Dear LPG, 

I am sure that I am not the only homeowner living alone because their now grown-up little ones have flown the nest. I read somewhere on the internet that about a third of owned homes have spare rooms in them, and I have two.

In my experience, it is also true that we homeowners seem to acquire more than enough stuff to fill them with over the years. 

There will be all those things that your now middle-aged children promised to come back for once they were settled in their own homes, not to mention all the new innovative gadgets that you have bought which have either gone out of fashion or become obsolete because some more contemporary invention has taken its place. Suppose you have no attic, cellar or back garden shed. In that case, it will be where the Christmas decorations spend the rest of the year and let’s not get started on all those clothes that you will never fit into again, which are to be found somewhere in a cupboard or box if the wardrobe is unavailable. I know that I have many trinkets brought back from holidays by friends, not to mention the well-used and unused presents that I still find unable to part with.   

I have to admit that the theory which suggests that ‘the bigger a lady’s handbag is, the more she will find to put in it’ applies to many a home too.   I have often thought about what I could do with mine because there are a few reasons to deal with the bedroom that has turned into a store room which, in this age of austerity, could be used to better advantage.

I can think of a few friends who have bedrooms that have transitioned into spare rooms and graduated to the status of storage rooms, and I am guilty of letting it happen too. I don’t think that it is something you do on purpose. It just happens as time goes by and so gradually that you only really notice when someone else takes a look and points out the hard facts. 

I have made one of mine into a sort of study come, sewing room come storage room which always looks perfectly ordered. However, visiting people have their own opinions, while family members occasionally use the other one when they stay. I must admit that they both contain many of my cherished possessions that my children call junk.

I have also heard the argument that we oldies should downsize, which often happens to us in the end, but I don’t think I am the only person who lives alone and sees their house as their identity. 

It is hard to be taken away from all the memories that your personal four walls hold when you have to leave, let alone before that time. 

Notice that I have outlined the problem but still have no answer, but having a good old tidy-up is a first step.  

AJ, Lewisham.

… LPG adds some information on today’s celebration…

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