This ‘Japanese joy’ thing is turning out to be... rubbish

A friend says she hasn’t had a man in her bedroom for ages because there’s no space for one. Instead there are cupboards full of remote controls from machines anyone born after 2000 would not recognise, writes Suzanne Harrington

Antique cameras from her grandparents which are gorgeous and hipster and all that, but don’t work. Out-of-date gardening catalogues and expensive ornaments she hates. She doesn’t quite collect margarine tubs, but it’s close.

You need to spark joy, says another friend who has read that book by the Japanese lady who says that happiness is all about tidying up. The book urges you to enter into (an admittedly one-sided) dialogue with every inanimate object in your home, and ask, with great sincerity, if it sparks joy within you.