Throw pillows may not seem like a particularly important place to remove stuff from your life, but it’s a helpful example. There’s one thing that looks good but doesn’t add any value. Seemingly okay but in fact being put off is another matter entirely. Also, throwing pillows may not look good. Worse than that, they’re really a nuisance. I discovered that it became unnecessary and (perhaps most importantly) allowed my family to sit in the seat without having to clean it first.
Mary Grace Garris offers an eloquent and hilarious denunciation of what she calls the “anti-comfort monster” pillow fight. Garris says that decorative pillows became a symbol of affluence in the Victorian era (via Well+Good) and have since spread to the masses (like cholera). On the one hand, it came to symbolize a sense of comfort that did not contribute to anything else, but on the other hand, it came to generate misplaced sympathy like a child’s stuffed animal.
This boils down to an uncomfortable truth we all already know. Decoration is itself an act of nascent confusion. Rather than occupying a museum of artistically arranged objects, we live in a world where objects are over-purchased, thrown out, precariously placed, knocked over, and left for someone else to deal with. This kind of decoration makes your home look its best when removed (via Lovely Et.).
