Material possessions: the more you own, the more they own you. – H.I. Phillips (1889–1965)

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

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