Think before you throw it out – clutter is back

So, velvet is back. Thank goodness I didn’t throw away my velvet cushions, or even my velvet jacket. After a few years in the wilderness of unfashionability, I’m right in the centre of happening looks, and it didn’t cost me a penny. Indeed, my nice velvet jacket also has the additional stylish whiff of retro cool about it. That’s what you get for hanging on to things.

I wonder, if you were interested in the scent of a conspiracy, whether those books and gurus that advise throwing away anything you haven’t used or worn for a year (or is it two?), aren’t in cahoots with those who dictate the cycles of fashion: ensuring that approximately six months after you have chucked stuff out, there it is, back on the style lists.

If it helps, you could try looking at your house as if it was a big cupboard. You keep things there in case you might want to use them again. I'm not advocating turning your home into something that could appear on The Hoarder Next Door or some similarly shocking exposé programme, but with a bit of decent storage, and an eye to the future, you can hang on to all sorts of treasures.

Rocking horse

Earlier this year, I acquired another goddaughter, and last week went over to deliver her a present. It was the rocking horse I’d had since I was the age she is now. That I still have it is thanks to my clever Mum who is brilliant at knowing what to keep and, while it felt like a bit of a wrench letting it go, there was nothing like seeing her eyes light up and knowing that someone else was going to enjoy it for years to come.

Old books are good too. A favourite surprise is taking one off the shelf to re-read and finding a memory inside: a postcard used as a book mark, or an invitation, perhaps an old list, or maybe sand from a summer holiday read.

Then there’s those boxes of photographs, notes, cards . . . I think I prefer the idea of house-as-cupboard, than as a picture perfect and memory-free sparse showpiece. Let’s hear it for clutter, it could be the new black.