The  more I read to find the secret of unclutterment the more I think simple is the key. So simple you think why aren’t I doing it that way already. For example the answer to stopping stuff hiding at the back of fridge only to be found when well past its use by date is to ……  Check the fridge once a week. Amazing. I  can no doubt programme smartphone to tell me to do this and annoyingly remind me again and again when I press snooze.

Next ‘secret’ is to buy no more of a food than can use before it will go bad and/or  will be sick of eating it. If wish to start getting sophsticated/complicated then can also freeze stuff which may allow a little more time/less waste  …. as long as don’t let it hide there instead.  Smartphone needs to remind regularly to check what’s hidden in fridge too. There is a little more but you get the idea. Here a link to a checklist and method developed by SimplyBeingMum. Her weekly #foodwastefriday ritual can help stop you wasting food. Following a weekly plan every week till it becomes as habitual as cleaning your teeth really is key to success.    Of course if you’re a real Stuffoholic your cupboards will be prepared for famine too. Just check them as well and learn that an empty cupboard can be a thing of beauty and not a cause for concern. Tricky balancing trick but it can be done… or so I’ve read.

I would be remiss though to leave it at that without a warning about potential pitfalls. Food plays such an important part in our culture it is not only seen as a means to keep us alive. For example, that desire/need to be hospitable or accept gifts graciously may put you off track. I’ll say no more but remember this picture and these words. How you handle lapses from your plan will determine whether you happily get back on the less food waste trail or decide after that takeaway/box of chocs/impulse buy it’s not for thee.

Food though isn’t really top of my ‘clutter that’s drowning me’ list.  I therefore wondered whether I could apply any of the food waste tips to reduce my ‘real’ stuff stash. My first response was , of course not , after all this stuff doesn’t have best before and use by dates it can’t go bad, it’s not rotting sitting in that corner/cupboard/space. On further consideration though I decided there just might be something in this approach. Do you remember that other stuff on my desk  I’m going to slap on that stuff ‘use by’ labels  for 3 months hence and if it’s not shifted by then consign it all to the bin. Well maybe not the bin but will at least as we head to winter ask and answer the question is this item like a tin of beans preparation for the apocalypse and can have an extension or akin to a (now) mouldy piece of cheese which will have to go in bin but could have been eaten by someone else if I’d given it away 3 months ago. Like any plan this needs to be fuelled by hope and chocolate. Enough for today let me start sticking on those labels.

you just never know when you’ll need/repurpose a broken …….