BBC Learnings · Section 10

The decluttering trend - How do I declutter

Now Neil, are you a tidy person? Me? Oh dear, no. You should see my floor-drobe.

Level: B1 · 133 sentences

Transcript

Now Neil, are you a tidy person?
Me? Oh dear, no. You should see my floor-drobe.
Your floor-drobe? Yes.
Tidy people keep their clothes in a wardrobe.
I just dump a lot of my clothes on the floor.
So a floor-drobe.
Ah yes, well it sounds as if you could use a bit of decluttering.
Clutter is the word for general mess and untidiness –
when you have too many things, too much stuff.
These days the idea of decluttering is very popular.
Ooh, I love a good declutter.
Trouble is, I hate throwing things away.
Well, we might have some advice for you
in today's programme, but first a question.
It's about cleaning up.
The vacuum cleaner is a machine
we use to clean our houses.
When were the first mechanical floor cleaners,
which later became vacuum cleaners, invented?
Was it a the 1860s, b the 1890s or c the 1920s?
Well, you know what, I have no
idea, so I'll say the 1890s.
OK, well, I'll have the answer later in the programme.
The decluttering techniques of Marie Kondo are very popular these days.
A UK decluttering expert, Leslie Spellman,
appeared on the BBC radio programme
You and Yours to discuss the topic.
She was asked to describe the basics of the Marie Kondo method.
What's the first thing she recommends people start with?
She basically says you have to do things in a certain order.
You have to start with your clothes,
then you move on to your books,
then you move on to paperwork,
then you go on to something called kimono,
which is kind of everything else, kitchens, bathrooms, garages, lofts, etc.
And then finally you tackle sentimental things.
She says that you have to start
with your clothes before moving on through different categories of clutter.
The verb she uses for dealing
with these things is to tackle.
To tackle something means to deal with it, to sort it out.
And the last things she says you
need to tackle are sentimental things.
These are things that you have an emotional connection
to, such as old letters and photographs.
I have to say, those are the things I
find most difficult to get rid
of. I'm very sentimental like that.
I think you just have to be ruthless, Rob.
Either that or buy a bigger house.
Right, let's listen to Lesley Spellman again.
She basically says you have to do things in a certain order.
You have to start with your clothes,
then you move on to your books,
then you move on to paperwork,
then you go on to something called kimono,
which is kind of everything else, kitchens, bathrooms, garages, lofts, etc.
And then finally you tackle sentimental things.
So why is it that decluttering
is such big business these days?
And there are many people and companies offering advice and services.
Here's Lesley Spellman again with her thoughts on this.
I think there's been a big shift, really.
So my generation, my parents, you know,
definitely came from that make-do-amend-era post-war
in the sort of 20th century.
And then all of a sudden people started
to get a little bit more money,
things became more affordable, you can buy five tops
for £5 each, and people have done that.
And that's allowed consumerism to kind
of go crazy in the 21st century.
So what does she put our need for decluttering down to? Well,
first she says that there has been a shift in our behaviour.
This is a way of saying
that there has been a change in the way we behave.
We used to make, do and mend much more.
This phrase means that we made full use
of what we had and if something
broke we tried to fix it.
And these days we seem to have more money
and many goods have got cheaper
and we just like buying stuff.
Or, as she says, consumerism has gone crazy.
Let's listen to her again.
I think there's been a big shift really.
So my generation, my parents, you know,
definitely came from that make do and mend era post-war
in the sort of 20th century.
Then all of a sudden people
started to get a little bit more money,
things became more affordable, you can buy five tops
for £5 each and people have done
that and that's allowed consumerism to kind
of go crazy in the 21st century.
Time to tidy up today's vocabulary,
but first let's have the answer to the question.
Earlier I asked you when were the first mechanical floor cleaners invented?
Was it in a the 1860s,
b the 1890s or c the 1920s?
And Neil, you said...
I guessed at the 1890s. Ah, sadly not.
The correct answer is the 1860s.
So well done to anyone who got that right.
Now on with today's vocabulary.
The first word we had was floor-drobe.
Yes, this is a word to describe
a pile of clothes that someone keeps
on the floor rather than in a wardrobe.
Well, I don't have a floor-drobe,
but I do have a chair-drobe.
I guess you can work out what that means.
Anyway, it seems we both have too much clutter,
which is the untidiness caused by having too many things.
And this leads us to the popular pastime of decluttering,
which is throwing away things to make our homes neat and tidy.
Clutter in my life is an issue I haven't tackled yet.
I haven't tried to fix it or sort it out.
One area that the experts say you
need to tackle is sentimental things.
These are things which you have an emotional connection
to – maybe old letters and photographs, for example.
We then looked at the word shift,
which was a way of saying change.
There has been a shift or a change
in the way we think about things.
Yes, rather than an attitude of make, do and mend –
which means an attitude of being content with what you've got
and fixing things if they break –
we've become part of a consumerist culture
where we like to buy more and more stuff.
But we still find it hard to throw things away.
Yes, indeed we do.