Just over three years ago, we sold our house and prepared to move into our new one. The real estate agent we had charged with getting us the best possible price for our much-loved first home walked through each room, nodding his head and taking notes. Once he’d finished the tour, we sat around the kitchen table and he started:

‘Your house is beautiful. You have it decorated very tastefully and it’s incredibly warm. The artwork is just lovely. The rooms are well proportioned and there is a sense of space. It’s really easy to fall in love with this home.’

We smiled at him. Clearly we had nailed the single-fronted Victorian style, not overdoing the period features, instead adding modern touches throughout while still giving a nod to the heritage of the area. Obviously, I should have been a stylist and was wondering how we could get on The Block.

Evidently, we’d be getting a call from the editor of Belle magazine for a feature. I imagined the photo spread: there was I standing in the kitchen whipping up a batch of cookies; Aaron sitting on the front veranda playing the guitar; close ups of the rosebushes in full bloom across the front of the house; the kidlet sprawled on the floor of her room, drawing; me lazily lounging on the couch reading with one of the dogs curled up at my feet….

And then the real estate agent brought me out of my reverie and back to reality.

‘Now, get rid of half of your stuff! There’s a storage place around the corner. Use it! Also, why is there Nutella everywhere?’

We stripped the house right back, brutally removing any details that made the house ours.

The music room was turned back into a bedroom, so by the time we had finished there was not a single musical instrument in the house, except for an oud we’d picked up in Morocco a couple of months earlier. The floor to ceiling CD shelves were dismantled and we held onto a handful of CDs, the rest going into boxes.

Books and bookshelves also were packed away leaving fewer than half our collection on show. Photos were packed away, reminders of our travels stored safely. Nutella jars were hidden away. By the time we finished no one would know that a musical and bookish family who had spent a lot of time traveling the globe and eating Nutella had been living there for 15 years.

The house felt a little like an empty shell, however it did provide potential buyers a sense of the space and feel of the house. In essence, we had taken the house back to basics allowing anyone walking through to imagine themselves making cookies in the kitchen or playing guitar on the veranda…

My diabetes management feels like it needs someone to walk through it and get rid of the excess. It seems there is so much going on – diabetes technology everywhere; bells, whistles and alarms; apps to record, remind and recommend; comparisons between different devices. I’ve been thinking about building some sort of automated system after being inspired following some meetings in New York. I look at numbers, turn them on their head as I analyse them and use the data to make minuscule changes, but don’t feel any clearer about what I am doing. There is a lot happening and it feels a little cluttered.

The thing is, I don’t really know what back to basics is when it comes to diabetes. Is it a complete and utter disconnection from technology? Returning to a basic and planned diet that is similar each and every day? Is it keeping records of everything in a simple notebook, looking for patterns?

Reminding myself of my word for the year – and overarching direction – perhaps I just need to pause and consider why it is that my diabetes management has found itself where it is – slightly chaotic with a lot going on!

It’s time to pause. It’s time to remember why 16 years ago I wanted to start using a pump and why 8 years ago I started using CGM. What were the motives behind those decisions and are they being achieved? Are they still relevant?

Lots of questions. Lots of thinking to do. With an overall aim of simplifying things, and that can’t  be bad.

The front room of our old house ready for sale: from walls lined with books and comfortable places to read and work to bare basics.