Ode to Stuff, or: You Have to Unstick Your Life

“You have to unstick your life before you can write.”

This piece of wisdom was passed on to me by one of my writer friends early in November, when I was whining about how I had a hard time diving into NaNoWriMo because there was so much other things I needed to do first. “Unstick your life” – that phrase has, ahem, stuck with me ever since.

And I realised that one of the major sticking points in my life is the stuff. You know, the stuff all over my house, in cupboards and drawers and cl...