Have you ever moved houses and found yourself wondering how you ended up with all the stuff you own? It’s all too easy to accumulate things and forget that they’re taking up precious space. The New York Times offers a strategy for figuring out what to keep and what has to go.
If you want to pare down the amount of stuff you own — things that take time and effort to maintain — pretend you’re moving houses. New York Times writer Carl Richards says you can “move” everything out of your house or apartment, or do it room by room. For instance, you could move everything from your bedroom to another room, then slowly bring back only the stuff you love, need or truly want.
This takes a lot of effort, but it’s worth it if you really want to simplify your life. You could also accomplish the same thing by simply imagining that you’re packing everything up (rather than actually physically move your objects around) and then getting rid of the stuff you wouldn’t want to pack.
Richards offers other techniques to identify the essentials, such as pretending you’re going on a two-week trip and figuring out how much your stuff costs (an assessment we’ve recommended before).
Three Ways to Figure Out What Stuff You Should Keep [New York Times]
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