[10][11] A reporter for the Birmingham News called them "the embodiment of upwardly mobile, busy, fashionable, unhealthy, wasteful young professionals.

That spring they were joined by several authors from Asymmetrical Press, as well as the musician Skye Steele, for their "Wordtasting Tour," visiting 42 cities across the western United States and Canada.

[39] At the end of the year, they started The Minimalists Podcast, an audio and video show in which they discuss minimalism, decluttering, and simple living.

[19] On the podcast, Millburn and Nicodemus bring a guest into their studio to answer audience questions and to discuss "what it means to live a meaningful life with less."

Previous guests include 2020 United States presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, actress Jennette McCurdy, former megachurch pastor Rob Bell, writer Glennon Doyle, columnist Dan Savage, and scientist Andrew McAfee, among others.

Before its theatrical release, the Minimalists visited fourteen U.S. and Canadian cities on their "Documentary Tour" to premiere the film with live audiences.

[47] In 2018, Millburn and Nicodemus traveled to the U.S. South with a team of financial experts from Ramsey Solutions for their “Simply Southern Tour,” the theme of which was “money and minimalism.”[48] In 2019, production began on their second feature-length film, The Minimalists: Less Is Now, also directed by D'Avella.

The documentary was released worldwide by Netflix on January 1, 2021, and features interviews with radio host Dave Ramsey, Greenpeace USA’s executive director Annie Leonard, pastor and futurist Erwin McManus, and others.

In 2020, the Minimalists finished writing their fourth book, Love People, Use Things: Because the Opposite Never Works, a relationship book that was written to “move past simple decluttering [and] show how minimalism makes room to reevaluate and heal the seven essential relationships in our lives.” Love People, Use Things was published on July 13, 2021, by Celadon (Macmillan Publishers Ltd) in the United States and Canada, and Hachette in the United Kingdom and Australia.

[49][50] In January 2021, The Today Show selected Less Is Now for “Hoda and Jenna’s Documentary of the Month Club.”[51] In 2022, The Minimalists: Less Is Now, was nominated for a Daytime Emmy award for “Outstanding Directing Team for a Single Camera Daytime Nonfiction Program.”[52] That same year, the Minimalists completed their 20-city Love People, Use Things book tour in North America.

"People who are poor have no choice but to get by with less....Indeed, images of curated spaces on Pinterest showing off white bedspreads and sparse furniture suggest that minimalism can become just another version of keeping up with the Joneses.

"[75] Jillian Steinhauer, in New Republic, opined that the Minimalists overlook systemic causes of consumerism, writing, "Millburn and Nicodemus's 2016 film Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things combines footage of people storming big-box stores for sales with social scientists talking about how advertising drives us to consume, but the word 'capitalism' is never uttered during its 78 minutes.

Instead of digging into systemic problems like poverty or exploring ideas of wealth redistribution, the film frames having less as an individual, moral choice with no political strings or implications.

"[76] Another Globe and Mail article, "Consumerism Is Good for the Soul," by Margaret Wente, outlines what she perceives as the Minimalists' hypocrisy: "[Millburn] bought a lot of stuff, but it didn't make him happy.

So he ditched his job, his house, his car and his wife and moved to a cabin in Montana with his best friend, Ryan, who was also sick and tired of empty material success.

"[77] In an article titled "Your 'Minimalist' Lifestyle Is Quasi-Religious Anti-Poor Bullshit," Vice (magazine) condemned the Minimalists as "glowing examples of asceticism-as-solution," ascribing "deeply religious" motives to their movement and noting that they "just happen to be close friends with evangelical legend Rob Bell."

"[78] Alongside Sarah and Joshua Weaver, Millburn and Nicodemus opened Bandit Coffee Co., a coffeehouse and cafe in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2016.

During that decade, they built two orphanages, provided relief to the victims of Hurricane Harvey, supported the survivors of the Orlando and Las Vegas mass shootings, funded a high school for a year in Kenya, installed clean-water wells in three countries, constructed an elementary school in Laos, and purchased thousands of mosquito nets to fight malaria in Africa.

[49] In 2020, they raised money to help build Gem City Market, a nonprofit grocery co-op in their hometown, Dayton, Ohio, which has one of the largest food deserts in the United States.