WEBVTT - Useful, beautiful, inherited, hopeful

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,

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<v Speaker 1>This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>tip is that when you are decluttering, it is fine

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<v Speaker 1>on the first pass to keep items that you find useful, beautiful, inherited,

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<v Speaker 1>or hopeful. Allowing for all of these categories may keep

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<v Speaker 1>you from getting derailed. Today's tip, like another this week,

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<v Speaker 1>comes from Emily Grovenor's book Find Yourself at Home, a

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<v Speaker 1>conscious approach to shaping your space and your life. Grovenor

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<v Speaker 1>says decluttering is all about making room for change and

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<v Speaker 1>new energies, while also simplifying and making life less stressful.

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<v Speaker 1>She proposes you beautiful, inherited, and hopeful as the categories

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<v Speaker 1>of objects you might want to keep. You can let

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<v Speaker 1>go of objects that don't fit in any of these categories.

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<v Speaker 1>Useful and beautiful are familiar screens. You are not going

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<v Speaker 1>to get rid of a blender if you use it

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<v Speaker 1>every morning to make your smoothie, and you won't give

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<v Speaker 1>away a painting hanging in your living room that you

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<v Speaker 1>find aesthetically pleasing. Unless your space is tight, items that

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<v Speaker 1>are useful or beautiful have a reason to be there.

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<v Speaker 1>I am reminded of the frequently quoted guidance of William Morris,

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<v Speaker 1>a designer from the Arts and Crafts movement. Have nothing

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<v Speaker 1>in your houses that you do not know to be

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<v Speaker 1>useful or believed to be beautiful. If you know something

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<v Speaker 1>is usefuler believe it's beautiful, then keep it. The additional categories, however,

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<v Speaker 1>are less talked about, but I think that if you

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<v Speaker 1>want to make progress decluttering, they are quite helpful For starters.

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<v Speaker 1>It just seems practical to let inherited be a category

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<v Speaker 1>of item you'll be slower to get rid of. You

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<v Speaker 1>are a lot less likely to get rid of something

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<v Speaker 1>with memories that are attached to it. It seems worth

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<v Speaker 1>acknowledging that to speed up the decluttering process. Now, maybe

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<v Speaker 1>if you live in a tiny apartment and you just

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<v Speaker 1>inherited a whole houseful of furniture, you'll need to rethink this.

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<v Speaker 1>But lots of people stop decluttering because they get to

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<v Speaker 1>Grandma's china. Everything gets emotional, and then their energy for

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<v Speaker 1>cleaning things just dissipates. What's left is piles of stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>including things that really could go, but they happen to

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<v Speaker 1>surface after the china, and so there they sit as

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<v Speaker 1>for hopeful. This isn't just about being over prepared. Plenty

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<v Speaker 1>of people keep you can openers even though they just

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<v Speaker 1>use the first one maybe once a week. If you

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<v Speaker 1>don't own any king sized beds, there isn't a whole

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<v Speaker 1>lot of use for king sized bedding. It's unlikely to

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<v Speaker 1>come up in a situation where you can't just figure

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<v Speaker 1>something else out. But hopeful is different. This is about

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<v Speaker 1>visions you have of your life that you hope will

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<v Speaker 1>come true, even if that is not your life right now.

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<v Speaker 1>Maybe you bought knitting needles and beautiful yarn the last

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<v Speaker 1>time you got together with a friend who is an

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<v Speaker 1>enthusiastic knitter, even if you are not knitting now but

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<v Speaker 1>would like to learn how keeping the knitting supplies could

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<v Speaker 1>be an act of hope. It might spark an effort

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<v Speaker 1>to find online videos or a local class where you

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<v Speaker 1>can learn a hobby that gives your friend so much joy.

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<v Speaker 1>Or you might call your friend whenever you see those

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<v Speaker 1>knitting needles and frankly, I think that would be a

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<v Speaker 1>win too. Or maybe you have a set of toy

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<v Speaker 1>blocks that you played with as a kid and you

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<v Speaker 1>would love to have your own kids play with Even

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<v Speaker 1>if you don't have kids now but want to in

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<v Speaker 1>the future, it can be okay to keep the blocks.

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<v Speaker 1>Hope matters, just like being useful or beautiful. The upside

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<v Speaker 1>of expanding the keep category to include the inherited and

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<v Speaker 1>the hopeful is that it removes a lot of the

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<v Speaker 1>emotional pressure from decluttering. Most people are fine with getting

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<v Speaker 1>rid of trash or broken things, or even everyday stuff

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<v Speaker 1>that doesn't get worn. It's the stuff with the memories

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<v Speaker 1>or the stuff that's a story you are trying to

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<v Speaker 1>tell about your life that is complicated, So take that

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<v Speaker 1>out of the equation for now. Maybe eventually you will

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<v Speaker 1>just that Grandma's china needs another home, but keeping it

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<v Speaker 1>for now means you can get rid of all the

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<v Speaker 1>other knickknacks you don't like in your dining room. And

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<v Speaker 1>if that is the case, then keeping it serves a

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<v Speaker 1>very useful, beautiful purpose. In the meantime, This is Laura,

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<v Speaker 1>Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of

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<v Speaker 1>our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've

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<v Speaker 1>got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at

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<v Speaker 1>Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

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<v Speaker 1>production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit

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