Clutter problems/unable to get rid of stuff

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I try to stick to the guideline designer William Morris laid out -- keep in your home only two categories of object: something that is either useful, or beautiful (to you).

The useful things are self explanatory -- knives, forks, cooking utensils, a chair to sit on, a bed to sleep in etc. Anything you actually use every day and which keeps your life running and makes your physical existence easier, efficient and comfortable.

The beautiful -- that's stuff that makes your spirit happy or comfortable. Pictures on the wall, an ornament you do really love to look at on its shelf and which makes the place more lovely, the decorative pillow that you really like and adds a touch of style to your couch, or even the teddy bear you feel sentiment for and like to keep on your bed -- all of that stuff has a genuine place in life IF -- and it's an "if" you have to be sure about -- IF it truly moves your heart or makes life more pleasant when your eye falls upon it.

So for "useful" -- if it's, for example, a container or a pan or an item of clothing or a doo-dadd you actually use daily or weekly or seasonally, it stays. If it's something you keep thinking you might use it but you never do, toss it out.

For "beautiful" -- if it's something that enhances the look of your living space, or something that you love to see around you, even if it has no practical "use" like a pan or a plate or a shoe, there's no need to deprive yourself of those things.

But that's where you have to get tough -- if you only really feel joy when you look at two out of the six pictures hanging on your wall -- toss those four pictures that don't do anything for you.

If you have a box of ten toys of your children that you keep for sentimental reasons (beautiful to your heart), pick out ONE or at most two of the most sentimental, keep those if you're a person who does like keepsakes, and toss the rest of donate or sell etc.

Some people don't need keepsakes for sentimentality's sake at all. But some people, I think, do feel like it enriches their fond memories of things if they have a physical item associated, that they can get out and relive, I'm one of those people, so I allow myself "memento" boxes I store under my bed. It never gets out of hand as the mementos of things are usually small, sometime just concert tickets or a newspaper article. I do have some things from my childhood and I'm glad. I got rid of a lot of stuff a few years ago, and while it was a good purge of things I really didn't care about, I was TOO forceful and I still regret a handful of things I really wish I'd kept. For my SOUL. I connect to objects, though, and some people don't.

If you know you can be sentimental, be sure to keep some things that mean something to you. I really don't think it's necessary to completely purge oneself of "unnecessary" objects if you are a sentimental person who gets joy out of having something physical that ties into a memory. The joy of that is as "useful" to your happiness and well being as the usefulness of chairs and forks and cups and clothes.

Just apply the "do I actually USE it?" for the practical items, and "Does my heart leap with joy for this item?" for everything else.

Yes, if there's something that belonged to your grandmother or anyone else you love and particularly those who are no longer living, I think it's especially in danger of causing regret if you get rid of that item.

Things like that are worthwhile holding onto and not considering as clutter; they are loved things you cherish because you cherished that person.

Again on the other hand, there are some people who don't feel that way about objects and would say "I don't need that item to remember my loved one." That may work well for them.

But if you're not that type of person, keeping that item will cause more joy than trouble, and getting rid of it will cause more sadness than joy -- I'm that way too.