Start with the wardrobe — that's where the most low-hanging clutter lives. Shoes you never wear (donate, they take 30+ years to break down at the dump), formal clothes worn once for a wedding, accessories that turned out not to be your style (the paisley scarf from London, the black-leather bag with studs), and that giant pile of thin dry-cleaning hangers — replace with a nice set of wooden or plastic ones, the rest goes. Tip: hang everything you're keeping with the hook reversed. Whatever's still reversed after 6 months hasn't been worn — toss-pile candidate.

Holiday postcards, thank-you cards, instruction manuals, old magazines, expired coupons — paper grows fast if you don't watch it. Books you 'might still' read usually go unread (Les Misérables, the beginner's Italian) — to the thrift shop, your great LP collection finally gets some breathing room. Then electronics: old iPods, Blackberries, chargers for devices that no longer exist, USB cables nobody uses anymore. Drop them at a recycling point — not the regular bin. Photos digitised, boxes of negatives can go.

The kitchen is full of small items eating drawer space. Pasta maker you've never used, meat thermometer, mini meat slicer: toss or donate. Spices you bought once for a specific recipe (sumac, asafoetida) — check the date and bin them. Personal care products in the bathroom have shelf lives (usually 12-24 months after opening): expired shampoos, sunscreen from 2021, old make-up — toss. Separating plastic packaging helps. Result: more space for what you actually use.

This is the harder pile. Souvenirs from trips you no longer look at (the plastic Eiffel Tower, the Big Ben snow globe), university sports club shirts, china dishes that 'might one day be valuable' — these are usually things where you assign value others don't see. Tip: photograph sentimental objects before giving them up, the memory stays and the object goes. For things that do mean something but fit a different life stage — Christmas decorations from an inherited house, furniture from a parent who passed — storage is a better call than thrift shop. Not lost, just out of sight.