What if the hardest part wasn't folding... but deciding what to keep?

What if the hardest part wasn't folding... but deciding what to keep?

When you love origami, it is very easy to accumulate models. You fold one, then another. You keep the early attempts, the successful versions, the gifts, and the models tied to a particular memory. Little by little, the shelves begin to fill up.

But do we really need to keep everything?

The Japanese author Marie Kondo popularised a simple idea: instead of deciding what to throw away, consciously choose what you want to keep, what brings you joy.

That is a good starting point. But perhaps we can take the reflection a little further.

In his alchemical understanding of Art, Patrick Burensteinas offers another perspective: a work of art that feels right does more than simply please us. It has an effect on us.

When I look at the models around me, I try not to ask only whether I find them beautiful or feel attached to them. I also reflect on what they still bring into my life and into the space around me today:

A model may have mattered without needing to remain with us forever. It may have taught us a technique, accompanied us through a period of our lives, or reminded us of a meaningful encounter, and yet have fulfilled its purpose.

Letting it go does not erase anything it has given us.

And when too many models accumulate, the ones that truly matter can sometimes disappear into the crowd.

Keeping too much can also stop us from truly seeing.

Perhaps that is the real challenge: to create, as far as possible, an environment shaped by beauty and harmony, and to choose a few objects that genuinely move us rather than simply allowing them to accumulate.

So perhaps the real question is not:

“Can I bring myself to throw this model away?”

But rather: