'It might come IN HANDY'

Fiona Gibson has just one problem with decluttering - her husband

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The decorations are down. Our three adult kids have headed back to their own homes and it’s just me and Jimmy, in a flat that feels eerily quiet. Some people find this time of year a bit dismal. But to me it's brilliant. It represents a fresh new start - and after the festive madness, I'm keen to make our home an oasis of calm.

This means a huge and ruthless declutter. Finally, our home will be smooth-running and sleek, and everything in it will be either useful or loved (or-ideally - both). I know that I'll meet with opposition as my husband is of the 'we might need that one day' mindset. My hope is that if I tear into the task with enough gusto, then he won't notice what's going on. I simply can't face a lengthy debate on why that tacky picture of the Arc de Triomphe is charity shop bound- and why we don't need five thermos flasks.

I start with what I once termed, optimistically, our linen cupboard - a hideous cave crammed with ugly paintings and bags of ancient paperwork and curios picked up in French flea markets when our twin boys were toddlers (they are now 26). 'I'd like to keep that, Jimmy says, when I try to dispose of a tiny cupboard made of curly wire and matted with dust. We bought it at the turn of the millennium thinking it looked 'very French'. We've never put it up anywhere, yet now he grabs it off me, whisking it away to his study with an accusatory backwards glance.