We love a clear out as much as the next person, but recently we’ve started wondering… what, exactly, is so bad about ‘stuff’?

There’s a decluttering movement afoot, and the troops seem to have chosen their leader. Time Magazine recently chose Marie Kondo, the Japanese queen of home organising, as one of their most 100 most influential people on the planet, and her book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying, has gone stellar.

See also…

• The highs and lows of life on London’s canal boats
• 14 problems that London renters will recognise
• 5 tricks to make your London flat look HUGE
• Moving in together: 2 people, 1 flat, no space

Not that we have anything against Marie Kondo, of course. The stress relief that comes with giving your living space a thorough clean up is well known – heck, some people even look forward to it as part of their weekend ritual. No, Marie Kondo is fine by us. What makes us feel a teensy bit sad, however, is the sudden, global passion for getting rid of ‘stuff’.

The world, and the media especially, is suddenly very anti things. There’s almost a religious zeal about the way in which people are being encouraged to declutter – ironic, really, considering the way in which the very same media encourages us to consume. ‘25 ways to free yourself of stuff’, they write with one hand, while the other scribbles, ’50 must-have gadgets to buy yourself this summer’. It’s all a bit manic, don’t you think?

To take a leaf of out Ms Kondo’s book, the key to approaching this in a sane manner might have to do with ‘balance’ and ‘respect’ – ‘balance’, because this unchecked desire to consume, to own and to hoard, leads to a life spent in the unbalanced state of wanting; ‘respect’, because that constant need to upgrade and renew leads us to neglect what we already own. Yesterday’s new tech is today’s dust-gathering pile of rubbish.

At Boxman, we deal with a lot of people’s stuff. We don’t ask what this stuff means to them (we’re not that nosy!), but we like to think that by going through the process of packing up boxes so that we can take them away to storage, our customers get a chance to think about it for themselves. Why am I packing away these clothes away into storage? Shouldn’t I just give this pile of books to charity? Those baby shoes aren’t going to fit her for too much longer, so why not pass them on?

In conversations we’ve had with Boxman customers, we find that the reasons are many and varied. The person lives in a one-bedroom London flat and the hanging wardrobe doesn’t have space enough for every season. The books belonged to someone’s grandfather, and they’re a bit nervous about keeping them in their shared apartment where they may get damaged. The baby shoes won’t fit her for too much longer, but the couple is hoping there might be a him sometime in the next 18 months or so.

In many ways, our clutter defines us – and there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that. One of the saddest things about the rise of the Kindle or the mp3 is that there’s nothing for visitors to browse anymore. There was a time when you’d make a beeline for someone’s bookshelf or record collection because it said so much about your host (who was clearly keen to have that information on display), and it sparked conversation. But, for many of Boxman’s customers, people living the urban highlife in inner-city London, there isn’t much room for ‘stuff’. It just gets in the way.

 

The future, however, is another postcode altogether. Few of these young urbanites can see themselves sharing a flat for too much longer – that one-bedroom flat will turn into a two or three-bed in the not-too-distant future – in which case, why drop everything in the dustbin before you’ve had time to appreciate it? At Boxman, we have this little phrase: ‘It’s not goodbye, it’s see you later.’ We’ll look after your things until you’re in the right place to take them back.

As we said at the beginning of this article: none of this takes from the popular work that Marie Kondo is doing. You only have to spend five minutes in a room strewn with Lego bricks, colouring books and half-finished Play-Doh monuments to know that it’s not a stress-free environment, and that tidying up really can offer ‘life-changing magic’. But the media-driven push to put everything out for the bin men seems a little bit sad. After all, the key to a balanced life is not taking things to extremes.

Where do you stand on ‘stuff’? Let us know in the comments below.