I am currently conducting a sizeable purge of my life.

I am dividing everything I own into three piles.

1) This item is useful, or contains useful information.
2) This item is not useful, but simply owning it brings me pleasure on at least a monthly basis, and the item is not larger than quite a small breadbox.
3) This item is not useful and is not small, and should be binned.

(Definition of “useful” is not limited to the strictly practical, and includes entertainment value – books, CDs and DVDs and similar are automatically “useful” as long they’re good.)

You would be amazed at the amount of stuff I have acquired that this does not cover. In future, I shall refer to this simple series of questions when evaluating whether or not I need to own something:

“Is it useful? Is it funny? Does it cause Is it larger than a breadbox?”