The Four-Word Method
Most advice about deciding what to keep asks you to adopt a whole philosophy first. Own less. Live simpler. Ask whether an object "sparks joy," a genuinely lovely idea that somehow still leaves you standing in front of a drawer of old cables no closer to an answer. These approaches aren't wrong, exactly. They're just heavier than the moment usually calls for — a lot of framework for what is, most of the time, a fairly small decision about a fairly ordinary object.
The four-word method is smaller on purpose: Keep. Maybe. Donate. Sell. Four honest options, none of them requiring a verdict on your character, your values, or your relationship with material possessions. Just an answer to one plain question: what happens to this thing next.
Why four words is enough, and more would be too much
It would be easy to build a more elaborate system — subcategories, sentimental-value scores, a flowchart. Lagom's answer is that this usually makes things worse, not better. A system too small (just "keep or bin") flattens real, legitimate uncertainty into a false choice. A system too large asks you to think harder about a spare charger than the object deserves. Four words is the middle: specific enough to be genuinely useful, small enough to actually use every single time, without needing to consult a manual.
Keep means exactly that — no justification required, no minimum usage threshold to clear. Maybe is a full, legitimate answer, not a placeholder for a decision you're avoiding — some things genuinely aren't settled yet, and treating that honestly beats pretending otherwise. Donate and Sell both mean it's time to go; which of the two just depends on whether the effort of selling is worth it to you for this particular object, not a moral hierarchy between them.
The method doesn't need momentum. It needs the four words available.
The four-word method isn't a technique you build up to. It works exactly as well on your first object as your hundredth, because it was never about acquiring a skill — it's just four small, honest words, ready whenever you happen to be looking at something and wondering what happens to it next.