Debora Robertson - Declutter

Debora Robertsonis an author and journalist who has written for major publications including the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Times, the Guardian, Deliciousmagazine, BBC Good Food, Red, Country Livingand Sainsburys Magazine. Her books and articles cover all things food, drink, garden and home related.

We shape our dwellings and afterwards our dwellings shape us.
WINSTON CHURCHILL

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What do you want your life to look like?If you have picked up this book, Im guessing not like it looks right now. Too much stuff and not enough space to store it? Too much time spent feeling overwhelmed, not enough calm? Weekends full of To-Do lists that never seem to get any shorter? Terrified that anyone might just drop in? Instead of nurturing you, is your home a source of stress, guilt and even shame?

You are not alone. Its the nature of modern life that new possessions flood into our homes all the time. When a T-shirt is as cheap as a sandwich, every newspaper comes with a hundredweight of supplements and the online shopping emporia never close, is it surprising that we find ourselves swamped beneath things we neither love, want nor need?

I know how you feel because I have been right where you are now. When I first moved to London after I graduated 30 years ago, I had a suitcase, a typewriter (they really did exist) and a small room on the top floor of a friends house. Over the years, I moved to larger places, but I never seemed to have more space.

I have always loved decorating and furnishing my homes with a mixture of new things, family pieces that have been handed on to us, objects Ive hunted down at antiques fairs and auction houses, and prizes Ive lugged back from holidays abroad. I work as a food writer and often have photo shoots at my house, and this emboldened and enabled me as I picked up another bashed-up old pan, vintage tablecloth or set of plates. (Theyll come in useful, Id say, as much to myself as to my husband, as I loaded another boxful of treasures into the car.) And then there were the books. Thousands of them. Ive always loved to read and have never met a bookshop I could walk past. Add to this that, for my job, Im sent the latest cookbooks to review and, well, lets just say Ikeas Billy bookcase and I have become very good friends.

What I am saying to you is that I am not one of natures minimalists. I like things. Lots of them. My house is colourful, comfortable and welcoming, which is important as no one loves a party more than me. Dinner for ten, lunch for twenty, drinks for fifty, family Easters and Christmases bring it on. Planning menus is my yoga.

But slowly, gradually, my somewhat maximalist house started to spin out of control. Suddenly, I could see how easy it might be to slip over from collector to hoarder. All the parties I so loved throwing were blighted by the minimum half-day of clear-up Id have to do before I got to the fun bit of setting the table and cooking the food. Stacks of books and magazines cluttered every surface, clothes bulged from wardrobes and drawers, and I couldnt use a lot of the gorgeous, vintage-y things Id collected because they were in the cellar somewhere and, well, you just didnt want to go down there without a pith helmet and an axe.