Julie Jay: Move over Marie Kondo - there’s a new declutterer in town

Using methods as discreet as possible I have been sneaking toys to the attic, but usually get stung by Ted’s Gestapo surveillance skills just as I am about to tiptoe upstairs with the contraband

Little colorful wooden toy cars

In one of the earlier Friends episodes, Phoebe doesn’t have the heart to tell her roommate, Monica, that she is moving out and so instead moves her belongings out slowly, over time, explaining the absence of her things by saying she has taken them to get repaired. 

Similarly, I have attempted to incrementally declutter Ted’s toy corner without attracting his all-seeing, all-knowing Big Brother gaze. (No matter where you stand in the house, Ted somehow always knows when you open a packet of biscuits).