I'VE NEVER been one for spring cleaning but this year things are different. Moving house doesn't just nudge you in the direction of a good clear-out, it demands it.

At no other time do you meticulously pick through every drawer, every cupboard, every box and every bag with a view to reducing your possessions by at least a third.

For the past month we have been doing just that as we prepare for two men (hopefully big and burly - good-looking would be a bonus) and a van to move us five miles up the road to our new home.

It is not easy, especially for a hoarder like me. And the glut of clear-out TV programmes like Life Laundry don't help at all. Some things are almost as hard to part with as an arm or leg. As I've blitzed our cupboards I've had the biggest problems with:

Children's art and craft

It's a deeply emotional thing, parting with any painting, drawing or other work of art produced by your children. Totally meaningless splodges daubed on a scrap of paper by your three-year-old can assume a significance equivalent to owning an original Van Gogh. Throwing such things in the bin seems so callous - like chucking away memories. School work and things made for special occasions like Mothers' Day generate even more guilt trips.

Letters and birthday cards

Again, these have been chosen and written just for you and hurling them out seems disrespectful. They are also potentially historic documents and depending on what happens to the person who wrote them, may sell for millions.

Unidentified bits and bobs

It could be a two-inch long piece of pipe with a funny attachment on the end, a strange-looking tent peg, a nut or a bolt. Or a pink piece of plastic that has almost certainly come from something belonging to Barbie. Either way, you know for certain that the minute you throw it away you will hear someone in the house shouting for it. You can't take the risk that it might be the linchpin.

Books - I love them. Not only to read, but there is nothing more wonderful to line the walls of your home. But we have far too many. And some have not been opened for at least ten years, if not more. However, they are like old friends.

One of the many throwing out-related arguments we have had centred around my reluctance to part with Brookside - the golden years, (or something like that) and my husband's insistence that if I kept it he would hang on to his pictorial history of Howards Way.

If you are anything like me, you will keep things that you don't really need for years, but eventually you get to the stage where in order to maintain your sanity something has to give. I'll grab a bin bag, close my eyes and think of a spacious, minimalist household.