I see clutter (Suzanne Moore, G2, 7 January) more as a “symptom” than a “problem”. Clutter and consumerism are symptoms of excessively cheap products with the true price being paid somewhere else down the line in the form of exploitative labour practices, environmental degradation or excessive use of fuel. The explanation is simple: our homes are full of “tat” because all that stuff is so cheap to buy. The solution is to put an end to the perpetual shopping spree that is modern life. If we created the economic conditions (using taxation, tariffs and regulation) so that far more everyday items were manufactured closer to home, this would quickly declutter everyone’s homes because, when you pay the full cost of locally produced shirts (for example), rather than sweatshop-produced ones, you demand higher quality, you buy far fewer, you appreciate them more and you wear them longer. The result: your clutter disappears.
Alan Mitcham
Cologne, Germany
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