[tomatsu]

> if you don't have a consistent rule about whether to apply it to the top or bottom and by how much.

I recommend to use only top margins and to apply them to every element which isn't the first child (`whatever:not(:first-child)`).

This way there is no extraneous spacing at the very top or very bottom, which means the only spacing around the content is the padding of the container.

It's the same idea as the "lobotomized owl" selector (`* + *`). It's just more explicit.