If you are downsizing, deciding what to cut doesn’t need to be difficult.

HAVING LOPPED OFF 1,000 SQUARE FEET IN A RECENT MOVE  from Lakeport, California to my new apartment in Monterey – and another 1,000 from a previous move – I have mined online resources. There are ideas for charts and inventories, recommendations to keep items that serve more than one purpose, to measure twice – advice on how to be methodical goes on and on.

Citing the president-elect of the National Association of Professional Organizers, HGTV’s site urges you to “think about the lifestyle you want to embrace as you move forward.” House Beautiful warns you to hang onto that old landline phone, just in case. And I came across a suggestion that taking photographs of your old home and sentimental stuff will suffice when it comes to preserving memories.

You can find practical ideas. Clear personal information from an old laptop before ditching it, for instance. And an inventory would not be bad.

But considering the hectic pace of packing and unpacking, the time consumed securing fragile necessities (think televisions), arranging for utilities (television service), hours lost to an inventory will only add frustration.

Besides, some things just do not fit into the useful categories. Do I need that beginner’s harmonica kit? Absolutely not. Am I keeping it? Well, it was a gift.

After shaving off 2,000 square feet worth of stuff in the past 20 years, the simplest and best advice is this: Does it really matter to you? That second comforter or mid-century modern table you picked up during a moment of decorating inspiration a few years ago – these are things you can find again. Grandma’s crystal candy dish, on the other hand…

There is another way. In 2006, when I moved from a 2,800-square-foot suburban home (in a town where prices are reasonable) to a two-room flat in Europe, I stuck everything in boxes and left them with my brother.

He still has 17 crates of books cluttering his space.