If it’s not beautiful, useful or seriously sentimental get rid of it!
When the world is trying to tell you something listen and recognise the signs.
What do I see covered in this week’s magazine? Slow cookers and recipes.
My Father was lamenting the demise of his, I replied, “Do you need one” And two friends, one a young male TV executive who doesn’t fit the slow cooker person profile I had in my head was talking about his like he’d just been gifted a Porsche 911. He went into minute detail about his favourite recipes, how he rose early to lovingly load his slow cooker before leaving for his commute into town. On returning he had the excitement of knowing he had a meal waiting for him and as he put the key in the door there was a slight whiff in the house, coupled with his cat (left by an ex-girlfriend) and Alexa of ‘home coming’. I was flabbergasted at his excitement but totally got it and now researching them so I can present one to my father for his January Birthday and buy one for myself.
Decluttering is my subject, I’ve written about it for years, made television programmes on the subject, given talks, repeated myself endlessly, banged on to my friends and caused rumpuses at home with my family - Mark and my sister Wendy keep ‘stuff’.
To quote the great designer, artist, writer and influencer of the Victorian period William Morris.
Have nothing in your house you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
My personal interpretation of this is: If it’s not beautiful, useful or seriously sentimental get rid of it!
Wading through the clutter and treacle of life is exhausting and debilitating – ‘Stuff’ holds you back and I don’t want to sound morbid but when we’ve gone who wants it?
I call it editing, rather like Susan the editor of this magazine every week she’s looking and checking what’s needed what isn’t what can be tightened even where can money be saved so she can splash out in different places. De-cluttering is an ongoing process that when running a home, you never really stop. This doesn’t mean you can’t keep treasures that ignite a lovely memory and make you feel warm and happy, but just not every tooth your child left under the pillow!! Even they say “Yuk, why have you kept those?” Memory Boxes are a wonderful thing to purchase or make, in them you place a small selection of items from maybe each child, an event, a holiday a birthday. Clearly label them and put them away until you want to have a rummage around in them. I personally think Winter is the best time of the year for an edit because by Spring, why would you want to be in the house cleaning when you could be out enjoying the (hopefully) better weather? So please spend January playing the little and often game a draw here a cupboard there, the shed the garage and when you’ve finished how smug will you feel come April.