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"A place for everything and everything in its place."
When my Grandmother's health was in decline and she moved into a long term care facility, the effort it took to deal with her accumulated goods was very stressful and heartbreaking for both her and my Mother. First she moved from her house to an apartment, then to a smaller managed care apartment and then finally into a single room.
At each stage, she had to get rid of a number of items and it was always difficult. When you try to save essentials; pictures and personal documents are an easy choice, but at 86, with most of your intimate friends and family gone, everything you own seems to take on greater importance.
Being forced to shed all of your storied goods and momentos is a lousy way to approach the end of your life.
The sooner you can start paring down the better. You really can't take it with you.
And the next time you see some appealing knick-knack that you want to buy; treat it like a Picasso painting. Realize that you don't have to own it in order to appreciate it.
"A place for everything and everything in its place." may sound preachy, but it's a great motto. If there isn't dedicated shelf space for it, I'm not buying it.
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Building an artificial intelligence that appreciates Mozart is easy. Building an A.I. that appreciates a theme restaurant is the real challenge - Kit Roebuck - Nine Planets Without Intelligent Life
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