Ask ‘Do I Want To Let This In My Life?’ To Save Space For Things That Matter

How much crap in your house do you really need? Do the piles of crap you have add to your happiness, or is it just so much clutter? Keep the important things and stay away from the garbage by asking yourself, “Do I want to let this in my life?”

Photo by Unnar Ýmir Björnsson.

As lifestyle and personal finance site Afford Anything explains, you have a limited amount of everything. Limited time, money and energy. Everything you decide to buy or do takes away from those limited resources. So, before you spend something on a new gadget or commit to some new event, ask yourself if this thing is going to add to your happiness, or if there’s some other reason you’re doing it:

Editing makes us calmer. Happier. And here’s an unintended bonus benefit: when we curate, we also spend less without feeling deprived.

We’re not trying to save money. We’re not being frugal for its own sake. We’re asking the deeper question: “Do I want to let this into my life?” Most of the time, that answer is no. And this creates space for the rare things worthy of yes.

There are plenty of things that we don’t really need or want in our lives that we feel pressured to do anyway. It happens to everyone, so there’s no shame in it, but we can fight back against it. If that new gadget isn’t going to add to your life in a meaningful way, skip it. If you’d rather have a quiet evening in, rather than going out simply because you need to “keep up”, then turn down the invite and save space in your life for the things that matter.

Curate Your Life, and the Rest Will Follow [Afford Anything]