Beautiful or useful

[innocent_lex]

Someone this week told me they had a rule about anything that gets to take up space in their house: it must be beautiful or useful, and that means now. In all my years, I've not heard anything as simple as that. There's the "well, I might need it at some point so it goes on the top shelf" rule, or the "if you haven't worn it in a year it goes" rule

Comments

[readerjane]

Yay for uncluttering!

I like the sound of that rule.

It reminds me a bit of an uncluttering... not so much rule as a method: the writer talked about working her way through a room: left to right, top to bottom. Each item had to be categorized as Keep, Give or Throw Away. The key was, she couldn't come back to it later. Once she'd touched something, she had to decide. And if she was giving something away, it had to be as-is, not "after I've cleaned/repaired it."

The "and that means now" clause made me think of her. I think the majority of my clutter is here simply because I can't bring myself to decide.

[innocent_lex]

I like that rule, too. I've had so much trouble getting rid of stuff before when I went through things I hadn't used in ages. The 'ooh, I forgot I had this, it might be useful' urge would be defeated by the 'now' rule.