Over the course of my career, I’ve helped clients all over the world declutter and organize their homes. Over the past decade, she has helped thousands of people around the world reduce clutter and create more space for what matters. Shira is the author of Minimalista and has contributed to various publications including Real Simple , Sunset , Goop , and Parents . This means Indigo Nails will accept no responsibility if the products are incorrectly used and cause any harm or damage. Even though I have been minimizing my home for years and I absolutely love organization and beautiful things, I still enjoy reading books on minimizing and organizing to inspire me, keep me going, etc.

I am by no means a minimalist nor do I aspire to be (it is so often white and sterile and lacking in books) but I have felt overwhelmed by clutter and this book has given me so much help and guidance to pare things down and create spaces that serve who I am now and the direction I want to go in. Before we dive in, I want to acknowledge that suffering caused by the accumulation of clutter is a condition of privilege, as it requires both a home and a budget to accumulate those possessions. So my encouragement to you is that you do NOT need that nice stuff she recommends to be content, have a clean organized beautiful home that brings YOU peace!

moment occurred in college, when I realized that I could up-level my space simply by stripping away clutter. I am amazed how much I can tackle in that amount of time (or feel the motivation to then keep going. I hear her words in my head when I want to keep something “just in case…” but it really does feel so good to let your stuff go and live more simply. I initially took this title out of the library, but quickly realized that I would need a copy of my own to reference through every step of the way! Not all of the suggestions really applied to me but I got more out of this book than of all the others on the same subject.

This book has so much to offer in each chapter, including simple steps, some tough love, and humor to encourage you to finally part with some of the things you’ve been hanging onto. As a professional home organiser with clients ranging from students to multi-millionaires, Shira Gill observed that clutter is a universal stress trigger. But there is a lot of good content amid the photos, including step-by-step ideas for how to edit, organize, and maintain a lower-stress life by reducing consumption and waste. When you tackle even a single drawer, you’ll experience success, boost your confidence, and start to feel hopeful, even excited, about tackling the rest of your home. A step-by-step guide to designing a better home, wardrobe and life, Shira Gill’s book delivers its minimalist manifesto with plenty of practical advice for making it a reality in your home.

As someone who only really has three rooms in their apartment, most of that section didn't apply to me. That said, her ‘room by room’ and 15 minutes chunk approaches to decluttering are better for people who find a ‘blitz the entire property in one go’ approach too overwhelming. Your brain needs a fundamental rewiring, new habits are incredibly hard to create, identity shifts from consumerist hoarder to minimalist rejector of new belongings is hard to achieve. Also, her style “uniform advice” rubbed me the wrong way…I’m not Obama, I need some flexibility / spontaneity / diversity in my life, thank you very much, even if i have very limited closet space and have to fit it into a capsule collection (for better advice on this front, I recommend Nina Walder in Instagram). Some of the things she recommends, however, is not only beyond my budget but seems silly to spend so much money on!