2. Discard everything we don't want.
It turns out that everything in the house falls into one of several categories of stuff:
- things we actually want (I am not sure this is the majority);
- actual rubbish, which can go in the bin;
- recycling; the recycling men come on Monday, and some of the stuff they take can't really be left outside overnight, so it sometimes takes us weeks to get rid of this;
- saleable unwanted things that aren't books, which I'm selling bit by bit on eBay;
- books, some of which we're selling on Amazon Marketplace, and some of which we're selling to Porcupine Books.
- stuff for the charity shop, including books that aren't likely enough for the previous two categories;
- stuff that we'd like to give to a charity shop, but which charity shops won't take, mostly furniture and electrical goods. We've freecycled a couple of things but have found it a wee bit of a hassle. And we take some stuff down to the tip, where an army of scavengers quickly redeem anything usable.
Lots still to go, but clearly this is getting better.