Everything That Remains
Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus · 2014
Everything That Remains (2014) is a book by Joshua Fields Millburn & Ryan Nicodemus on Minimalism & Simple Living. The Minimalists' memoir of leaving six-figure retail careers and dismantling their possessions after grief cracked the illusion open. Part story, part argument that stuff is a stand-in for a life you never chose.
A memoir, not a manual, told in Joshua's first-person voice with Ryan answering back in footnotes, it's the story of two corporate lifers who stripped away the excess to find out what their lives were supposed to be about.
Three of the ideas you’ll keep
The Clif summary of Everything That Remains pulls out 7 insights. Here are the first three.
- Minimalism isn't about the stuff, it's a tool for removing life's excess so you can focus on what's important. The possessions are only the most visible symptom of a deeper misalignment.
- Joshua's mother's death and his marriage ending in the same month became the crack in the facade: the six-figure salary and the big house couldn't buy back either, which exposed what he'd actually been trading his life for.
- The Packing Party, box up everything you own as if moving, then unpack only what you need over three weeks, reveals that roughly 80 percent of what you own is never touched. Most of it stays in the boxes.
The other 4 — and the full 11-minute summary — are in the app.
What’s inside: 9 chapters
The whole summary runs about 11 minutes, read or listened to.
- The Year Everything Broke
- Clearing His Mother's Apartment
- The Packing Party
- The Golden Handcuffs of a Good Salary
- Just-in-Case and the 20/20 Rule
- Minimalism Has No Rules
- Beyond the Closet: Relationships, Work, Health
- The Road Trip and the Life After
- What the Book Asks of You
Finish Everything That Remains tonight.
Read or listen to the full summary in about 11 minutes, then keep the ideas with a minute of review a day. Start with the 2-minute quiz — no card required.
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