Inside: A Simplified Life book review. Read my honest review of the book A Simplified Life by Emily Ley.
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Emily Ley was one of the very first blogs I devoured when I started to learn about simplicity and minimalism. I read her first book, Grace Not Perfection, after I had my first son and remember reading it while I was pumping at work and thinking this lady totally gets me! I was trying to figure out motherhood while working outside the home and balancing it all with my own self-care. This book made me realize that perfection is not the answer. Simplicity is!
I was super pumped when Emily announced her new book, A Simplified Life: Tactical Tools For Intentional Living, in late 2017. This book is chock full of practical advice and simple tips you can implement and immediately see a difference in how your days look and feel. While Grace Not Perfection is more narrative and inspirational, A Simplified Life is way more practical!
In this book review, I will share a summary of the book, my favorite parts of the book as well as my least favorite parts (only a couple!). I will finish up by sharing a few of my favorite quotes from the book, because, well I love quotes!
Let’s dive right in!
What is A Simplified Life About?
Title: A Simplified Life: Tactical Tools for Intentional Living
Author: Emily Ley
Publication Date: November 21, 2017
Type of Book: Nonfiction
Summary from Amazon:
Clear the Clutter Once and for All
Do you long to simplify the demands on your time, energy, and resources? Have complicated responsibilities, overwhelming to-do lists, and endless clutter left you feeling overwhelmed?
Busy wife, mom, entrepreneur, and bestselling author Emily Ley knows how you feel. With a growing family, increased work demands, and more, she understands the struggle it is to keep the plates spinning.
In A Simplified Life, you’ll find Emily’s strategies, systems, and methods for permanently clearing the clutter, organizing your priorities, and living intentionally in 10 key areas—from your home and meal planning, to style and finances, parenting, faith life, and more. Emily will show you how to truly make the most of your days with realistic, achievable, and tactical tools.
Walk alongside Emily through each page of the book, working through her simple strategies toward your own goals as you simplify and make space for what matters most.
What did I like most about A Simplified Life?
The Writing Style
I loved the writing style of this book. I felt like I was having coffee and chatting with an old friend about what has worked for her. Emily’s personality really shined through in the writing and I felt a connection with her as I was reading.
“A simplified life means that what has to get done will get done. And when we pare down life to its simplest, most beautifully basic parts, were left with room to enjoy each other, to rest, and to truly savor life with all our hearts, minds, and spirits.” -Emily Ley
I like the quote pages sprinkled throughout the book and think they add a nice touch to emphasize a point. I created a few social media graphics from my faves (see below!) that you can feel free to share on your own social media!
Practical Tips and Advice
Like I mentioned in the introduction paragraph above, this book is very practical, which I love. The book touches on just about every topic you’d want to simplify in your life. Topics range from decluttering, your beauty routine, meal planning and developing routines.
Emily does not claim to be a minimalist:
“The goal of simplifying isn’t to embrace bare or sparse or extreme; its to eliminate the distractions so you can focus on what really matters, treasure the possessions you do have, and live life a little easier.” -Emily Ley
Rather, she is focused on getting done what needs to get done in a simpler way, so that there is margin left over to truly savor life.
I plan to keep this book and refer back to the individual sections when I need a little inspiration in a certain area. One of my favorite tips from the book is about simplifying hospitality. She encourages you to think about hospitality in terms of your own family, not just outside visitors. She recommends asking your spouse and children this question: “What makes you feel the most cared for?”
That was a light bulb moment for me! Hospitality is obvious when it comes to other people coming to your house, but I often overlook the people that live right there with me! One big take away for me was to think of a few ways that I can fill up my spouse’s and children’s’ cups on a regular basis.
“Hospitality is really just the way we wrap our people in love and care in the most basic, non-elaborate, meaningful ways.” -Emily Ley
The recipes!
These were honestly a bonus surprise! I am excited to try the lasagna and blueberry pound cake recipes! Yum!
What did I like least about A Simplified Life?
There were honestly not a lot of things that I didn’t like, but this IS a book review so I wanted to mention a couple of things!
The book has journal pages sprinkled throughout the book that were not that helpful for me. For me personally, I think those pages could have been condensed and not lose any value in the book. For some people, those pages might be super helpful, they just weren’t for me.
I mentioned above that Emily covers a LOT of topics in this book. While I think all the topics are relevant and interesting when it comes to simplicity, I do think that it was difficult to go into any great detail about any one topic. Therefore, if you are brand new to simple living you may need to seek additional guidance from other books or resources.
I have read several other books on simple living and minimalism and I was able to take away quite a few nuggets from this book that I plan to implement in my life. I think that there is enough there, that it’s a great book for those at any point in their simple living journey.
My Favorite Quotes from A Simplified Life
I made a couple of my favorite quotes into social media graphics. Please feel free to share these but tag me @idreamofsimple so that I can like your post and say hi!
If you follow Emily’s blog you know she loves pineapples so I had to make one with pineapples. 🙂
Would I recommend A Simplified Life to a friend?
Absolutely! Overall I loved the book! It’s full of practical tips, gorgeous photos and inspirational quotes that will encourage anyone to make changes towards simplicity in their life.
You can also learn more about Emily Ley on her blog here.
Other Posts About Books
10 Popular Books About Simple Living and Minimalism
Soulful Simplicity: Free Book Excerpt
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Have you read A Simplified Life? What did you think?
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2 Comments on A Simplified Life Book Review
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Great review Tara! I really like this one. I didn’t like her first book, it read to me as trying to justify the choices she made and maybe wasn’t truly happy with them? I don’t know, the tone of it just set me on edge. To me this one is a total 180, I like it. The quotes are great, and even though it’s just the basics, I think the basics are important. And overall it’s so pretty that it motivates me every time I see it. I usually care more about minimalism and organization, so this reminds me to care for the other people who come into my home too. I need that!
Thanks, Stephanie! I am glad it was helpful! I enjoyed her first book as well, but I can see where you are coming from. I like this book much more than the first. Like you said, it covers the basics, but the basics are good to build a solid foundation! I agree with taking care of our people! One of the main reasons I strive to simplify my life is to better serve my people. So I agree, this was a great reminder for me to make that a priority and not declutter at the expense of those relationships. Thanks for reading my review and taking the time to leave a comment!