Sort Your Life Out: How to fix four common cluttering mistakes

“For a lot of people, paperwork [is something] negative… it’s bills, it’s invoices, it’s things you have to do,” she explains.

“So when it’s spread across the house – it’s on the kitchen counter, it’s on the side table, it’s in your bedroom, it’s in your handbag – [it feels] like 15 different piles of things that you have to deal with.”

Gathering it all in one place makes it feel less like its encroaching on your life.

“It feels like, OK, well, I’ve only got this one box of paperwork to deal with now – so I’m going to sit and just go through it. It makes it much easier.”

For Carter, the positive mental benefits of an organised and tidy home are clear.

But what if you left it untidied? “Well, all clutter does is look back at us – doesn’t it?”