Why tidying up might be the undoing of us

A more sustainable life means even our home looks different from the others on the street these days. But the urge to conform is strong, says Kate Hughes

We may have taken No Mow May a bit far (Kate Hughes)

Ours is a nation of nosey buggers. We like nothing more than a good crane over a hedge and the slow-stepping consideration of the merits – or, even more delicious, the failings – of the neighbourhood frontage.

It’s surely the basis for the competitive mowing that has interrupted the kids’ startlingly well-lit midsummer bedtimes recently – the relentless drone of early evening grassy buzz cuts. We must, the frequency of it all suggests, be surrounded by bowling green lawns and perfect, regimented borders.

Set aside the Nineties movie-based suspicion that the tidier the home, the more psychopathic the tendencies of its occupants, and these are the homes we grudgingly admire for their calm order – for the certainty and peace that the occupants must surely enjoy as the rest of the world battles a stream of never-ending chaos.