I have been off work this week just taking some of my holiday days and what a week it's been! The weekend before my mum texts me to say that she had damaged some ligaments in her foot and so I offered to go up and help her for a couple of mornings. I was going to head up and have lunch with her one day as it was but now I was needing to help her out as well which is fine.

There was about two weeks in between my clearing part of my bedroom and the local charity shop coming just over a week ago to pick up all I was donating to them. It ended up being five black bin bags of clothing and bric-a-brac items along with two boxes of books. I had told myself not to clear any more things out until they had been because there was no more room behind the sofa where I was storing my donations to put anything else.

I’m someone who seems to need a lot of stuff around me to feel safe and comfortable, but lately, it’s all got a bit out of hand. I had a tough year last year with some work stress going on and this meant my anxiety kicked off so I would surround myself with things and keep items. But then I would get more anxious because my surroundings were cluttered and the belongings I had around me don’t have specific homes, and it would be a slow downward spiral.