I was all up in the Kon Mari thing last year, but these are the questions I ask myself now about stuff:
• Would I buy this again today?
• If I threw this away, would I need to spend money I don’t have right now to replace it with something better?
For me, those are better decluttering questions than “Does this spark joy?” Because if you’re not going through a joyful period, but you’re feeling industrious, you can find yourself in an echoey room with no couch. I may not feel joyful about my couch, but I need to sit down, and I don’t have a spare thousand dollars in my account.
Yes. I’ll sometimes buy subpar things because I need them. Then I just tell myself “Well, if I find the perfect, most beautiful tablespoon measures later, ones that make me feel like dancing in the rain, and I can afford them, I’ll get those and give these to someone else. But tonight I am baking cookies.”
I don’t need less stuff to be happy. I just maybe need to mop more.