When I started my month off work, it was interesting how quickly the urge to clean out every cupboard in the house kicked in. So in an effort to minimise and tidy our ‘stuff’, I’ve gradually been moving the contents of our house to Vinnies, the local second hand shop.

Minimalism in the kids’ rooms has to be approached by stealth, with clean outs occurring when the kids are at school or kinder.

A hardened heart of steel is required in order to throw out their treasured creations (usually made of toilet rolls and empty milk cartons) and their creative treasures (usually broken bits of something they’ve picked up on the street).

For a house that we commonly lament does not have enough storage, it’s amazing how many drawers and cupboards there are to clean out. I think I’m about ten per cent of the way through.

So this month – whilst normally I am awake at night worrying about meeting work deadlines (as my daughter lies awake in the next room worrying about which garden slug to come to breakfast as) – I now lie awake planning my leisure time and when I am going to tidy out various cupboards.

Sometimes I have been awake for so long planning my minimalism forays, that in the morning I am too tired to do anything. And instead I just have to sit in a deckchair in the sunshine reading a book.

It’s a busy life, but I guess someone has to do it.