Hoarding is one thing, but it's also hard to beat the clutter of garden varieties

But what about those of us who are not quite accumulators, but who are nevertheless faced with the accumulation and overgrowth of Things?

There is a reason why books like Marie Kondo The changing magic of storage have become international bestsellers.

I do not aspire to minimalism, but I crave calm and order to enjoy – or even simply find – goods worthy of keeping.

I really wish I could entertain people without feeling mortified by the state of the house or spending hours throwing all the mess into boxes and hiding them in the spare room for Caitlin to handle.

I think I could stay on top of the tidying up if I could just go back once and have fantasies about finding $ 1,000 in reserve for a professional organizer to come with me.

When I'm overwhelmed with emails, I can select all the emails from my inbox and archive them at once – then call the search tool to help me find emails when I'm 39, will need it in the future. Unfortunately, there are no such shortcuts for real life.

For me, two things make decluttering difficult. The first is obvious: the lack of time. Yes, I know that I have the same 168 hours a week as everyone but I work full time and I have seven year old twins. It is therefore the essential that takes the essential. If I have free time, the organization of the house is a fourth order priority, behind the exercise, socializing and reading a good book.

The second reason why it is difficult to reduce obstacles is my environmental conscience. I hate to put things in the trash unless they are broken and they can not be repaired However, the reinstallation of unwanted goods requires time and effort.

To succeed in selling something, you must take the time to take a picture, write a descriptive text, answer questions, determine prices, queue at the post office or wait for the buyer to pick it up. Even giving things is not a simple task.

I love the fact that my neighborhood has a number of "street libraries" or "book corners", small wardrobes scattered in the streets for the purpose of sharing books between neighbors. We also have several charity shops and I often give clothes, housewares and books.

The problem is that I live in a society where almost everyone is addicted to buying new things and the old adage "repair and fix" is out of date. Of course, my trash can sometimes be someone's treasure, but not so often.

A charity store is a forbidden if something is broken, even just a bit, and they will not take any electronic items either. They do not want clothes stained, torn or pimples. Even if an outfit is in perfect condition, there is no guarantee that they will be able to sell it.

Australian households send 299,000 tonnes of leather and textiles annually to landfills, while the industry contributes an additional 457,000 tonnes.

Only the household component alone accounts for 13.5 kilograms per year for every man, woman and child in Australia – the waste figures come from the Australian Bureau of Statistics for the year 2010-2011; I've therefore also used the population figure for this year.

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Since then, we have added 3 million more people to the national population and there is no evidence that we have reformed our landfill habits. This means that Australian households alone have buried at least 2 million tonnes of leather and textiles over the seven years of my children's lives.

And that before you even get to plastic toys and the rest.

The real solution to our collective congestion problem is to reduce what we bring to our home in the first place.

This year, I made a conscious effort to buy my wardrobe rather than buy new clothes. I gave more books than I brought home. And wonder wonders, I finally convinced my children to pick their toys.

My house is still messy, but I can see signs of progress, even if no one else can.

Caitlin Fitzsimmons is the badociate editor of The Sun-Herald. She writes articles about life, work and money. You can find it on Facebook or Twitter.