When I moved into the house I still live in, I thought I would never be able to fill it. It’s not huge but I had few possessions at the time. Yet if you ask me what my domestic priority has been in the last ten years, I’d say decluttering. The fact that it is still top of my to do list tells you how well it’s gone. I am not alone, and a 2020 study found that 50 per cent of British people have difficulty getting rid of unused items, mostly because of their sentimental value.
Last time I saw Tim he told me that his wife had gently encouraged him to get rid of some of his wine collection. I smiled when I overheard him five minutes later offering some of his surplus bottles to an MW student, trying to extract some use from these wines he won’t drink, and somehow turning a culling exercise into a recycling one.
My wine collection is not as extensive as Tim’s – I am the one sending samples and not receiving any – but I had stockpiled hundreds of books until a much-needed redecoration project this summer forced me to take action. Like Tim with his wines, I tried offering my books to friends. I suspect wine would have been more popular as only five books went this way.
They eventually went, they had to go. But choosing which ones to keep and which ones to get rid of was agony.
