YOU'RE usually one or the other.

I mean, you're either somebody who throws things out or...you're a hoarder.

You might be at the extreme end of a scale - I'm thinking of the people who appear in TV shows like The Hoarder Next Door - but even if it's not that serious, each of us definitely falls into one of those categories.

Me? I generate clutter. I never think of myself as a hoarder (you can still see the floor of my flat thankfully) but I've still got a mild case.

I struggle to throw things out, like bank statements from years ago, pay slips, clothes that no longer fit.

I keep old newspapers and magazines. My flat looks lovely on the surface but there are cupboards which would give Kim and Aggy a heart attack.

But I recently read a book dedicated to tidying and I'm now on a mission to de-clutter.

I couldn't believe it when I bought Marie Kondo's manual , the Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up.

I'd gone from being the last person to leave a party to buying a book on tidying. It must be a life crisis, I thought. Maybe it's because I turn 30 this year.

Anyway, I thought it was about time I got rid of my stuff once and for all.

Who needs possessions anyway?

Marie Kondo - nicknamed KonMari - is a professional Japanese de-cluttering consultant. The 31-year-old helps people tidy their homes for a living.

Not only that, though. She does it by telling her clients to hold each and every one of their possessions to find out if they feel "a spark of joy".

Okay, stay with me.

So if you hold a tatty dress from 1996 and feel a spark of joy by all means keep it. But if it doesn't get your heart racing you have to thank the item for its services and move it on to its next life - the charity shop or the bin probably.

I felt dead inside at first because nothing gave me that spark but I soon got the hang of it.

Communicating with your items apparently helps with the guilt of throwing out unwanted gifts or stuff you feel emotionally attached to.

Books that haven't been read do not get to stay either.

The KonMari method says you have to thank them for being on your bookshelf and move them onto some place where they might be read or shredded.

Strangely it seems to work.

A little too well in fact, because at the rate I'm going I'll be left with almost nothing.

KonMari tells her followers to say hello to their home whenever they come through the door and thank their shoes for their hard work.

So if you haven't had a chat with your socks, told your handbag about your day or held a discussion with your winter coats, maybe you should try.

Join me in being a Konvert. Just don’t let your friends and family catch you.