The Case for Owning Less

This is not minimalism as an aesthetic. It is the plain relief of having fewer things to manage, dust, and quietly resent.

Every object you own asks something of you — a little attention, a little space, a little maintenance. A houseful of things is a houseful of small, unpaid obligations.

I did not empty my home. I just stopped adding to it, and slowly let go of the things that were there out of habit rather than love.

The best things in a home are not things. They rarely ever were.

What is left has room to breathe now, and so, it turns out, do I. The house feels larger. Nothing was added. A great deal was simply let go.