The positives of restraint

I am in the middle of a great downsize of stuff - for several reasons.  The main one is that I hope that we can move house in the not too distant future, to a smaller more manageable dwelling; but also because even if we stay here, I dislike not being able to find what I want because there are too many places to look, as well as too much stuff in those places.
The sifting is a slow and sometimes painful process: the most difficult question being will I ever want to use this?  In so many cases there is no satisfactory answer, so I have to devise further questions, such as could I easily purchase it again, perhaps in a more up-to-date/otherwise appropriate version if I do need it?
Sentimentality is a stumbling block to downsizing - or it can be.  Having saved when impecunious to buy something like a loom, or a press which is no longer used, it is still so difficult to let that go.  On the other hand out there it is highly likely that another enthusiastic young person is saving like mad to acquire just such a press or loom in order to work. 
Luckily, since I settled on making the way I do, I have been able to dispense with any temptation to acquire more stuff which is yummy, but not anything I am likely to incorporate now or later into my work.  I still admire the yumminess of stuff, but am thankful that the natural restraint of reason means that I have no desire to reach out my hand.

Chaos control
The restraint of space is also helpful in sifting what means most. Having seen that it is possible for me to make work with elements kept from previous creative activity - such as screen prints made during my attendance at the Textile Master Class at Abingdon in the late 1990s and the knitwear I had made in the mid '90s, then felted, used to make Chaos control recently, I do not want to dispose of all that kind of past accumulation.  
Deciding how much of previous creative work to keep can be made simpler by providing a definite space in which to hold it.  I have four* open mesh storage drawer sets from IKEA (in a manifestation similar to but in a previous incarnation to the one pictured below), and I am restraining myself to keeping fabrics etc. in them.
(*Two of the sets work as pillars supporting a table top which I use for my sewing machine.)

I still have decision difficulties, but I find it an effective discipline.  And in general I find that I come to better, more satisfying solutions when I have some kind of restraint.  I suppose it to be rather like writing poetry: the meaning, the emotions, the appropriateness has to be distilled into the most elegant solution.  Or that is the ambition, at least, and whether it is any good, of course is a whole other matter.
I was inspired to make Chaos control by this great downsize exercise that seems to be taking so long, with piles of ensuing stuff mid-sort.  My workrooms are indeed now to be found in waves of seeming chaos which is under some, not necessarily obvious, control.  What is essential during all this I have found is to have a small corner which is free of any kind of sorting, where I can sit and stitch, read, or just catch my breath while I think about the next area to be tackled.