Over-crowded, tightly packed, no breathing room-like sardines in a can. Poor sardines don’t get any say in the matter- if they did, they’d not be in a can to begin with. But a can with some room to wiggle and breathe would be better than the alternative.
Imagine sardines are proxies for your possessions. Do your things live in over-crowded, tightly packed conditions? Do you have so much stuff that your house feels over-stuffed? Just like sardines and humans, your things need some breathing room. Having some voids, some empty space makes everything else better.
Remember the Rules. Fewer things, better things. If everything is precious, then nothing is.
“Eliminate the unnecessary so the necessary may speak” says the artist, Hans Hofmann. And Claude DeBussy.agrees. “Music is not in just in the notes, but in the space between.” To appreciate the beauty and usefulness of your things, you need some emptiness.
The fish I’ve lured into this tin are not sardines, but whatever they are, they’re happy to have some wiggle room. Your things will be too. Another paradox: emptiness enhances fullness.