Kirsty McLuckie on eagerly accepting unwanted household items

It’s the time of year whensunshine – although very welcome – tends to show up your grimy windows and dusty corners, meaning that a spring clean is in order. But some of us need to do a spot of decluttering first...

Self-storage firm Space Station estimated this week that the average house contains £4,000 worth of unwanted items, and advised selling on is a good way to free up space.

That is obviously what an organised and thrifty person should be doing before getting out the dusters, but I seem to have developed an inward, rather than outward, habit with furniture.

I just can’t seem to say no whenever a friend or neighbour is giving away items that may prove useful in the future.

Over the years, I’ve eagerly accepted rowing machines, rugs, armchairs, a midge-eating machine, and bits of sporting equipment –safe in the knowledge that they would come in handy one day.

These items are already taking up room in our attic and shed, most never having been touched since I gleefully took delivery. But in the last month or so, the benevolence bestowed upon me by kindly neighbours has ratcheted up a notch or two.

Friends are downsizing and, having offered to help them flit, I never come home without yet another bulky item.

From one house alone I have been the happy recipient of two small Chesterfields, a full-length mirror in a swivel frame, a Kenwood food processor and a vibrating gaming chair – albeit, sans power lead.

In fact, I fear that I may have ended up with a bigger number of their belongings than made it to their new place.

The sofas are taking up space in our garage as they are going to replace two knackered couches – previously snapped up from another neighbour’s clear-out – which we haven’t got round to taking to the dump yet.

The mirror parts are in my daughter’s bedroom, but we can’t fathom how it all fits together.