Just can't bring yourself to throw anything away? Reem Leila helps you wade through the clutter Walking around your home, you should feel relaxed and in control, surrounded by things you love. If you don't, the chances are your home is falling hostage to clutter. With the onset of winter, a time of hibernation, it seems like the right time to put a lid on the mess: de-clutter is the name of the game. "In contrast to my husband, a tenacious keeper, I tend to abide by the edict, 'when in doubt, throw it out'." Thus Afifa Mohsen, a housewife, said. "He's given me trouble over throwing things away more times than I care to remember. But there's always a reason for it, a very good reason. In time I came to the conclusion that I'd rather put up with some clutter than anger or upset him, in the end. How I've suffered since..." If you can identify with Mohsen's husband, take heed. As always, acknowledging that illness is the first step on the way to a cure. Clutter constitutes those things you no longer use that are there, taking up enough space to irritate your spouse. Something that reminds you of a particular period of your life, for example; that qualifies: the expensive gold shoes you haven't worn for a decade; dried up nail varnish containers, anyone? According to Mahmoud Deabes, professor of home economics at Helwan University, Feng Shui is the way forward: a Chinese philosophy of the right place at the right time, it is "the best method" of de-cluttering now known to science. As you de-clutter, Deabes explains, it is vitally important not to panic, something that increases the possibility of procrastination. "Once you decide, do it immediately. Say you decided to start with your wardrobe, set a timer for one hour, put on some music, wear something light, and go, go, go. As you pick up every item, ask yourself the reason you're keeping it. Keep what you can recycle, but you must be ruthless with the rest." Thus far, Deabes points out, "you have made a great start." What helps is working on one area at a time and finishing it completely before you move on. And you must consult with other members of the family: one person's clutter, after all, is another's treasure. Indeed, as in the case of Dorreya Salem, a banker: "My 23-year-old son has all of his toys. Action figures such as Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, and fancy clothes he wore at the age of two. And this is not to mention 15-year-old letters from his friends, unused address books, old assignment printouts... I can't spend 15 minutes in his room without shouting." And the answer? "I'm going to pack it all in non-see-through containers, stack it up nice and neat for a while -- and then, as soon as possible, and without him noticing it at all, straight to the rubbish dump." The wrong thing to do, according to Deabes, since it doesn't take the son into account. But right in one sense, at least: as Abdel-Rahman Mohamed, dean of the aforementioned faculty, explains, "once you've decided to let something go, it is vitally important to remove it from the house. The longer it stays, the more difficult it is to get rid of." Nor is the rubbish dump the only possibility: unwanted items can be given to charity, to friends and family, or recycled. "You could," as Mohamed suggests, "sell them in a second-hand store or even offer them up in the classified columns of newspapers. Some people might feel guilty about throwing things away, wasting money and such." More often, however, people are scared, the minute they part with something, that they will need it again: "the ghost feeling", in Mohamed's coinage. In a society where hoarding is commonplace, he says, it takes a while to get used to a recently de-cluttered house. But coping with such feelings is the only way to achieve a healthy environment. Select a beautiful box in which to keep items to which you are truly attached. Set a deadline for fixing or else discarding broken items. Decide on a day of the week on which to get rid of old newspapers and magazines, whether you have read them or not, remembering that "no one has time to read everything." And, most importantly of all, rid your mind of the what-if factor; there is a word for such ideas, in fact: "clutter thoughts". On buying a new light-weight Hoover, Malak Adel, a sales manager, experienced the debilitating suspicion that one of them might break down. "But I quickly overcame such emotional wobbling and gave away the old one." If you feel anxious about letting something go, hide it away for six months. Such is Mohamed's suggestion: "Put a date on it, and if you haven't used it for six months, then give it away." The next step is organising storage space. To maintain a clutter-free home, Mohamed believes, it is essential to put everything in its place -- so you are able to find and store similar things together. And the end result is less stress, a more relaxing living environment and a lighter feeling all around. "And the next time you indulge in shopping," Mohamed adds, "you will have a clearer sense of what you actually need."
