messy most of the time. 
• I still end up bringing extra items into my house I wish I wouldn't have. 
• I still feel guilty when I say no to my kids about a toy they think they can't live without. 

This has been my favorite podcast episode yet. You don't want to miss it!

What we talk about in this episode

• Joshua tells us how he got started with minimalism. His story really hit home with me and I think it will you too.
• Why minimalism might be even more important for families than anyone else.
• How you can handle the ‘envy’ your kids may experience when they see all the things other kids have. And how to say no without feeling bad about it.
• Joshua’s best advice for moms looking for a simpler life. The one thing he tells us to do will literally change the way you start everyday.
• So many nuggets of wisdom I can't list them all here!

Links for this episode

• Becoming Minimalist
• The Uncluttered Course
• The Declutter Challenge
• Clutter Free With Kids
• The Minimalist Home
• The More of Less
• Simplify

Find this episode of The Simple Home Podcast and others you’ll love on your favorite podcast player, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, and TuneIn! Remember to subscribe on your favorite podcast player so you don’t miss an episode.

Transcript

spk_0:   0:02
Hey there, you're listening to the Simple Home, a podcast for the modern mom looking for a slower pace, a life with less stuff, less to do and more time for what really matters. Let me simply is more than just getting rid of clutter. It's about letting go of expectations to create a life of intention. Motherhood is the ultimate ground hog day experience, where much of every day is spent on the logistical stuff necessary to keep everyone alive so you can wake up and do it again the next day. You don't need just one more thing. You need easier ways to manage the constant cleaning and feeding the overwhelming clutter, never ending to do list. I wish I could hire you a personal chef, a nanny, housekeeper and a personal finance guru. But I can't. But I can do is support you in your journey of letting go of all expectations in taking life at a slower pace. So sit back, relax and enjoy the podcast today. Well, hey there. Welcome to another episode of the simple home podcast. I'm your host, Jenna, and this is one of my favorite episodes so far. I just can't wait to share this with you. This week I got to interview, um, one of my favorite authors in the minimalist space. His name is Joshua Becker, and, um, he is the founder of becoming minimalist dot com. He's also written several books, including Clutter Free With Kids, Simplify his most recent book, The Minimalist Home and one of My Very Favorites, the more of less So He just has so much goodness in the area of minimalism and practical advice for families. So it's just great to see what he's doing. And I can't wait to share this interview with you because he holds nothing back and just gives us such great advice. Um, I know one thing I sometimes struggle with as a mom who wants to teach my kids to live with less. I a very often struggle with how much I say no to them as faras buying things. And we talk about that a little bit in the podcast, and I took a lot away from the way that he approaches that and his ideas around envy and how we can help our kids with that a little bit. So that was one of the areas in this interview that I hope, um, that you'll listen to you and really enjoy and get a lot of value out of. Um, he also has Simplify magazine, and he has a YouTube channel that he's just started. So if you're looking for any kind of tips or tricks as Faras, where to start with minimalism or decluttering and organizing, he has tons and tons of resource is for you. So make sure after you listen to this episode that you visit the show notes at home with kids dot com. Forward slash Episode 19 Because there I will put links to all of history sources that he talks about in the episode, and I don't want you to miss any now. Becoming minimalists dot com is definitely his home base, and he'll talk a little bit about that and you can find all these Resource is there as well, and I will also put a link to one of his courses he talks about during the interview so you can find out all kinds of things at the show notes. But without further ado, let's go ahead and hear the interview with Joshua Becker. All right, well, Hey, Joshua, Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I'm so thrilled to have you here.

spk_1:   3:40
It is. My pleasure. Thanks for the invitation. And ah, allowing me to hang out with you?

spk_0:   3:46
Absolutely. So before we get started, I kind of introduced you in the intro to this podcast. But can you tell us a little bit of your story, how you got started and kind of what intrigued you about minimalism in the beginning?

spk_1:   3:59
Sure. Um, if I were to step back even a bit further, I'm I always say that I've been pretty squarely in the middle class for my entire life, never having to miss meals, never eating at the fanciest restaurants in town either. So So right in the middle, I think a pretty typical middle class suburban lifestyle, um, grew up in the upper Midwest, South Dakota, and that my wife in Omaha, where we got married, lived in Wisconsin, uh, ended up moving to Vermont, and 11 years ago is when I was first introduced to the word minimalism. My neighbor actually introduced me to the word I was clean up my garage while my five year old son was his name of Salem. He was out in the back playing, and I don't know what we're just doing our regular spring cleaning. But I spent hours on the garage and was complained to my neighbor a little bit about all the time they had gone into it. And she said, That's why my daughters of Minimalist She keeps telling me I don't need to own all this stuff. And I remember looking at the pile of things in my Dr Boyd spent all morning taking care of, um knowing I think, or at least I would have always said that possessions weren't making me happy. But as I saw my five year old son swinging alone on the swing set and I realized that spent all day taking care of my stuff, I realized not only were my things not making me happy, but they were actually taking me away from the very thing that did bring happiness into my life. Ah, and not just happiness but purpose and fulfillment and meaning, and I joy, I think that I think that everyone who makes a decision at one point that they're going to pursue minimalism has that has that moment where they realise not only are their excess possessions not making them happy, but their excess possessions are actually taking them away from the life that they wish they were living instead, whether it's time, money, energy, focus, whatever it might been. So um so that was it. I started blogging on becoming minimalist dot com, and, um, yeah, it's been 11 years of living it and trying to help others live it as well.

spk_0:   6:33
Excellent. I love I love your story because it's so practical and it's so It's so true. We spend so much of our time dealing with our stuff. And I think that, um, it's become so normal to do that that we almost we don't even realize that that's how we're spending our time either cleaning it up, organizing it or doing the laundry because we have so many clothes or, you know, just so much time I'm going through stuff and moving stuff around so we can do other things that we kind of miss out. So I love that you talk about how it's not just the stuff that's that's not bringing you joy, but it's actually taking you away from what our true joy really comes from, um,

spk_1:   7:12
I would I would agree that we, uh the way I usually say it is. Most people don't realize how much of a burden their possessions have become until they begin to remove them and they start to free up the space and time and energy and money that they don't even realize they were wasting on a bunch of possessions that they didn't need. And not only is it normal in our culture, but there's also this added like Not always it normal, but we feel like we don't have is much as everyone else does. And so the thinking is never. I need to get rid of things to be happier. We look at other people who have bigger houses and nicer cars and trendier fashion and cooler toys or technology. And it's like we we almost envy having more things than we currently have, not even realizing how much of a burden they've become, where they are, where they are already

spk_0:   8:17
absolutely, absolutely, and and to add to that, I feel like that just adds to the financial burden on it, and so many so many of us go shopping on our free time rather than spinning it with our kids. And then we're concerned about the debt that we carry and all of those things. So I think this whole minimalism thing I would be first kind of. You know, I think we watched, like the Minimal the Minimalists documentary on Netflix, and we kind of thought it was one of those things. You could only own a certain amount of possessions, and it was all about the things you own, you know, But the more and more you get into it, you learn how just freeing it is for your whole life. So I love how you talk about that, And that kind of brings me to you know, one of the first books I picked up that you wrote was the more of less and the whole reason I picked it up was because the tag line on the front of it says, finding the life you want under everything you own and I just felt like that. It's so true. Our lives there, buried in clutter, whether it's our time or our stuff. So that's awesome from

spk_1:   9:23
Yeah, I, uh, yeah, I love that I love that line. I'm pretty convinced that, um if you ask anybody, you know what you most want to accomplish with your life, That that no one says I just I just wanna own is much clutter as I possibly and like, like no one. Like when you list your top several things I don't even think, you know, I just want the biggest house that I can get. Like That's not what comes to our mind. Maybe further down the list, those things start to emerge, but way I'll talk about the same things We talk about love and we talk about relationships and faith comes up a lot. Um, you know, we talked about being good parents and being good spouses. And these are the things that we that we most desire to be true of ourselves. But somehow culture comes along and society comes along and hijacks our passions, and we begin spending our time and money buying a whole bunch of things that we don't need, Not realizing how all the things we're acquiring are actually keeping us from accomplishing those things we most value.

spk_0:   10:35
Yeah, I definitely agree. Now, one thing that I always hear from mom's that I work with on this is, um you know, how do they make this work for their family? Because, like you said, we see what other people have And our kids see what other people have in his parents living in a society like this. Sometimes it feels like we're not giving them what they deserve, because, you know, we don't have all the new technology here. We don't buy them all the toys and all of that, or we don't want to live in the biggest house with all the stuff. So they always kind of asked, like, what does minimalism actually look like for a family? So if I could just ask you, like, for your family, what is minimalism look like in your household and with your kids? Just on a practical level?

spk_1:   11:17
Yeah. Oh, gosh. So many things I want to say. Uh, I, uh gosh, how to keep all my thoughts ordered here. Um, so, first of all, I it's important to remember that, um, mit minimalism always looks different from one person to another, from one family to another, from one household to another. Um, the size of the family certainly plays a role in that talk. Thio. You know, parents who have six kids and their and they home school and there's like, there's there stuff everywhere And I said, Well, probably, if you have six kids in your home schooling that there are gonna be a lot of things in your home like it's certainly going to look different than, Ah, young couple who doesn't have any kids. But it's in one sense. It's It's just a season of your life. It's just a stage of your life. When when the six kids are gone or when you're down to two kids at home, then it's going to mean something different. But five people living under one roof are going to own more things than one or two people living under the same roof. So I think it's, I think, and and they'll become a. There'll come a season in life where where you don't need to own a CZ much stuff. So minimalism is certainly more difficult when you when there's kids involved. Actually, anytime there's more than one person involved, it becomes, too. It becomes more difficult. But I'm pretty convinced that minimalism with families is more important a cz. Well, because because you do need time to be with your kids and you are laying down an example that your kids are following and learning from, um, and it is more helpful tohave. You know, a little freedom in your finances in time t to do things with your family. That costs more than if it was just the two of you. Eso Minimalism with family is more difficulty, but I also think it's more important in practical ways. What that looks like in our home is. When we started, my kids were five and two, and now they are 17 and 13. And, um, I I think it changes based on their age. When they're young, you have a little more control over them when they get a little bit older. I ideally, they have a little bit more independence and a little bit more responsibility based on what you've what you've taught them through the years. So I think it can depend based on what the ages are when our kids were young. Actually, even today, even now they're older. I'm such a fan of setting like physical boundaries for kids, and it's incredibly helpful when they're young. Uh, you can have as many toys as you want as long as they fit in this closet on, and then you that empowers them to make the decisions about what they're going to keep and what they're going to get rid of. It works for anything they're collecting. It works for arts and crafts. It can work for close. It can work for sporting goods. It can work for almost anything of, ah, physical variety that you just said, you know, said a reasonable boundary and then allow them thio function inside of it.

spk_0:   15:01
Yeah, I love that idea of the boundary, and I I think that's great advice for parents of kids at any age, because the boundary can change as your kids grow. And it also just teaches them as they grow, you know, to look for boundaries in their own lives and and not go overboard in not just areas of clutter and things that they own. But I think boundaries air good anywhere, so I love to teach them that early as well. That's great.

spk_1:   15:26
Just a couple of things I should mention is I speak to a lot of moms groups And the first question they always ask me is this minimalism thing? Sounds great. How do I go through all my kids stuff? And I I always try to tell him it's It's unfair for you to make your kids get rid of things unless you've gone through your own stuff first, Um, and so I think parents need to be going through their own bedrooms and closets and kitchens and home, office and garage. And to some extent I feel like they should probably go through all their things before they start making their kids to go through some of their stuff. Your kids notice it and ask questions and see model that before you put the expectation upon them. And the second thing that I think it's helpful to remember is, um, like we worry about, um, kids and envy and all the other kids at school are getting this. And how do I help my Children not become envious and not want a bunch of things that we're not buying and don't need? And, man, I think adults struggle with that just a CZ, much as kids. D'oh! The only difference is that we, as parents have the financial means to go buy whatever it is that we want and our kids don't. So our kids So our kids have to ask us for the things that all their friends have, but we often are displaying the exact same behavior. It's just that we don't have to ask them for permission. First, we just go buy whatever it is that everyone else is buying on DSO Envy is something that not just kids struggle with, but adults do is well and and you never overcome it just by buying the thing that you think is gonna help you overcome envy because you you buy the one thing and you just want the next thing that that somebody has And so, um, envy, you can't outspend. Envy is the way I is the way as adults need to learn to be content with what we have and grateful for what we have. A CZ well is teaching our kids the same thing.

spk_0:   17:40
Yes, I am gonna use that. You can't outspend anti because I do struggle with that. I forget that we deal with the same thing. I struggle, I feel, and I know that you've used the word frugal before and you try to say that you're not cheap, but I feel cheap sometimes in my household because I say no a lot to buying things and try to teach my kids what's, you know, worth spending our money on and how we can use our money for more than just spinning it on things. And so it is. It's a hard thing to remember. I have an example. Just from this week, my son came home from school and they did some kind of cup stacking thing in P E. And the person who came to demonstrate it was selling all this stuff, and he came home so excited that we were going to spend $50 on hold this cup staff looking stuff in case he wanted to be in the junior Olympics or something, he said. And you know, it's so hard because you want to let them know that some of those things are fun and important, but we also don't need them just because other kids in our class are buying a bunch of cups. And so I like that you said that we struggle with that, too. It's just that they have to ask permission and it feels like we're saying no a lot. So it just comes up, you know, in my heart a lot that Oh, man, I'm depriving my child of becoming that junior Olympic cuts stagnant or whatever. The newest, you know.

spk_1:   19:07
Yeah, I am. Maybe to an unhealthy degree. I am a big fan of saying no to my kids. I think it's I mean, I mean that in every loving way. But I think it's good for them to hear. No, I think it's good for them to hear. No, we're We're not gonna spend our money on this. We're going to spend our money on that. Instead, I'm I think over explaining is great for kids. I think that we should be able to explain why we're not buying something and and then we explain to him, and whether they accept the reason or not, we should have a good reason as parents for really. I think for every decision that we make, if we can't come up with a good reason, then you know, maybe we need to hear their side of the story a little bit more, but

spk_0:   19:55
right, Yeah, that's great. advice. I love that. Um, so one of the things one of your books, the minimalist home, which I believe is your newest your latest book that you've written on. And it kind of walks us through each room, which I think is great when we start thinking about all of our stuff because that can be super overwhelming. And when we're talking about getting rid of our kids stuff and getting rid of our own stuff, um, I like that you kind of break it down. Do you find yourself kind of revisiting areas in your home off often to keep your house the way you want and to help your kids keep their space is the way they want. Or how does that look for you?

spk_1:   20:33
Uh, yes. That is exactly how it looks. I don't know if often is the right word. I guess it depends on, um, how quickly you can overcome, um, filling your spaces back up again. And I do think that is a different calm for a different mindset. Like a different journey that we need to go on. There's a lot of people who want to de quarter their home who aren't um, who are also asking and how do I overcome consumerism in my life? I think it is. It's it's different probably the difference between going on a diet and, you know, maintaining healthy eating habits every day going forward. But, um, the more I owned less and the more I saw the benefits of it, the more I saw how my life was improving by owning less, the less desire I had to buy things and fill the spaces back up again. But even even now, I mean even 10 11 years in tow, into writing about this. Yeah, things spaces fill up, kids get older and kids change and different seasons of life come and go and clothes wear out. And so you buy new ones. And if you're not getting rid of the old ones, things come up that you you think you're going thio improve your life, and but they don't end up improving your life. And so I don't really have a good like I go through my home every six months or every season. I've kind of gotten the point where, like, I can just feel that this space has more stuff than it than it needs to. I tend to like the 35 to 40 articles of clothing in my closet, usually feels about the right number. And when it when it starts to get more than that, for whatever reason, I just seems like, Yeah, it's probably time to go back. Go back through this We went through our pantry closet about three weeks ago. I've been feeling for a couple months that I don't know where all this stuff came from in this pant. We've lived our home for about eight years as the first time we went back through it. But I just feel like there's more stuff in here than there should be. So we So we went back through it

spk_0:   23:02
right? I know that with little kids, I tend to go through like their clothes. You know, every couple of months, I have to kind of weed out. But you can tell like you were saying their drawer gets too full or, um, there's they're not wearing most the clothes that are in there, probably because they don't fit or they don't like them anymore. So, yeah, I couldn't see where you just kind of have toe self evaluate What? What feels good And what does it. And, um, there

spk_1:   23:27
are There are There are so many occasions in life where things enter our home from school or church or birthday parties or holidays or trips sometimes sails back to school. Set of this like all these moments of the year where things enter into into our home. And at some point there has to be a removing of those things, whether we're whether we're really good at and we do it, you know, every week or whether we do it, um, every spring and every fall, or just when we feel like we need Thio. But at some point, the things that come in have toe have to go back out,

spk_0:   24:14
right? Absolutely. And I kind of wish I was better at the consistency of it. And like as something came in having a system right in place that, you know, I knew exactly whether that was going to stay or go or what. But, you know, I'm not. I I don't keep up on that as well, so it's I just have to get going through it as things

spk_1:   24:33
I am just I am just like you. I mean, I read about, you know, one thing in one thing out. Whenever I bring in a new article of clothing, I make sure I get rid of one or one toy, and I get rid of one. And I'm like, That's great. If it works for you, I'm sure does work for some people. I've just never been able to to have that type of system. And, um and I know myself well enough that that that wouldn't be something that would work for me anyway. And so, um, just kind of found a bulk removal moments in time when it happened.

spk_0:   25:09
Yeah, I think definitely. I just get my husband's very good at that. He's so consistent at things, but I just can't. There's too much going on for me to think about it. Right. Then I guess there's something. Um, So where do you feel like you are in your journey right now? Do you feel like there's areas that you're still working on to simplify, or after doing this for 10 to 11 years, Do you feel pretty good about, um, you know, is there an into this journey? I guess. Um, yeah. there

spk_1:   25:38
is, uh, you know, I mean, I think there's there's, there's maintenance that always takes place. I think when I when I first started minimizing, I maybe went several years of like, Gosh, I feel like I should be getting rid of more. I feel like I can get rid of Maura. I feel like I need to have less like it was It was, uh, I kind of breaking a three time frames. It took about three months for us to go through our home. Um, the lived in areas of our home. It took nine months, if you want to count garage and basement and the storage shed in the backyard s. So it took a little bit longer to do that. And then we moved into a smaller home two and 1/2 3 years later and got rid of even more things. Um, but so several, you know, kind of key moments, time moments. But I feel like I got to a point where I'm like, this is a good like, this is a good enough. It's not too little, and it's not too much. And maybe there's some experimenting to take place. And then there's some some maintenance that goes forward, but I'm having all in addictive personality type guy. And so when I when I first found it, I'm like, what else can I get rid of? And what else can I get rid of? And almost like, almost as much mental energy went into wanting to own less, as I used to have used to put into wanting to own more. Um, but, uh, yeah, I think you reach a point where where you feel pretty good, where things are now, life changes. So my kids were young, and now they're teenagers. And so it looks a little bit different now and my sons of junior So I mean, in a couple of years, it may be just me and my wife and my daughter at home. And so what is that gonna look like? And they, you know, six years down the road when she's out of the house, what is minimalism, you know, look like for us And so it does tend to change based on the seasons of our life. But, um, yeah, I think I think people can get to a point where they feel pretty good about where they have and the goal of minimalism isn't own. The fewest amount of things like the goal of minimalism is on just the right amount of things. I don't want my possessions to be a burden in too much or too little. So what is that freeing point where I can accomplish what I want to accomplish with my life, but not be distracted by the things that I've accumulated as well?

spk_0:   28:17
Yeah, that's such good advice. And it's it's true when we first started looking and I even now on skeptical about using the term minimalism because it is, um, it's kind of a stressful word for because it feels like you do need to own, you know, just a certain amount of of things. And truthfully, it's just about what works for your family in this moment right now and isn't taking away from the life that you want to live. So I appreciate that you that you said that So most of my audience are Mom's on the people listening to this podcast right now, and I know from the messages I get from them that they just feel so overwhelmed by taking care of their house and their kids. Um, just like dad's doing, I'm sure that you feel the same way often. And if you could just tell them one thing, because I'm always trying to just promote this this idea that, you know, getting rid of your stuff minimalize ing the clutter in your day and your time, Um, and getting to a simpler life, it's gonna be so beneficial. But if you could give them one piece of advice on just living a little bit simpler, what would that be

spk_1:   29:22
then? I would have I would have a hard time topping what you say. Um, so I have a, um I do, of course online. The Uncluttered course I call it and helps people go through their home and helps people own less stuff. And there's 12 weeks. We have, ah weekly challenge in each of them. And the Week seven challenge is that, um, people. I asked them to reset their kitchen every night before they go to bed, and I never tell them that that is happening. If I were to tell them in week one or two that that bye Week seven, they are gonna be having their entire kitchen clean every night before they go to bed. Like a lot of them would think that I am being ridiculous and that they can never possibly accomplished that in their home, with their family and with their commitments and with their responsibilities. But after we go through each of the different spaces living room and bedroom and bathroom and we go through the kitchen and we minimize the kitchen by the time we get to week seven, um, a an incredibly high percentage of the people. The participants are able to accomplish that, and it just goes back to I think that the thing you said at the very beginning, where, like we just think, um that we're living normal with all these all these things around us, and we don't even realize how much easier life can become when we own fewer things. My I got I always went to bed with my house, a little bit cluttered and a little bit messy, but when I purposely own less stuff got rid of 50% of our things. It was surprisingly easy to tidy up the living room every night, tidy up the kitchen every night, keep keep the bathroom cleaner. Keep the bedroom cleaner. Um, man, that the time spent moving things around in my home, it was just something that I didn't realize. And so you are like, you're absolutely right, and, um, people don't realize it until they do it, but it really does. It removes stress, and it removes time and distraction. And owning fewer possessions really does simplify our life in so many ways that you just can't appreciate until you do it.

spk_0:   32:18
Oh, that's such great advice. And honestly, when you're saying like having your kitchen reset for the morning, it it's It's so true when I wake up and there's no dishes on the counter and you know things air cleaned up from dinner time and the floor has been swept. My day starts so much betterthan if you wake up and you you know you're trying to get everything done with your family and take care of that mess, or just look at it because you don't have time to take care of it. So

spk_1:   32:43
you take changes. It just changes your entire mood for the day. Like the day becomes, the day becomes full of possibility, as opposed to I still have yesterday's mess that I need to I need to clean up.

spk_0:   32:58
Yeah, definitely. Well, I'm definitely gonna lead to that Uncluttered er course that you mentioned all. I'll get your link for that and put it in the show notes because I am sure that many, many moms that are listening to this or Dad's could definitely benefit from that. I know that I could as well, so that's excellent. Um, I was also going to say, as you were talking about that it was making me think about, you know, when we go on vacation, I always reflect on how easy life feels when we're either staying at a hotel or staying in somebody else's house like an Airbnb or something, because you don't have to deal with the laundry and all those other things. And when you're talking about doing your daily resets and having less stuff to deal with, that really is why vacations feel so nice because you're out of your space with all your stuff. So I appreciate that you you brought that to my attention cause, and it definitely brings brings that kind of peace when you you don't have to deal with all the excess.

spk_1:   34:00
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think I think if you Google, how do I turn my bedroom into a hotel bedroom? I like a hole, like a whole movement there. Of how do I get a hotel bedroom feeling at home? Yeah. I mean, the whole, like the hotel room is just the perfect example where it's got everything you need and nothing more than what you need. And it feels great and perfect,

spk_0:   34:27
right? It does. Um, yeah. So where can we find out more about you? I mean, if you could just tell us about your books. I know I mentioned a couple of them, but I've read every single thing you've written, I think, including on your website and your magazine. But if you could kind of tell my audience a little bit about where we can find out more about you and I think, um, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you started a YouTube channel. A swell just pretty recently, Um, or in the recent past,

spk_1:   34:57
Yes. That would be correct. Becoming minimalist dot com is home base for everything I do. Really? Um, yeah, I um, I get to do this full time. I've been doing this. I was a pastor for 15 years, but I've been doing this full time for the last six years and try to look for is many different outlets and channels that I can use to, Um, I always say, play, play my neighbors role in someone else's life, Um, and help them see the value of owning less. And so from from becoming minimalists Utkan Yeah, Active on Facebook, we have one and 1/2 1,000,000 followers on Facebook. It's really unbelievable. Yeah, Facebook and Twitter or started YouTube channel last fall, um, started magazine simplifying magazine That just brings together different experts in certain areas of life toe to dive deep into the topics. Um, we've said our relationships issue just came out in September of this year. So a lot of yeah, I hang out a lot of different places and I love what I'm doing. I work hard at it, but everything becoming minimalist dot com is really a headquarters for anything and everything.

spk_0:   36:21
All right, well, that is so great, Joshua. And truly you are doing some amazing things, and I think you can tell that by, I mean the amount of Facebook followers you have and stuff. I think this is a real need and something that's so beneficial for families and to teach our kids as their growing cause. I just feel like, um, people are stressed and spending too much money and not not getting out of their house to do the things they want and stuff. So I appreciate you and everything you're doing. And I so appreciate you coming on to to share your message with my audience as well today.

spk_1:   36:55
Well, hey, uh, I appreciate the work you're doing, and you're good at this. You, uh you do the podcast interviews really well. I visit Been very has been very enjoyable. I can I can see why. Um Why? Why people enjoy listening to you.

spk_0:   37:12
Well, thanks so much. I I enjoy it as well. I mean, really, this is like a dream job getting to interview people like you. And I just I always learned so much more. So there really isn't anything better that we could be spending our time Do it? I don't think learning from other people. So thank you so much for your kind words and, um Yep, I will continue following everything you're doing. And I just appreciate you taking your time today.

spk_1:   37:37
We'll be in touch.

spk_0:   37:38
All right, Bye. So there you have it. I truly hope you enjoy this time with Joshua Becker as much as I did. He just has so much wisdom for us. He's been doing this for so long and has gone through many stages with his family, from his kids, being young to now being much older. So it's fun to hear his input as to how to just make this applicable in our lives. And I love how passionate he is about how a simple life can really just change your world, because I truly believe that as well. Having less things change is more than just the amount of stuff that's around us. So I hope you take inspiration from today's episode. And if you are feeling overwhelmed at all with the whole decluttering process, remember that I have the declutter challenge to help you get started. It's five days. It's completely free to get signed up for, and I will link to it in the show notes at home with kids dot com forward slash Episode 19 or you can just go to at home with kids dot com forward slash de clutter Challenge, But please do visit the show notes and see all the different things that Joshua is doing. If you haven't yet read any of his books, I encourage you to do so. The minimalist home, his newest one, will definitely help you get started as well. He goes through room by room and just helps you go through your house in a manageable way. So if that's something you're looking for, the minimalist home is excellent. If you have a family, especially a young family, um, clutter free with kids is another one of my favorites and that one I'm sure you can find at your local library. Or just look on his website, becoming minimalist dot com, And it'll link to all of his books there, and I will need to them in the show notes as well. One more thing. If you are ready to dive in full fourth, make sure to check out his course the Uncluttered course, because it sounds like he walks us through step by step. Kind of holds our hand, gives different challenges. And if you're anything like me, sometimes that's all I need is somebody to challenge me to do something, and that way I get it done. So I'm definitely gonna check that out. And they hope that you will, as to you will too. And I will link to that in the show notes as well. So thanks so much for joining me today. As always, I so appreciate you. And if you have a moment, please write a review in iTunes. Remember? That's how this podcast can reach a new audience. And it also just makes my day I go in and see some kind of review or response from you all. It makes me feel like I'm not just sitting here talking into a microphone and that, um, I'm connected with human beings on the other end. So I appreciate you and hope that you have a wonderful day today. Whatever day it is that you're listening to this episode, I'll talk to you next week. You just listen to an episode of the simple home. Thank you so much for spending your time with me today. I feel truly honored to be a small part of your life. Please take a moment to give a rating and rent a quick review on iTunes that will help this podcast reach more people. And I appreciate the feedback we meet here every week. So hit. Subscribe. So you know, in the newest episode goes life. And for more practical tips on simplifying motherhood, visit at home with kids dot com. I can't wait to talk to you.