British singer Alison Moyet has smashed up her gold discs and dumped her old stage costumes in a bid to purge her past.

The former Yazoo star recently moved from her longtime home just north of London to a property in the English south coast resort of Brighton.

She was determined to leave her past behind for good, so she wrecked hundreds of awards handed to her throughout her singing career, threw out her closet full of stage outfits, and burned her old diaries.

The Only You hitmaker is adamant her dramatic clearout was to spare her son and two daughters from having to hoard boxes of her belongings when she dies.

Moyet tells British newspaper The Guardian, "I dumped everything. Even my gold discs. I smashed the lot. I took a hammer to them. And I'm not being lairy (boastful), but there were hundreds. It was f**king brilliant. All my stage clothes - gone. I love it. And I burned all my diaries.

"I really don't want to own things. It just drags you down... I don't care. What is the point (of keeping possessions)? I've done (my children) a real service. You die and they're left with boxes and boxes of s**t that they are then forced to chuck away."