A place for everything and everything in its place. – Old saying, circa early 1600s

There is hardly a place where, in the course of a year, some things are not purchased and never used, and where spring cleaning does not unearth them. Spring is the time when the good housewife puts all doubtful things into the trash barrel. – E.F. White, “Spring Soda Fountain Thoughts,” 1908 [a little altered —t&#94

Do other people, I wonder, find the same keen pleasure that I do in periodically undertaking a pilgrimage all over the house to wage a war of extermination upon its accumulations of rubbish? – Chiffon, “The Woman of To‑Day,” To‑Day, 1898 January 15th #declutter

We lack the fine-line tuning that enables us to find the wise place between too little and too much. – Ken Keyes, How to Enjoy Your Life in Spite of it All, 1980