WEEKENDS :: CLUTTER RECOVERY

Hello, my name is Lucy Olive, and I am a recovering clutter addict.

Ok, so my habits could have been worse, but for a while there in my younger days, I had issues. My bedroom was so crammed with stuff that I pretty much had to swim through it. It's a common side-effect of being a bit of a magpie – I just couldn't throw out anything that looked appealing to me, and was constantly adding to the collection. I hoarded all kinds of thing, from photos and bottle caps to figurines and acorns.

As a teenager, my wardrobe contained more non-wearable items than clothing, items crammed in my under-bed space were constantly oozing out (and being kicked back under), and the colour of my walls were a mystery as they were always so covered in blue-tacked magazine clippings.

To make matters worse, I had a fish tank with 10 different little fish in it, but some of the fish were bullies – so I would scoop them out in drinking glasses and let them live separately. Can you imagine my dresser covered in all different glasses with little fish in them all? Oh dear!

These days I lead a pretty clutter free life. Ben is anti-'stuff', so his disposition kind of rubbed off on me. I still treasure little trinkets, but I keep them in a treasure box (which I thin out every now and then). And as I've gotten older, I've become more picky as to what I want to keep and what I don't. Today we had a massive spring clean and raided the entire house, cupboards and all, and threw out anything we thought twice about. You don't realise how much the little bits and bobs around the house weigh you down until they're gone... ahhh, it feels so good to be free! It made me remember what my Grandma said when she recently came back from India – "In a lot of places you see people living with very little, but they get along fine; it's all they know... and then you come back home and think 'what do I need all of this stuff for?'"

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