I hear that an actress who makes her living from adult moves is about to get her breasts redone. The reason? High-definition TV.
I was thinking about this as I wandered around my flat, looking for things to throw out. I was de-cluttering. In her book Clear Your Clutter, Karen Kingston explains that clutter isn’t just bad for your flat - it’s bad for your soul. Clutter confuses you. It makes you feel ashamed of yourself. It slows down your thought processes. Clutter is all about letting yourself go; in this way, it’s a bit like getting fat.
I thought of all the things I could throw out. Magazines. Books. Clothes. All the out-of-date spices on my spice rack. I began to look at everything I owned in a new light. Maybe I could get rid of my printer, I thought, and replace it with something smaller and neater. And not such a horrible colour. And, of course, my boxy old TV.
I drove down to the dump. I chucked bags of old rubbish into the skip. It felt good. I saw a lot of fridges, and a lot of computer terminals, and a lot of boxy old TV sets. That was when I saw the real problem.
The real problem is not a failure to throw things away. It’s buying them in the first place. I feel sorry for all those dead TV sets. And for the people who have to dig the hole to put them in. And for that poor actress.