On living with fewer, better objects

There is a version of restraint that is really just austerity wearing better clothes. Empty rooms, hard surfaces, nothing to touch. That is not what we are after.

Fewer, but warmer

A room with twelve considered objects feels more generous than one with a hundred arbitrary ones. The twelve can be heavy, worn, expensive, strange. They have room to be looked at.

The test

If you would repair it rather than replace it, it belongs. That single question settles most arguments about what to keep, and it has nothing to do with how much anything cost.