10 Best Books About Decluttering To Transform Your Home

Are you lacking motivation right now or someone who just wants to clear out some clutter? Either way, here are the best books for decluttering your home and freeing up space in both your house and your mind.

They offer tips and advice on how to get rid of the excess in your life and live more meaningfully. You’ll be surprised at how good it feels to live with less!

The books on decluttering offer advice for how to get started, so motivation shouldn’t be much of a problem. If you’re not sure where to start, try picking a room or area in the house and work your way from there.

Once you have an assortment of books about decluttering, it should be easier to find the motivation to clear out your space and live more meaningfully.

The Best Books About Decluttering

If you’ve had enough of clutter in your home and you’re ready to take the leap into a mega declutter, there are some great books that will help get you inspired, sharing different approaches that will help you find the methods and inspiration you need to start decluttering your home.

Each of these best decluttering books is great for finding the motivation to clear your clutter, each offering their own take and unique methods that work for them.

You will find some overlap with each since the end goal is the same – clear the clutter from your home, but they are exceptional for keeping up the momentum while you work towards your end goal!

Often the hardest part is simply knowing where to start when decluttering your home and each of these books will help you overcome that huge hurdle plus learn how to make it stick!

My favourite way to ‘read’ non-fiction and motivational books such as these is via audiobook so I can listen as I drive and walk or as I actually clean and declutter my home. You can get your first book free with an Audible trial!

Decluttering At The Speed Of Life – Dana White

Decluttering At The Speed Of Life is a great guide to get you excited about decluttering without feeling like you are out of your depth.

This easily actionable decluttering book is written by Dana White from lifestyle blog A Slob Comes Clean, who struggled with clutter for years in her home and finally decided to take charge of the situation and declutter with an extreme makeover.

Or as she calls it, a Deslobification!

She shares her methods and experiences that she used to transform from a cluttered home to an organized and peaceful space.

Why This Book Is Great: My favourite thing about this book is that it is relatable. Dana shares how much she struggled to change her slob ways and how it wasn’t a perfect journey from slob to organised, making it a very approachable method to decluttering your home.

She also has another great book for establishing routines in the household called How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind!

You’ll find that this book is great for ideas and inspiration, which will help you take the first steps toward decluttering your space.

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The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a classic for books about decluttering, bringing in a lifestyle philosophy instead of just an approach to cleaning up clutter. Marie Kondo shares her life story growing up in Japan and how she embraced a simpler, more fulfilling life – To live with less.

Marie’s KonMari Method makes decluttering a fun and enjoyable process, with easy-to-understand concepts as you move towards finding your inner calm.

Her approach to decluttering your home isn’t about the process but rather the end result and experience that comes with cleaning up your space.

It’s all about discarding things that don’t ‘spark joy’ and keeping things that bring meaning to your life.

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying is a follow on book from Kondo that further defines the concepts with step by step illustrated instructions to get rid of clutter.

There is also a Netflix show where Marie Kondo shares her skills with people in need and it is a great way to see the concepts in practice with real homes and clutter. You won’t ever see another person who gets so excited by clutter!

Why This Book Is Great: The biggest thing you will take away from this book is the intentionality behind each decision, which is a great method for decluttering your space.

The spark joy concept also makes it easier to declutter sentimental items and things that we might be holding onto out of obligation rather than actual want.

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The Minimalist Home – Joshua Becker

The Minimalist Home: Declutter Your Space, Find Your Life is a book about minimalism and decluttering that doesn’t focus on the process but rather on the benefits of living with less.

Joshua Becker shares his journey into minimalism and how it has transformed his life into one that is more fulfilling and meaningful.

He also shares many different stories of other people that have embraced minimalism and how living simply has changed their lives.

This book is not so much about decluttering for the sake of cleaning but more about why you should embrace a minimalist lifestyle.

Becker also has several other books dedicated to helping families live clutter-free, including The More Of Less and Clutterfree With Kids.

Why This Book Is Great: One of my favourite things about this book is that Joshua Becker shares both his personal experience and stories from others, to show that minimalism isn’t just a trend, it is a legitimate lifestyle choice. I also like the emphasis on exploring your passions and finding hobbies to fill your time rather than buying more stuff.

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The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Declutter, Organize, and Simplify – Francine Jay

The Joy of Less: A Minimalist Guide to Organize, Declutter and Simplify is the perfect book to transform your life and home.

Francine Jay shares her experiences from being a self-proclaimed ‘pack rat’ to finally getting rid of all her clutter and living with less in a purposeful way.

You’ll find that this book is very practical and actionable, which makes decluttering your home an easy process to follow.

This book also shares the mindset behind minimalism and how it is a great way to maintain a clean and organized space while still allowing you to enjoy life.

Why This Book Is Great: A thing I liked about this book is the emphasis on mindfulness throughout the entire process. This mindfulness will help you declutter not just your space but also your mind.

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Outer Order Inner Calm: Declutter And Organize To Make More Room For Happiness- Gretchen Rubin

Outer Order Inner Calm: Declutter and Organize to Make More Room for Happiness is a great book if you’re looking for something that offers a lot of practical tips and advice. It covers decluttering your home, office, technology, finances and even fitness.

The book focuses on changing our habits around belongs as the best route to happiness. We are all seeking to add extra happiness to our lives and the processes are presented in a very non-confrontational way.

I love Gretchen’s books (and have included another of hers in this list below).

She has many other books about finding ways to improve your happiness and they are all great reads!

Why This Book Is Great: The biggest thing you will take away from this book is a list of practical tips and ideas for how to declutter your space. You get that real sense of accomplishment when you actually finish decluttering an area and Gretchen is a great cheerleader for progress.

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Unstuffed: Decluttering Your Home, Mind, and Soul – Ruth Soukup

Unstuffed: Decluttering Your Home, Mind, and Soul is about how you can declutter your life so you are more present in the moment.

Ruth Soukup shares her experiences with not just decluttering her space but also reducing the amount of clutter in her mind and finding peace with living simply.

Ruth is one of the original lifestyle bloggers, at Living Well Spending Less, where she shares much more than decluttering advice. Her website has everything from parenting, cleaning, organising, food and more.

She also has several other best selling books that you might enjoy if you enjoy this one, related to thrifty living and happier home and personal life, including Living Well, Spending Less. I especially love her Do It Scared book.

Why This Book Is Great: This book focuses a lot on decluttering your mind and that is one thing I love the most about it. It explains the many ways that we can clutter our minds with thoughts and worries or by holding onto items that are no longer meaningful to us.

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Real Life Organizing: Clean and Clutter-Free in 15 Minutes a Day – Cassandra Aarssen

Real Life Organizing: Clean and Clutter-Free in 15 Minutes a Day will help you declutter your home with ease.

Cassandra Aarssen shares her journey into being a professional organizer and how she helps people transform their homes into ones that they love because they can maintain them so easily.

This book is great for people who need to see that even messy people can become organised people as long as they have the right tools.

You’ll find that this book has a good mix of decluttering your space and working on yourself mentally, helping you to declutter not just objects but thoughts as well.

I adore listening to Cass speak so it is unfortunate the audiobook version of the book is not read by Cassandra herself, but she also shares incredible advice on her Podcast and Youtube channel – Clutterbug.

Both are great options if you need even more motivation to get organised and free yourself of stuff!

Why This Book Is Great: This book helps you to understand what you are holding onto and why you need it and then helps you make the decision to declutter it or not. It shares from the perspective of someone who still battles with being messy yet has been able to overcome this habit for the most part. Relatable!

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Let It Go: Downsizing Your Way to a Richer, Happier Life – Peter Walsh

Let It Go: Downsizing Your Way to a Richer, Happier Life is also by bestselling author Peter Walsh. This how-to guide is for going through a major home cleanout for yourself or a loved one.

It gives you practical steps to follow in what could otherwise be an overwhelming experience book is about how you can declutter your home and life as well as the lessons you can learn along the way.

You’ll discover how downsizing and living with less will help you find happiness and progress in your life, rather than holding you back.

Peter shares how you can declutter your life by downsizing in all areas rather than just one, which is a great way of helping you find clarity as well.

Peter has several other books in the decluttering niche, including Lighten Up: How to Declutter, Reduce Stress and Live a Happier Life, about how you can declutter your life in creative ways so that you minimize the number of things that you own but still enjoy living in your space.

Why This Book Is Great: This book helps you break down your decluttering goals into smaller objectives so it can make tackling them much more manageable.

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The Happiness Project – Gretchen Rubin

The Happiness Project is a book about how you can change your life and find more joy in doing the things that truly matter.

This is not specifically a book about decluttering, but it does cover the essentials since reducing clutter was part of getting happier. Plus it provides motivation from the perspective of leading a more fulfilling life.

It shares how Gretchen set out on a year-long journey to learn what would make her happy and then turned it into a blog and podcast that has now been read by millions of people around the world.

Why This Book Is Great: If you feel that your life could use an overhaul in all areas and want to start living in the moment, this book is brilliant and highly motivational!

Sometimes our inability to let go of clutter is equally linked to our overall happiness in life so perhaps you’re ready for your own happiness project!

This is one of my favourite books on the list and needed a mention! You could easily reread it every year or two for a fresh dose of inspiration in life and home.

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The Gentle Art Of Swedish Death Cleaning – Margareta Magnusson

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning sounds like some sort of thriller, fiction book, but in fact, it’s a unique approach to becoming clutter-free that works quite the opposite Marie Kondo’s spark joy KonMari approach.

The process uses the Swedish method of Döstädning, literally, ‘death cleaning’. A method of putting your life in order so your loved ones won’t have to after you pass.

Margareta shares from her perspective of an elderly lady living alone in Sweden following the passing of her husband.

She shares her insights on how she prepares for her death and helps her family avoid the stress that can come with managing someone’s estate when they die.

This book helps make the process a lot less stressful for everyone, including those who are living through the experience and anyone that is left behind.

While it may sound like a morbid approach to clearing your unwanted things, for many, the motivation of making things easier for your loved ones can be extremely powerful, no matter your age or health situation!

Why This Book Is Great: The unique perspective and external motivation for this method of decluttering are what makes it such a worthwhile read. If we have learnt anything from Ikea, those from Sweden are quite exceptional about organising and minimal living, so perhaps death cleaning is the approach for you!

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The books mentioned above are just a few of the books about decluttering that will help you get started on your journey to becoming clutter-free.

There are many books about decluttering and books written by minimalists that touch on decluttering, but these books offer incredible insight into how to declutter and make it part of your lifestyle.

The best strategy for a clutter-free home is creating a lifelong habit of assessing and downsizing what you no longer need!

If you want more decluttering tips, inspiration and resources, you will find plenty here.

After all, decluttering certainly does not come easily to me either but it sure is a passion project and a hurdle I’m still overcoming, sharing the journey along the way and the not so secret methods that have worked for me.

I hope one of these best books on decluttering (or a combination of a couple) helps give you the motivation to get into action!

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