..bought me ‘It’s All Too Much: Living a Richer Life with Less Stuff’ for my birthday – awesome (words of this festive season have definitely been “awesome” and “racist”). I have only glanced through it so far, but I’m going to implement some of the techniques and mental tricks in the book to get rid of some of the crap from my house.

First thing: all the contents of the kitchen drawer – cutlery, cooking implements etc – are going in a cardboard box right now. If they’ve not been used six weeks from today, they are going to the charity shop, Freecycle, or the bin. I value that space and an easy-to-navigate drawer a lot more than I value that apple corer. I don’t have an apple corer. Actually, I may, the drawer is too cluttered for me to know.

And my wardrobe… ::groan:: I am going to grit my teeth and go through it with a fine-toothed comb, weeding out all the things that are scratty or no longer fit me, and decide whether to store them or fling them. I have no doubt that one way or another my body is going to go through some changes, and all the too-small or no-longer-liked clothes in my wardrobe are nothing but clutter, remnants from a distant time which do nothing but take up space and make me feel shitty about my body and my life. Outs you go. I have enlisted my friend D to take me shopping at some point in the near future and re-rev up my shopping mojo – she’s a large and lovely lady who loves her body and loves fashion, and she could no doubt teach me a thing or two about making the best of myself.