It was a humorous way of telling us to straighten up the living room. People still use the expression “redd up” in parts of Great Britain, as well as in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

By now you have doubtless heard of Marie Kondo’s book about redding up, “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing.” Get rid of any possession that doesn’t bring you joy, she advises. I know someone who’s afraid his wife will get rid of him now that she’s read the book.

Tidying as life-changing magic? For many this is no exaggeration. These people no longer have any idea what is hidden inside the boxes they walk around every day or store in otherwise unused rooms and cupboards and closets. For various reasons, they may be afraid to find out.

My friend Gill said that recently he opened several cardboard boxes that he had put off unpacking for 27 years. To his surprise, he discovered the boxes contained bottles of his own home-brewed beer. He tried some.

“It wasn’t too bad,” he told me.

Where do you stand? Take this quiz to find out.

1. Is there a part of your home that houses stuff of any kind that makes you feel anxious or bewildered because this particular stuff, even if you no longer know exactly what it is, is emitting harmful vibrations of dread, almost like radioactivity, into your living space?

2. Do you put off inviting people over because you feel that the sight of your collected stuff will cause them to judge you and then discuss you on the way home, comparing you to individuals they saw on one of those hoarding television shows where people can’t even wend their way through the living room or use the kitchen sink or the bathroom, and sometimes they find a dead cat or some ancient half-eaten pizza layered in the debris that covers the floor?

3. Do you ever say to yourself, “At least I can walk across my living room floor, plus I could wash the dishes if I wanted to?” (Careful! This is a trick question. A yes answer shows that you are setting a low bar and may have a serious problem, even if you are not yet answering yes to Question 2.)

4. How many things, right now, are you hoping to “come across” in the next few days? How many useful or necessary objects–reading glasses, credit cards, books, gloves, documents, bills, addresses, garments, anything–are you counting on to simply “turn up” during the course of an ordinary day?

5. Does anxiety and/or depression about the disorder in your home make you feel suicidal sometimes, but then you tell yourself, “No way, I can’t die until I get my stuff organized?” (See question 2.) How do you rate? Answers next week!

Not to pressure you, but the longer you wait, the more difficult redding up becomes. Perhaps you will have a pleasant experience, like my friend Gill who after nearly three decades was reunited with his beer.

Priscilla inherited a big, ramshackle old house with an entire third storey stacked waist-deep in periodicals dating back to the 1930s, which her father thought he would get around to reading some day. To be fair, perhaps he would have, had he not died first, but they are a terrible fire hazard. When Priscilla was finally able to face the task of clearing them away, she was rewarded with three or four old family photographs that came fluttering out from the pages of one of the newspapers.

When I told my sister this, she said, “Oh no! That means there could be valuable things in there–more photographs, maybe money. Now Priscilla will have an even harder time getting rid of it all.”

Another woman I know can’t throw away anything that looks official, including any piece of paper that comes from a bank. Other people keep boxes of old letters which they never look at because it makes them too sad to read them. When they move, they carry the boxes along with them.

Marie Kondo tells us, “To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose.”

Of course, for some of us, reading and writing about redding up are easier than putting it into practice. Here goes.

Have a good week.

(Martha Allen lives in Keene Valley. She has been writing for the News for more than 20 years.)