The worst thing about the ants is that they are a constant reminder that my life is full of crumbs. Behind the bread bin, under the bench, on the pantry shelf where the biscuits are, in all the corners of my life where the crumbs aren't actually real crumbs but things that remind me that my life needs a good sweeping out.

So it's my goal in the next couple of weeks to make sure those crumbs, and therefore those ants, are gone. Yes, at times, I'm lots of talk and little action, but I'm at that point where I'm realising that no one else is responsible for cleaning up the mess but me.

It always amazes me, as a little aside, how comfortable people are living in a mess that would drive me berserk. And we're not just talking dust and cobwebs and those crumbs here are we?

How people chose to live their life is their business and there is nothing you can do about it, apart from change the way you react to it all, if it truly upsets you. And those ants upset me.

I've written before, this time of year, about the proverbial spring clean. The de-cluttering of mind, body and soul … and yes, pantries and linen cupboards and wardrobes and Tupperware drawers.

It's at this time of year I turn to people like professional organisers Lissanne Oliver (and look out for Jil Hogan's chat with Oliver in a coming edition of Relax) and Peter Walsh, Oprah's favourite de-cluttering expert. I pull out their books - I love the title of Walsh's 2008 book Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? - and get my head around their message.

Walsh's theory is that clutter is anything that gets between you and the life you want to be living. "I think if you start thinking about clutter in that way it makes things clearer," he told me once.

"It's not just the stuff you're tripping over, the dirty clothes on the floor, or the boxes in the garage or the kids' toys.

"It's also the stuff between your ears. It's the resentment you hold onto because you just don't how to let it go, it's that bad script you keep running through your head from a past relationship, it's the negative talk you keep telling yourself - that's clutter, too, that's just as real and stops you living your best life."

Your best life. There's an Oprahism if ever there's one. But it's something we should all be striving for, particularly at this time of year. Who can't help but be motivated by days that start out cold and silvery and end up blue as blue? Days that give you some hope that soon you'll be able to find more time for things you've been too, well cloistered might be a word, to do, or, at least, too lazy to be bothered doing because those long wintry days can just become too blurgh. You know what I mean.

And it's not hard (in theory at least). Walsh asks us all to ask ourselves: "Does this item or thought or response move me closer to my vision for my best life? If it does, hang on to it. If it doesn't, get rid of it." Pretty simple philosophy.

But sometimes it's hard to let go of things, isn't it? Whether it be a tea towel you took from home when you first moved out. I've got one, it's Scottish linen, and that's why I've held on to it, printed with recipes for haggis and black pudding of all things. I've got a facewasher too, that I bought when my daughter was born, I'd wash her little soft baby body with it, but it's seen better days. Bags of their baby clothes and books they liked to have read to them. Cards they made you for Mother's Day, or love letters from a time long gone.

Does holding on to memories stop you making new ones? There's something to contemplate while you clean behind the fridge.

One thing I am going to do is get stuck into that pantry. Ants be damned. I'm going to do the MamaBake Lean Larder Challenge (and perhaps churn out a story for Food and Wine in the process). Stocktake what's in there (and I know there's a can of chickpeas I inherited from a friend before she moved overseas about six years ago) and set about on a meal plan to get rid of it all. Join me.

Another thing I'm going to do is go after the cobwebs. And the skirting boards. And come up with a plan to keep more on top of things.

For a variety of reasons I've been very lax about being organised this year. Something to do with not being able to plan. But, for my own mental health, I need to get back there.

Find the best version of me I know is hidden there, among the crumbs and the dust and the cobwebs. Sweep all of them away and set about on that fresh start.

* Any tips on how get rid of the ants are most welcome.