STYLE Savvy: Random Rules

Lisa Hess considers the importance of being strategic when we decide what to keep and what to dump or donate as we organize.

I’ve been using a book of prompts for my morning journaling and one day last week, I chose one that said, “If you had to delete all but three pictures from your phone, which three would you keep?“  

I spent only a few seconds considering the question before I quickly decided that I couldn’t do this and, more importantly, why should I? What would be the purpose of cutting all my photos down to three? Sure, I could get rid of all those random shots of my feet that I took by accident, the clothing I already posted on Poshmark, and books I took pictures of so I wouldn’t forget the titles when I was making my list of books to reserve at the library. That all makes sense.  

But what of the rest? Which friends would I cut? Which family photo would rise above all the rest? Which vacation photos from trips I may never take again should I drag into the virtual trashcan? 

Organizing is strategic

You may be wondering why I chose this prompt at all if I were going to be combative about the whole thing. But I’m not being combative. I’m being strategic.   

And, whether it’s photos, or clothes, or papers, or something else entirely, this is what we do when we organize. We don’t set random rules about how many of one thing we can have. We consider the limits set by space, hygiene, and common sense — and after that, it comes down to personal preference.   

And personal preference changes over time. Things that seemed impossible to part with five years ago might easily make the cut now. Items we keep when space is no object might make be easy to eliminate when we’re downsizing.  

When it comes to organizing, what you keep and what you don’t keep is entirely up to you. Why should we make deep cuts if we neither have to nor want to? 

Small steps might be enough

I’m certainly not advocating keeping every scrap of paper or item of clothing that makes its way into your home. But so often when we organize, we think we need to be ruthless when really, we don’t. At least not most of the time. There are, admittedly, life situations that call for us to make the deep cuts. But, when it comes to day-to-day organizing, small steps are often enough to keep clutter under control.  

Organizing is a process. If you don’t get rid of it today, maybe you’ll get rid of it tomorrow. Or maybe you won’t.  

And maybe there’s no reason to get rid of it at all. 

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Copyright 2024 Lisa Hess
Images: Canva