My friend Trina, over at What She Shovels, recently wrote a great post on the topic of keeping in your home only those things that are useful or beautiful. I'd already read the same post Trina did to inspire her writing, but didn't have the same takeaway at the time. Instead, I read it as Yet Another Blog Telling Me How To Declutter. With a fresh perspective - we'll call it The Useful and Beautiful Standard - I'm looking at the things in my house, and in my life, in a different light.
Now, I just have to train my packratty self to be decisive about whether something is Useful NOW, and not whether it MIGHT be Useful in the FUTURE. Hanging onto "just in case" things has netted me a whole lot of clutter and annoyance, and crowded out the Beautiful. It's long past time to rid myself of a lot of Stuff. Wish me luck!