There’s a huge difference between a purposefully left empty, to an accidentally bare space. And even though usually my advice is “If you are in doubt of what add to a space, better leave it empty even temporarily”, unless you have arranged for a corner to be vacant, then it will always just look like it misses something. Following my own advice I had left the top of some cabinets completely unattended after we put the TV up on the wall, so today I added a few details to warm up the corner. All the things spark joy as the Japanese minimalist tidying guru Marie Kondo will advise, and indeed, every single thing is something with a little bit of a story behind. Surely it should be like so, even if the idea might sound funny at first, but why would you keep something that you dont like? This has further implications that we should be all thinking at this point, consumerism is at an all time high with devastating ramifications on our planet. At this point we should all be thinking about how to improve efficiency by reducing waste, a notion that has been thought extensively about since the 1900 in Japan. As early as in early 20th century, the “scientific management” methods of Frederick Winslow Taylor took Japan by storm, and it was after World War II and the need for modernization and house management that the “Japanese art of de-cluttering,” as Kondo calls it grew roots. You need only to watch a few episodes of the Netflix hit to get itchy about decluttering as well, but try to apply this as a lifestyle choice, not just as a hit trend. Kondo with all her good intentions does not either deal with the roots of the problem (why did these homes became so cluttered to begin with,) neither do we see any snippets of advice or solution about waste management (where will all the discarded accumulated things will go?). It appears we thank them for their service and then we let them go, but it’s also crucial to solve where does it all go, because at the end it will solve why did it clutter our space to begin with. What I have chosen to do from now and in the future, is to really think about everything that I am buying in regards to waste. It is not just if it makes you happy, after all when we buy something probably it makes us happy even if temporarily,  but how long am I going to use this item? Where will it go when I eventually throw it away? Does it serve a specific purpose or its an impulse purchase? Does it then have good resell value? I am not saying do not ever buy anything again lest the world ends ( in fact there are a lot of news coming out this spring that I am looking forward to) , but thinking  carefully about what we bring in our house and asking a certain number of questions cannot be underestimated in value. 

// Photography and Editing by Katerina Dima