Last year I made a life-changing decision. Okay, admittedly I was forced into it by a severe lack of money, but nonetheless, it was still life-changing, and having just done a huge spring clean, I’m so glad I did.

It’s official, I have given up my addiction to ‘new gadgets’ - fancy phones, iPods, iPod Touches, games consoles, fancy computer tablets….

Forget about diamonds – gadgets used to be the way to this girl’s heart.

I know that means I’ve just outed myself as a big geek, but I’m kind of proud of it.

I don’t mind if you know I get excited by the fact my phone has a weather ‘app’ which makes a mini-windscreen wiper swipe across it on a rainy day (I should have left that bit out shouldn’t I?).

It makes me look really sad and goes a long way to describing the ‘Single’ bit of this column’s title, doesn’t it?

But have you noticed how now, more than ever, our addiction to having the latest ‘anything’ means no sooner have you worked out how to turn your shiny new purchase on, than a newer, better and very tempting version of it is already on the shelves?

Truly, it makes me wonder where all this ‘out of date’ stuff will end up.

During a recent clean-up it felt really wrong to throw out an old computer monitor which, although in perfect working order, was 14 years old and thus the size of a small portable television (well at least the size small portable televisions used to be before they too visited slimming world).

Other things I threw out included a darkroom developing kit (I can’t even remember the last time I printed a photo out, let alone did it myself) and a video recorder.

Again, it’s been well over 10 years since I was the member of a video store.

Feeling guilty, I then went online to check the secondhand value of a few other things lying around the house (be warned, you might want to have a stiff drink in hand if you try this yourself). My large TV which originally cost about a grand? Now worth 20 quid on eBay.

My (formerly) expensive SLR film camera, complete with zoom lenses, also £20.

A hand-held Nintendo Game Boy with games, £4.

And collectively the seven mobile phones I’ve got sitting in a drawer are worth £24 (strangely their chargers are now worth more than the actual phones are...).

I’ve now decided there is only one solution to saving both the planet and my sanity, and that is to become a hoarder.

Admittedly it will make me an even bigger social outcast than the whole geeky girl thing did, but on the up side, having spent Sunday evening watching Antiques Roadshow, I’ve calculated it should only take just over 60 years for everything I’ve got to become valuable again.