We’ve been cleaning out the guest room, which has served as a bit of a box room over the last few years, as a prelude to finally redecorating in there.

This has then expanded, as is ever the way of these things, into shredding any personal documents not needed any more or that are more than seven years old for financial documents.

All of which means that the last few days have been a bit of a rollercoaster as I re-read and destroy documents relating to financial troubles, diabetes, hospital stays, divorce, redundancy, remarriage, and the fraud that claimed Lady M’s father before he died.

There have been things taken to the charity shop, rooms clearer than they’ve looked in years, and a huge pile of gaming material that I will be selling on in the near future.

It will be all worth it. It makes space in the flat we sorely need, clears remnants of painful times, and despite being a hard slog is giving us a sense of a clean sweep – as well as a general clean.

I suppose it also draws a line in the sand to move on from some of the things in the past and background and make a new start.