The surprising power of subtraction

Why sometimes the best solution is less

There was a time, seven years ago, when I was completely overwhelmed by dirty laundry. I was stressed and exhausted—recovering from a few long days in the hospital with our littlest. Something had to give. Decluttering gave me a sense of peace, so I sold our nice Pottery Barn hampers on Facebook Marketplace.

My husband thought I’d lost it—but without hampers, the laundry had to go straight into the wash. It stopped piling up, even when life got busy. Problem solved.

But subtraction isn’t always the obvious solution. In fact, studies show our brains are wired to solve problems by adding.

Home feels cluttered? We head to The Container Store. Schedule feels chaotic? We look for a new app or planner.

Take a recent example: a few months ago, I went to hang up some clean clothes and realized I barely had enough hangers. My first thought? So many have broken—I need to buy more.

But before I got around to placing the order, I did a quick closet purge—and suddenly had more than enough hangers.

It made me think: How often do we reach for more storage, more bins, more systems—when what we really need is just... less?

My friend Rebecca wrote about this recently, and her takeaway stuck with me: Our brains may default to more, but with a little practice, we can start to notice when less might actually be the answer.

What’s one small thing you could subtract to make your home or schedule feel a little more manageable?