I won't thank my biros just yet

In keeping with my tendency to ignore all fads, I have, once again, shunned Dry January and have absolutely turned my back on Veganuary. Of course, January isn’t just about hangover-free Sundays and celery in your lunchbox, as more and more of us are using this month to declutter our homes, and it is an obsession that has now become big business. Marie Kondo isn’t somebody I had heard of until last week but apparently she is the high priestess of tidying up, so knows a thing or two about slinging out junk. She has flogged some 11m books and is now the star of her own Netflix show, which has given her a new army of fans.

You might have heard of her - she is the Japanese guru who encourages Americans to say thank you to the inanimate object you are about to chuck into the great dustbin in the sky. Her methods, known as KonMari, are being adopted by people across the world, who yearn after a clutter-free home or place of work. In the interests of research, I have spent some time studying her methods and it is fair to say there are lots of them, which means that you have to be really dedicated if you want to avoid becoming the next star of Hoarders from Hell.

Her key rules are discard and organise, not to mention asking yourself if a particular possession “sparks joy”. Hand on heart, I am not sure how many of my things make me go weak at the knees but that doesn’t mean that I want to consign them to history.

Most humans are slaves to self-improvement and being able to see the carpet in your living room is usually high up on the list of priorities for most house proud grown- ups.

Not this one. I have always been of the opinion that a desk is not a desk if you can see any of the surface beneath the piles of yellowing papers and Post-It notes.

I might not be perfect, but it works for me. I am pretty sure that I won’t be saying a sincere thank you to my half chewed biros as there is still plenty of life left in them yet.