IT IS THE new year, and if we are not forcing ourselves into the gym or eating clean as per accountability posts on Instagram, you can be sure some of us are decluttering like Marie Kondo was visiting for the forthcoming Brigid’s Bank Holiday.

I fall very firmly into the latter category, but without Marie Kondo or even a bank holiday for motivation. Each January, I embark on The Big Declutter of (Insert Year Here). It is both hugely cathartic and a little nostalgic.

The house is cleared of broken items, books that will not be reread and superfluous clothing. That includes school uniforms and apparel, holding unrealistic expectations that they will ever fit this body again. All of it carefully sorted for donation. I take immense pleasure in chucking everything else into the wheelie bin.

Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Back in the 2000s, feng shui was very much in vogue, with decluttering regarded as a holistic approach to maintaining balance and harmony in our living spaces.
Trends never truly disappear. It is business as usual, just with a different name.

I like to think I am a practical person, so you best believe, if an item has languished behind a press door, unused for more than six months, its time is up. The same goes for whatsits banished to the attic. Anything still in its box is also a goner. Unless it happens to be a Funko Pop vinyl bobble head figurine representing a character from a popular movie franchise, TV show or video game. Not those.

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Funko Pop vinyl figure of Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses Band. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

The kids have several in their forgotten collections, and now they have been separated from dust bunnies under various beds, taken down from the tops of wardrobes and stored, very safely........

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