Last month, my daughter moved in with me for a couple of weeks. “I’m going to Marie Kondo your house,” she said. What? “Marie Kondo. She wrote a book on extreme tidying. You have to start with clothes,” says Daughter, poking around in my airing cupboard and wardrobe with distaste. “Look at this. Erk! You can’t wear this! Why five dressing gowns? Oh my God! What’s this? You can’t keep anything that doesn’t ‘spark joy’.”

What crap. There is no way on earth that I am going to study every item in my house and discard it if it doesn’t ‘spark joy’. But, just to be fair, we’ll try it with the dogs’ toys, which are mostly chewed, raggedy and grubby. We hold up each repulsive toy, but they all delight the dogs. So clearly this silly method doesn’t work.

Marie Kondo: How to clear out sentimental clutter Read more

But Daughter is forceful, and I like an easy life. I don’t fancy a fortnight of arguments, and sometimes I do feel rather distressed and confused by the clutter, disarray and accumulation of dreck in my home. So the Marie Kondo-ing goes ahead. Daughter drags every bit of fabric into the bedroom – a mountain of clothing, bedding, linen, towels, moths, dust and rags, sparking despair and panic. I discard eight giant bin bags full of joyless material. Marvellous. I can soon find any item of clothing within seconds, and my life is full of air, space and calm. And I don’t mind folding things vertically, as Kondo advises. As I rarely change my clothes and sheets, I won’t often need to do it. And – most miraculous – Daughter effected this change with sensitivity and minimal bossing. Next, we’ll do books and papers. Even more terrifying.

Meanwhile, I have clung to the scores of elderly hand-embroidered tablecloths, linen sheets, my mother’s old cardigans and frocks, my father’s waistcoat, prayer shawl and hat in a little velvet bag, which I’ve kept for 20 years and still blub over. I have my limits. So I have kept a special drawer for such things. But be careful if you try this. There is tidying, and there is wipeout and regret.