1KHO 633: When Your Stuff Steals Your Joy | Joshua Becker, The More of Less

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Parenting, Kids & Family

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 27 November 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When Joshua Becker looked up from a garage packed with stuff and saw his five-year-old swinging alone in the backyard, everything changed. In this lively, hopeful conversation, Joshua joins Ginny to share how one offhand comment from a neighbor launched his journey into minimalism, and eventually his global platform, Becoming Minimalist. They talk about how our possessions don’t just fail to make us happy; they actually pull us away from the very things that do bring us joy: time with our kids, meaningful work, time outside, community, and faith. Joshua shares his favorite “29-day experiments,” from hand-washing dishes to owning just 33 items of clothing, and shows how small, playful trials can reset our habits and free up time, money, and energy for what matters most. Ginny and Joshua also dig into the deeper forces shaping our cluttered lives: targeted advertising, influencer culture, generational fears about security, and the endless, shifting dollar amount we think will finally make us “safe.” They explore why retirement as pure leisure doesn’t show up in Scripture, why relationships are a better safety net than underground bunkers and overstuffed basements, and how comparison so often focuses on cars and clothes instead of character and generosity. Joshua shares about his nonprofit, The Hope Effect, which helps children move from institutional orphanages into families, and offers a sneak peek at his upcoming book Uncluttered Faith. The episode wraps with a sweet childhood memory of backyard wiffle ball, and an invitation to all of us to experiment with owning less so we can live, love, and play more, especially outdoors. Get your copy of The More Of Less Preorder your copy of Uncluttered Faith Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why are businesses like HelloVet choosing Apple products and services?
0:05.0	So we started the business two years ago.
0:07.0	We had a few people who were used to PCs and this was their first foray into Macs.
0:12.0	But it's been super smooth getting everyone onto those devices and everyone seems really, really happy.
0:18.0	Find out how Mac can help you run and grow your business at apple.com forward slash
0:23.6	HelloVet.
0:26.2	Okay, here we go.
0:27.3	Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast.
0:29.2	My name is Ginny Urich.
0:30.2	I'm the founder of 1,000 hours outside and you'll never believe who's here.
0:33.4	Actually, you probably know because you might have seen it in the title, but it's Joshua Becker.
0:39.3	Welcome. You are amazing and I'm already excited.
0:43.3	Okay, so I've been following for so long. Also, I'm not good at minimalism, but I am planning on being, and I threw out four shirts.
0:51.3	So I read your book and I was like, this is a good step. I'm gonna tell you what I have.
0:54.9	So in my closet, I have got these shirts. Well, I'm not really good at dressing. So that's the first part. And so when I first started, I would speak at conferences, mainly about homeschooling. I was like, oh, I don't know what to wear. So I got these, we call them wraps. I'm not quite sure, but it's like a long, flowy over thing that you wear over Tinktop.
1:12.3	Anyway, then I get sweaty and I've ruined a bunch of them. we call them wraps. I'm not quite sure, but it's like a long, flowy over thing that you wear
1:11.2	over tink top. Anyway, then I get sweaty and I've ruined a bunch of them. They've got like armpit stains. But I, this is so dumb. So then I thought, okay, but they're comfortable. Like they're comfortable and they're like cotton. So I was like, well, if I go camping, this would be like a great thing to bring along,
1:27.9	you know, it gets chilly, and I'll put on this wrap, and it's already ruined. So if it gets
1:32.0	messy, so I've literally kept them, and we've never gone camping. Like, not a really long time,
1:39.5	because he outgrew our camper. So anyways, I threw them out. Well, I read your book and I threw them out.
1:45.3	You are. You are well on your way then. You are well on your way. Okay, this is also fair. How did it feel? How did it feel to get rid of them? It felt great because I was like, well, I mean, it was good. It was good. But you talk about how the whole process, it just helps you to think through things a little bit more and a little bit more deeply. So we're going to talk about that. Embarrassingly, I also have all your books. Wow. I was like, maybe this is kind of silly. But I do like books, and we do have a good system of our books. So, and this is actually part of my job is to read books. So I have got the more of less,
2:19.8	which is the one we're going to talk about mainly today, living with less, the minimalist
	...

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