A proper declutter is a reckoning with the stuff of life - and death

I have an urgent desire to shed myself of goods and chattels.

- Paul Daley

The acquisitions of a fortunate life have accumulated like an overflowing email inbox and simply must be dealt with while I am alive, and not left to my children to wrangle when they'll (hopefully, long down the track) be grieving. Books and journals. Especially books and journals! CDs. Clothes. Piles of e-waste. Drawers of kitchen utensils rarely used. Pens! How many pens does a household need? Then there’s my non-digital archive - dozens of notebooks, clipped articles, jottings and research material spanning almost 40 years in journalism and authorship of 10 books. All must be culled while I have the wherewithal.