I have to admit, this is a well decorated and nicely furnished living room. It has all the right things. Matching accent tables which are not accompanied with a coaster so don’t even think about setting your glass on either of them. Companion chairs styled and displayed in such a way as to appear they have never been used to discourage any seating. And the ever so popular room divider used to discreetly hide behind while changing one’s clothes.

Don’t get me wrong, even though I may sound a little sarcastic in my interpretation of this room, I personally think it is nicely done. In fact, many years ago my living room looked very much the same. I spent a lot of money on furniture, artwork and fillers to prepare a room for the correct look.

For me however, I no longer have the need, nor the desire, to create and maintain such a room. There’s a lot of dusting and cleaning that goes along with that room. Sparse and open is a nice décor.

What I’ve found though, is that the overwhelming majority of people seem to require the room as it is pictured above. I’ve had to say “Thanks But No Thanks” on many occasions when helping someone move. They will insist I take the chair, or table, or piece of artwork they no longer need.

Really, you need this table…you don’t have one…

Really, I don’t need it…thanks but no thanks…

Try it out and see what you think. Pick a room that no one really sees anyway, like maybe your bedroom. Take some time and purge it down to just the things you really need, or enjoy. You might just find that you now have more time to do other activities since you no longer have so many items you need to keep clean and organized.