This is a question that weighs my mind often. I will soon need to downsize somewhat and even now I have more "things" than I have places to put it neatly.

The old adage for clothes probably works for objects, as well - if you don't use it within a year (or appropriate season), toss it!

That being said, there are some things that I use infrequently (like extra blankets, or cupcake trays), but when I need them, it's very handy having them around. Just depends on your lifestyle, I suppose.

Sentiment, at least for me, plays a part (those grandmother's silver spoons of yours, for example). I know AT talks about downsizing with taking a photo, or keeping just one, or displaying as artwork, but I too have more of these types of things than I use but somehow can't part with.

I've been thinking about this a lot. We have a second home - a flat. Our 'first' home is a big rambling affair with way too much stuff in it. The flat is small and we have exactly what we need and nothing more. When we need something, and by 'need' I mean we decide after some thought that it would actually improve our life, we buy it. But we never buy anything we don't actually need, no matter how lovely, or intriguing or what a great deal it is.

I always come home intending to get rid of stuff but once I'm home it's hard. I have cleared out a lot, but I bump into a wall of sentiment - that teapot which I never use was my grandmother's; that little misshapen bowl was made by one of my children at summer camp.

And then there are the books....

We don't wash dishes by hand very often, so yeah, we go through most of them at least once. But we do have a bunch of kitchen gadgets that aren't used. Again, because I don't like to wash dishes, so sometimes using a knife is preferred over a garlic press, just because it's easy to wipe down.

psst: otherwise it's because it belongs to my S.O, and I'm not going to just toss out things that aren't mine. :(

for me at least, it's 1 part sentiment, 1 part survivalist and 1 part designer.

i keep things around only if they have meaning, i feel that someday (in case of a zombiepocalypse, perhaps) that i couldn't live without it, or if it just looks pretty.

Too funny. I thought I was the only one that relied on a single, favorite spoon. It's one that I picked up at a vintage store. I used to have several, but lost the others somewhere along the way. It's more of a soup spoon shape and I like it for cereal and soup. For ice cream, I'll use a any old tea spoon, though.

Every time I travel and live out of a suitcase in a hotel room I really strt thinking about what I need. I mentioned to my husband that it would be more conmvenient to have only the 4 place settings that we need each night, wash and reset the table with them, but I think he thinks I am losing it. Considering that we ll fight over one random teaspoon and still have piles of flatware (though I think we through it out accidentally), I think there is a line to deal with these sorts of things, but I am bad at lines!

I'm in the middle. I use ALL the things, but I love it when I use my favorite things. I have this one soup bowl. It feels like my soup tastes better, as long as I eat it out of that one bowl. But I still use all the others (dishwasher)

When it comes to gifts, I don't keep it unless A: I use it, B: it's antique, or super irreplacable. I don't think I would hang onto a chipped bowl my grandmother gave me unless I used it or it was antique and brought over w/ the great greats.

As far as dishes and utensils go, as a single person a set of 4 place settings was ok - before I had a dishwasher. Now I need 8 place settings or I'll end up running the dishwasher half empty if I eat cereal and a bowl of soup 2 days in a row. Plus, sometimes you do have more than 3 people over for dinner...

A few years ago I moved and had a sale and was amazed at the amount of clothing I was selling off. I had enough t-shirts and tank tops to wear a different one every day for a year. You just don't think about it when they're on $9 sale at Banana Republic or Ann Taylor or whatever. I've since stopped doing that.
I have a ton of books. I'm a book person. I love having them around, reminding me of what I've read and what I've yet to read. Of course, this necessitates lots of bookshelves and bookcases to store them in - but it's decor, right?

What I own too much of and should do something about are sheets, towels and blankets. I change the color scheme of my bedroom or bathroom but always hang on to the old textiles, because they weren't necessarily cheap, and I always think I might need use them again, the next time I change things up. If the towels get stained or threadbare I donate them to an animal shelter, they're always in need. But I can't seem to let those blankets go.

We try to use all our stuff--if we don't we get rid of it. So, while we do have a fair number of dishes, we cycle through them. And I have been ruthless the last few years getting rid of cooking tools I don't use. On the other hand, we have six sets of tongs and often use all of them over a couple of days--so they stay.

I have a collection of high-end knives I've either bought or received over the years, but the one I reach for Every Single Time is from a set of 'chef' knives and pots/pans I bought out of the back of a van in 1980 for grand total of $20. The wood handle is split along the grommets but it sharpens to a razor and cuts tomatoes like butter. Go figure.

With dishes, I don't think there is a favorite - whatever one is on top works - same with kitchen utensils, silverware, cups, etc.

@ChrisGal- Indeed. I have "sets", so there's no differentiation between any of them. I use the clean ones. Those are my favorite. LOL!

As for every other item, I feel like I am constantly trying to purge my closets and cabinets to the "basics" and "most loved" items. But I have come to appreciate that purging to a state of simplicity that the rest of your life can't accomodate isn't smart, either. Who wants to have to buy new towels when guest come or new panties on an off washing week because you otherwise only "need" 2 sets, or 10 pair?

I inherited a set of pink willow transferware, the marks date back to the turn of the century. Not all of it is that old, but most of it. I have service for 18. You think I'm kidding? =p I'm one person! Still, I love the stuff and I fondle silver(/plated) serving accessories in flea markets and such. But I never buy any because, well, I still don't even use the pink willow!

I'm w/ Chrisgal -

With sets of dishes, flatware, glassware, etc there are no favorites...

The idea of concerning oneself with where the "favorite" spoon, bowl, etc is, if it's clean, who used it last: That's just too much effort, and rather OCD.

I used to have 2 spoons, forks, and knives, 1 plate and bowl. Life was simple. Then I started inviting people over and realized that I needed more stuff. I ran to Salvation Army and snagged some pretty great dishes & utensils. When I'm not entertaining, I use my original line-up of dishes.

I guess I could keep a supply of paper products & get rid of the dishes I don't really use, but I wouldn't want to serve my culinary masterpieces on paper plates.

As long as I have space for all of these extra dishes & I will use them at some point, I feel its okay to keep them.

I have a service for 8, and while we rarely use all of the dishes at once, all of them are certainly used. I hardly consider being able to serve 8 people wasteful, or share the sentiment that it's "too much stuff."

Now on the other hand, if I had multiple dinner services, or holiday ware, it would drive me nuts with it's limited use.

I like the old have nothing you dont know to be useful or believe to be beautiful line.
But books don't count.

It seems to be a human condition to have/want too much stuff. Ever notice how many homeless folk have overflowing carts of belongings?

On the subject of utensils, can someone please explain to me the need for the smaller sized "salad" fork? Even though I have a lot of them, I don't use them. (And they take up valuable kitchen drawer space).

When setting a table, I tend to grab two regular sized forks and one knife for each person.

MsDonnaGirl - Agreed with everything you say. I'd rather have a few extra towels (or pairs of underwear) so I'm not buying new just for vacation or asking a guest to use the same towel I am in some people would say having more than one towel is unncessary.

JulieLeanna - Agreed. I only have a service for six (which with a dining table that is literally just big enough for four) seems overkill, but it seems nice when I don't have to wash and reuse the same plate for all my meals in a day. I'd rather be able to grab a different one.

David - If you can figure that out, let me know. I decided to buy all my silverware separate - two sets of six dinner forks, then one set of six of each teaspoon, tablespoon, and dinner knife.

I have actually been working at this. I would say:

1. don't focus on a few precious items, what tends to take up space is everything that's not precious or a favorite.
2. everything is NOT precious. I have some lovely sentimental items i love and would never get rid of, but generally I have tried to evolve to getting rid of things I don't need and letting go of the notion that my happiness is tied to all this stuff i have.
3. having too much stuff minimizes the impact and use of the really great stuff you have
4. if I am never going to use something, even if I think it's great, I try to give it to someone or donate it so someone else can get use out of it. I think that really honors a useful item. I've done this with books, shoes, dishes, movies, clothes, purses.
5. if you have a bunch of entertaining items...then entertain, or get rid of them. I think sometimes we acquire things based on the type of life we would LIKE to have, not what we actually do every day. Don't buy things for a pretend life you don't have. I always have these aspirations of going to the gym, running, working out if only i had the perfect sportswatch, running shoes, etc. Now I try not to buy a bunch of items related to a hobby or task until I KNOW I will committ.

Whenever I look at the AT images of house tours, it's not the must-have, designer-cliche furniture that draws my eye but those things that make a place a home - the hand-me-down crocks, the favourite toy, the handmade gift etc. Without these, many of those homes featured would look like nothing more than showrooms, albeit 'stylish' ones!!

I have a big house and it's easy for me to store things that I might use once a year (or less often) but I hardly ever need to buy anything, because I've got everything I need (and most of it has come from thrift stores or tag sales).

I don't have a favorite spoon or plate, but I do have a lovely set of Bavarian porcelain plates and nice old silver (all second hand) that allows me to have a sit down dinner for 18 with matching stuff -- I do entertain like that a few times a year, so it's nice to know I've got the goods to make it happen, and they're not taking up too much room.

I've also lived in studio apartments, where the amount of stuff I have now would been impossible. I think the space I'm in influences my possessions. And I typically sell or donate everything I own and start from scratch when I move to a new place, so that I don't feel too tied to the material goods around me.

I am having a Garage Sale today to get rid of all the "extra stuff", - that I don't use, that aren't my favorites, ...lots of inherited hand me downs that I was somehow afraid to let go of. I still agonized a bit over the folk art pottery and rugs, even though they aren't my style. And my Mom's paintings..that's a whole issue right there - I have my favorites, but I can't sell Mom's paintings in a garage sale, can I ?

I hate cleaning my house. However I like my place to be clean so I try and find ways to cheat myself into thinking cleaning is not that bad. I only have one type of dishes. They are white and plain and I use them for both fancy and everyday so an extra set will not take up space. If I want to make the table more festive I use coloured napkins or flowers to sprouse it up. I have placesettings enough for 12 but for everyday the magic number is 4. A placesetting for me, one for my roommate and an ekstra one for a guest for each of us. The rest of the dishes and cutlery is stored in my little storageroom in the basement. I can still get to them easily but not more than if I had no clean dishes I would wash them rather than go get clean one from the basement. If I had them in the cupboard I would use all of them before doing the dishes and then I would find it a daunting task to tackle a pile of dishes that big. Now the pile never becomes insurmountable because there just are not enough dishes for that.

When I first moved into my first apartment, my roommate already had all the dishes, silverware and pots & pans. I brought my favorite cereal bowl (Frosted Flakes logo on the side) and mug (Campbells kids), and bought a new sauce pan and large fry pan with lid. Now I live in shared housing and the kitchen is used by 7 other people, but those are the items I use daily and hand wash after use. I freak out a little if they're not in the cupboard or hanging on the pot rack when I want to use them.

love this post. photographing what you actually use is such a cool way to document things, and then make changes. paring down is my favorite thing to do--it feels so good to get rid of things!

joydreamz: i didn't start running until, one day, i was given a pair of customized n**e air max with my name on them. 2 months later, i ran a 5k. for me, the outfit is part of the motivation.

@ babyfishmouth - I thought my friends and myself were the only ones that used that 'word' (babyfishmouth)!. Love that movie and named my cats Harry & Sally. "But baby fishmouth is sweeping the nation!" from When Harry met Sally.

I agree with QueenoftheFall - I have favorites amongst my stuff, but I use everything, especially because I don't like to do dishes that often. There are certain spoons and forks that I like best and certain bowls and plates as well. Same for my partner (who gratefully usually has a different favorite than mine).

Also, I do think its useful to have extra on hand for company - I actually just got an invite to someone's bday party that says bring your own utensils, plate, and cup! This kind of thing annoys the hell out of me. I don't want to have to transport my kitchen items around town just to visit someone's place.

I do that with cooking utensils and coffee cups, mainly. I have favorite coffee mugs for each purpose (coffee, tea, melting butter, ice cream, cereal). I also favor one particular wooden spoon, whisk, and spatula over the others.

Yeah... I don't need a cherry pitter or an egg cozy or a zester. But I do have company once in a while, and having a set of plates that isn't chipped and cracked and covered with hard water stains is more or less "necessary" on those occasions. I went to Wal-Mart and just bought plain white cheapo plates. They look pretty on the table. I keep them tucked up so I have nice plates, but I eat off any old mismatched ones I've collected over my life of apartments and houses.

I too inherited sterling silver flatware. But I bought the gumbo soup spoons and bread and butter knives in the pattern, and those are my favorite pieces. The gumbo spoons have a huge deep oval well, and the knives are very small. They look like Mutt and Jeff, but they, along with the new cocktail forks I bought, are my favorite pieces. Go figure. Tiny little forks and knives, and enormous spoons. Freud would have a ball with that.

"can someone please explain to me the need for the smaller sized "salad" fork?"

Salad forks are smaller since Salad leaves are generally easy to spear and you're not using it to hold meat or potatoes for cutting, nor are you scooping up little veggies such as peas. It's also more visually pleasing to have a smaller fork resting to the outside of the dinner fork - and it's easier to identify which fork to use for which course.

BTW - You can also use your salad forks for desserts such as cake & pie.

Since arriving in Hong Kong with nothing more than a suitacase of clothes 10 years ago, I have had the opportunity to 'curate' what I own from scratch. I don't hold with excess consumption and for me, living luxuriously is having very beautiful everyday items that make my everyday life feel 5-star special - not masses of surplus crap that adds nothing to my life other than the stress of taking up space.

So I have one very carefully chosen set of 4 drinking glasses, one set of 4 carefully considered bowls, plates etc, 2 superb pans...you get the idea. For linens, it's always 3 sets: one in use, one in the wash, and one in the cupboard - I don't need any more.

RE: the need for salad forks. I think these date back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and the creation of the middle classes, as do fish forks, ice cream forks, three types of soup spoons, round, oval, and gumbo, and other very specialized pieces.

The aristocrats were appalled at the nouveau riche, and their ability to buy what the old rich had always had. So they instructed the silver smiths to make new specialized pieces that served two purposes. First, the newly rich couldn't afford more than the basics, and second, they had no idea what to do with the new strange flatware. It bought great amusement to the old rich, and provided much needed separation between the classes, in the view of the aristocrasts.

What was my useless college major?

Im in the midst of a move from DC to SF, and transitioning from a 4 BR house to a 1 BR apt. I'm beyond excited about getting right of my stuff, but now that I'm living out of boxes its hard to imagine. Yesterday I packed the kitchen and everything except one pan, and one place setting.

I have some furniture and lamps I would love to bring but its just not practical. I feel wasteful for throwing things out but I am donating tons to Sal Army, Goodwill, and a local group, which helps. Still, my family is making it hard to actually get rid of things--they want to either take what we have or store it for us until later, and my MIL actually cried because she "gets so emotional over stuff."

Its been a strange trip to prep for this move and my consumerism has actually made it harder in the long run. But this rambling comment has given me a place to vent and I already feel better... thanks :)

I was a war correspondent, and every time I came back (from living out of a tiny bag for one or two months; my large one reserved for body armor, helmet and equipment) I was absolutely assaulted by how much stuff I have in my house. I was a little crazy after every trip. My last trip I was extra special crazy. I decided that I didn't need a STAIRWAY railing that I felt was too visually busy (it's not) so I unscrewed it from the floor and threw this 8 foot railing and balustrades over my shoulder and decided to carry it out ot my backyard, in the rain.
Next thing I know I've slipped down the wet stairs, and my back has a gash in it -- right near my lungs -- from a little metal shiv that had been affixed to said railing to better secure it to the next flight of stairs up which I sort of knew about but not really, not its weapon-like potential.
As I lay blinking up at the rain, bleeding and wet and tangled up in wood I thought: damn. I'm crazy.
I am undertaking a major redecorating -- old couch out, new couch in, old dining table upstairs, new table and somehow the 26 dining chairs I have accumulated over the last 4 months will be in. So I am thinking it is time for a yard sale in which I get rid of everything -EVERYTHING -- I don't need and that doesn't contribute to my aesthetic vision. It's going to be taxing but I think it will set me a little bit free (the stair railing, which keeps me from falling down a floor, is staying). The end.
pam h
howtorunyourlife.blogspot.com

When my husband and I got married we asked everyone to give us 'nothing' as Wedding presents, we had everything we needed. One or two people ignored this and because of it we've got weird Gothic Martini Glasses we don't like!!

On the heirloom front, I inherited af few things of my Gran's (no one wanted them at the time) and since then my sister said she'd have liked something of hers, now that she has her own home, I gave her Grans beaten copper mirror. So what I'm saying is, family heirlooms are easier to let go of if it's to other family members, they'll treasure it as much as you.

I have a favorite spoon too, but I only use it for my Orange Cafe instant coffee for breakfast... It's a pretty sterling thing, and it makes me smile in the morning.

My problem is bowls. I love bowls, so many of them are so beautifully designed, especially Japanese ones. I have far too many and I have a hard time parting with them. Same problem with vases -- many are lovely sculptures. But I rarely use either little Japanese bowls OR vases. (When I need the storage space for something more critical, I will probably force myself to take action.)

The other issue is those kitchen things I only need rarely, but that I do NOT want to be without when I need them. Like the springform pan for cheesecake that I maybe make once a year. If that. There are a number of gadgets and appliances in that category. Again, they stay until I MUST reallocate the storage.

What I wonder, though, is what people who shop for holiday dishes at Home Goods, for example, DO with them! I was there today, and they were offering at least five or ten Christmas themed LINES of dishes (table dishes, platters, serving pieces, etc.) with snowmen, holly, Christmas trees, you name it. Also they still have out several designs of Halloween dishes and Thanksgiving dishes. You name a holiday, they have special dishes for it. Where to people PUT them!!?? I can't store "good" dishes and "everyday" dishes -- let alone Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, etc. etc. dishes!

my new year's resolution this year was to not buy a book until i had read all the books i had. i have accumulated hundreds of books since i first moved out on my own and, i'm ashamed to admit, at least half of them i hadn't yet read. i was great about getting rid of books after i had read them (unless they were especially beloved), but i was always bringing more in.

i haven't bought any books this year, and i've read books that i had bought years ago and never touched. this little project has pushed me in directions i likely wouldn't have gone otherwise. i really like the idea of using everything i have in my house, and i had always been fairly good about it EXCEPT for with my books.