I spent a month testing anti-consumption strategies, from cash stuffing to ditching Amazon Prime, to find the ones that genuinely cut my spending

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I’m pretty careful with money, I say as I trip over piles of Amazon Prime boxes. I’ve never really been the shopping type, I insist as I stare at drawers groaning with unworn Asos clothes. Look how much I care about the environment, I tell myself as I click “buy now” on yet another battery charger I bought to replace the one, two or five I’ve lost around the house somewhere.

You don’t have to be a shopaholic to be drowning in stuff. All it takes is an averagely mindless approach to impulse buying, until one day your home is heaving with a personal landfill of tat.

Whether it’s everyday grime or dust mite poo, your mattress might be dirtier than you think. We asked the experts about the best way to remove stains, smells and allergens

• The best mattresses – tested

Your mattress is not just furniture, it’s family. You drool and sweat into it for hours, have sex on it, and shed millions of dead skin cells into it every night. It shares your DNA. Romantic or disgusting? Either way, that thing needs a wash.

Sticking a mattress in the washing machine is clearly about as feasible as putting the car in the dishwasher, but at least you can hose a car down and leave it to dry in the sun. With a mattress, especially one that contains foam (like most of the mattresses I’ve reviewed for the Filter), care, patience and a little bit of ingenuity are required when cleaning, or you could end up damaging it.

Hunkering down in January; hiking boots for outdoor adventures; and cold-weather beauty essentials

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Congratulations, you’ve made it through more than 75% of January, Blue Monday and all. Extra kudos if you got through it without booking a holiday amid the onslaught of sun-soaked adverts, although I confess I’m not tempted. Would I rather spend hours on a plane with 200 strangers who had prosecco for breakfast, or hibernate until spring? I’ll take hibernation, thanks. Especially now that I’ve learned to do it properly.

Hunkering down may not sound like something you need tips to master, but January is the best of times and the worst of times for those of us who struggle with insomnia. On the upside, all the darkness encourages your body to produce plenty of the “sleep hormone” melatonin (nature’s way of telling you to sleep through it). On the downside, lack of sunlight is a key trigger for seasonal affective disorder (Sad) – one of the symptoms of which is broken sleep. Never simple, is it?

The best women’s boots for winter: 24 favourites, from knee-high to ankle

The best heated clothes airers to save time and money when drying your laundry, tested

The best women’s walking boots, tested by our expert hiker

The best men’s walking boots for every type of hiking adventure, tested

The best electric heaters, from traditional stove-style units to modern smart models – tested

How I shop with Dawn O’Porter: ‘Good skin is an obsession’

‘Wonderfully thick, creamy and clean-tasting’: the best supermarket natural yoghurts, tasted and rated