When intuition gets drowned out by excess

Lately I’ve been thinking about how much we already know, though how hard it can be to access it.

There’s a field called neuroaesthetics that studies how our brain and body respond to shape, texture, color, and order. How certain environments calm us, while others subtly agitate us. But long before it had a name, we felt it.

We know, intuitively, that some spaces let us breathe more easily. That certain objects feel supportive, while others feel noisy or demanding.That beauty, when it’s intentional, can settle the nervous system.

And yet, intuition gets drowned out by excess. Too many objects. Too many choices.Too much visual and sensory input asking something of us.

It’s not that we’ve forgotten what feels good. It’s that we’re overstimulated.

Our homes have become storage spaces for things we didn’t fully choose—objects designed to be convenient, disposable, or attention-grabbing, rather than grounding or nurturing. Over time, this accumulation creates a kind of low-grade hum in the background of daily life.

SPARE was born from a desire to quiet that hum. Not by adding more, but by choosing fewer things more carefully. By paying attention to how objects feel in the hand, how they feel in a space, how they support the rhythms of everyday life.

If we’re going to do something hundreds of times a year—carry laundry, fold towels, move through our homes—it matters what our hands are touching, what our eyes land on, and how much effort an object asks of us.

Perhaps living with less is not about restraint for its own sake. Perhaps it’s about making enough space to honor what we already know.