Why I love clutter!

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My house is full of ‘stuff’ I’ve accumulated over (what I hope is only half) a lifetime, or sometimes even longer – my button tin, for example, has been amalgamated with the one I got from my mother, which in turn came from her mother. I have masses of clothes, all sorts of craft and needlework materials, piles of potentially useful pieces of wood and wire, screws and handles, and a shed full of tools. Sometimes it all drives me a bit nuts, but in spite of the fashion for extreme decluttering I’m not getting rid of it. ‘Why not?’ I hear you cry. ‘Make some more space and free yourself from that burden!’ But the catch is that I hate shopping. I’m happy occasionally browsing here and there when I don’t really want anything, but when I have to go and look for a specific item that I urgently need that’s a different matter. And even when I find something I want and it isn’t too expensive, by the time I’ve bought just a few items I feel as though I’m just haemorrhaging money which doesn’t come in anything like as easily as it goes out. Luckily now I hardly ever have to go through this ordeal as practically everything that I might need can be found or improvised from something I already have. Yesterday Big One, whose birthday is imminent, suddenly announced that she’d like a canopy over her bed. One of those sort of filmy, princessy draperies. Hmmm, where to get something like that at short notice? No time to send away for anything, not much time to go trawling the shops around the city, and a limited budget. I like to get her things she wants though, as she rarely explicitly asks for anything. Then I suddenly remembered; in the back of the wardrobe is a huge piece of flowery net curtain fabric I bought from a remnant shop on a whim about 15 years ago and have never used. The very thing! I could even jazz it up with a glue gun and some sequins and bows. I just need a way to attach it to the ceiling and we’ll be sorted, with no need to go anywhere. I’m all excited now, can’t wait for my partner to get home so we can plan how and when to put it up as a surprise! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2016.