I have a sense that in the future there will be less stuff around to keep virus-free. For now, it is staying at home as the location donation organization is not accepting things because of COVID-19 (open for food donations).
How much stuff is there to donate? I found 21 surprising statistics about how much stuff we actually own HERE - this is a website on becoming minimalist.
How many items does a person own? There are 300,000 items in the average American home, according to the LA Times.
British research found that the average 10-year-old owns 238 toys but plays with just 12 daily, according to the Telegraph.
The average American woman owns 30 outfits - one for every day of the month. In 1930, that figure was nine. Source: Forbes.
What is the impact of owning this many things?
Over the course of our lifetime, we will spend a total of 3,680 hours or 153 days searching for misplaced items.The research found we lose up to nine items every day—or 198,743 in a lifetime. Phones, keys, sunglasses, and paperwork top the list (The Daily Mail).
What is white space? It's not blank space. It has a purpose. In design is is also called negative space. Wikipedia tells me that in the print and web world, it is the negative space where the page is left unmarked - margins, gutters, space between columns, etc.
A more recent application is to represent the minimalist life. Jocelyn K. Glei says that if you analyze your daily schedule with an eye toward design, you will find out if you have preserved enough 'white space' within your daily workflow. I wonder what the visual representation is for a day that is "extremely busy and cluttered".
Another author, Brian Gardner is clear on what to do. He suggests we declutter our physical space, paint our walls white, designate a quiet spot, get enough sleep, and hide the screens (the phones, etc).
I wondered if there is a relationship between connecting dots and white space, but found myself in unchartered territory. It is only unchartered from a 'tag' point of view on a google search. Whenever I go after more complicated search terms and relationships, google reveals its limitations.
I found a wall art app the other day, and had a lot of fun with it. You drop your image into a room setting of your choice. Here are a few applications. This is the Lake Effects Series followed by the Dark and Stormy Night Collage.
