One problem comes along with modern life, it seems. Even the most cash-strapped of us ends up with our houses full of stuff we are not quite sure what to do with and we can’t quite think of throwing away in case we might need it ten years in the future. I’m not talking about those folks that have an obsessive compulsive disorder about collecting and get so much stuff they have no living space left. but some of us are edging towards a problem of over acquisition.

Eventually spare rooms become no longer spare; garages no longer have cars but stuff in them. Many people’s first response is to buy storage to put everything in – cupboards, shelves, boxes, bags you suck air out of and put in the loft, trunks, tables with storage and pouffes with storage. This only puts off the problem until a bit later. AND the fantasy that you may want to use something later disappears when you can either never find it again or when you do find it has rusted and/or disintegrated.

If you have a too-much-stuff problem the first thing to do is to get rid of as much as you can before you invest in suitable storage.  If you have become so closely attached to all the things you have acquired you may well need to enlist help to sort through it as you are likely to fall at the first fence if left to yourself – after all, if it was you who accumulated it you aren’t suddenly going to be easily detached. Similarly your partner may not be the right one. Try your best friend, or in my case my sister who had this good idea of putting everything “possibly to go” in bin bags and leaving them there for a month and then making sure they disappeared. This cooling off period did allow me to rescue one or two treasures!