We spent several weeks early this summer clearing out a house in France ready for sale. This was a painful process for me, although some people make a virtue out of it. The simplification guru Marie Kondo, in her popular book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” says: “If you don’t need it, or use it, or love it, get rid of it.” Like most advice books this one ignores human nature. I needed, used and loved almost everything in that house, and I prefer to live with a comforting amount of clutter. Nobody, except perhaps Ms. Kondo, truly believes that the world was intended to be a tidy place. Just look around. History from time to time throws up these gurus of asceticism who think that we should live like holy hermits in empty boxes. Thoreau famously advised “Simplify. Simplify,” and even lived in a small hut in the woods – but not for long. The Greek philosopher Diogenes was said to have lived in a large ceramic pot with virtually no possessions at all. But he was widely regarded as