At Home with Sarah Beeny Autumn 2015 - 174

| PROMOTION|

In defence of 'stuff'

There's nothing wrong with having lots of things, argues
on-demand storage company Boxman, providing that
you're space-smart, rather than stuff-stupid...

T

here's a decluttering movement
afoot, and the troops seem to
have chosen their leader. TIME
magazine recently chose Marie
Kondo, the Japanese queen of home
organising, as one of its most 100 most
influential people on the planet, and her
book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying,
has gone stellar, selling thousands of copies.

Boxman doesn't entirely agree. Not that it
has anything against Marie Kondo, of course.
The stress relief that comes with giving your
living space a thorough clean-up is well known
- some people even look forward to it as part
of their weekend ritual. No, Marie Kondo is not
the issue. What makes Boxman a bit sad,
however, is the sudden, global passion for
getting rid of all your 'stuff'.
The world, and the media especially, is
suddenly very anti 'things'. There's almost a
religious zeal about the way in which people
are being encouraged to declutter or downsize
our belongings - ironic, really, considering the
way in which the very same media encourages
people to consume: '25 ways to free yourself
of stuff', they write with one hand, while
the other scribbles, '50 must-have gadgets to
buy yourself this summer'. It's all a bit manic,
don't you think? Not to mention confusing.
So how do you deal with your possessions?
To take a leaf of out Ms Kondo's book, the key
to approaching this in a sane manner might
have to do with 'balance' and 'respect':
'balance', because this unchecked desire to
consume, to own and to hoard, leads to a life
spent in the unbalanced state of wanting;
'respect' because that constant need to
upgrade and renew your possesions leads
you to neglect what you already own.
The new tech of yesterday is today's dustgathering pile of rubbish. Or worse still, being
added to the massive amount of waste you
chuck in the bin every day, or take to the tip.
Boxman deals with a lot of people's stuff.

5

STEPS TO
A BALANCED
DECLUTTER

If you want to clear your home, try these:

1
2
3

Get out four boxes: one for 'keeps',
one for 'charity', one for 'rubbish'
and one for 'later'.
Approach one room at a time.
Divide your stuff between each box.
For each item, think about where it
came from, how you've used it, and
whether it may bring you pleasure in
the future.
For anything that it is going to
charity or the rubbish bin, consider
its worth. If you're throwing something
out, think twice next time you're
shopping online: 'do I really need to
replace this, or can I do without?'
Anything in the 'keeps' box goes
back on the shelf. The 'later' items
can go into storage for now, where it's
not goodbye, it's see you later.

4
5

The company doesn't ask what this stuff means
to them (they're not that nosy!), but likes to think
that by going through the process of packing
up boxes to be taken away to storage, the
customers get a chance to think about it for
themselves. 'Why am I packing away these
clothes into storage?' 'Shouldn't I just give this
pile of books to charity?' 'Those baby shoes
aren't going to fit her for too much longer, so
why not pass them on?'
In conversations with many Boxman customers,
it turns out that the reasons people use storage
are many and varied: the person that lives in a

'If you're throwing something out, think
twice next time you're shopping'

one-bedroom London flat and the wardrobe
doesn't have space enough for every season;
the books belonged to someone's grandfather,
and they're nervous about keeping them in their
shared apartment where they may get
damaged; the baby shoes don't fit, but the
couple is hoping there might be another baby
sometime in the next 18 months or so.
In many ways, your clutter defines you, and
there's not necessarily anything wrong with that.
One of the saddest things about the rise of the
Kindle or the mp3 is that there's nothing for
visitors to browse anymore. There was a time
when you'd make a beeline for someone's
bookshelf or record collection because it said
At Home with Sarah Beeny Autumn 2015

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