Disharmony is caused
by excess, clutter

According to firefighter Steve Anderson, "Firefighters see people's homes all the time, and how someone lives reveals a lot about who they are."

It seems Anderson was impressed by how comfortable and attractive the apartment was, and smitten with the lady in distress. That meeting blossomed into love and marriage!

What does your home say about you? If a stranger came into your home unexpectedly, what would he or she see? Would the impression accurately reflect who you really are?

The home is a private sanctuary that others might not see, but it is actually an extension of ourselves. For emotional comfort, I believe it is important to have harmony between our living spaces and our true selves.

While we might not have control over what our homes look like on the outside, there is much we can do with the inside, even on a limited budget. This is a lesson I learned as a teenager in Seattle.

My Sunday school teacher had invited the class to dinner at his home. He and his wife were college students living in low-income housing. I had passed by the housing project numerous times and was curious to see what it looked like inside.

My teacher and his wife had minimal material possessions and therefore no clutter at all. He was an art major, and the walls were decorated with his paintings. As I sat looking around at how beautiful and artful the interior was, I remember thinking that you'd never know we were in a housing project! Their home truly reflected who they were.

A client once called me, distressed that her apartment was not a comfortable or inviting space. Upon meeting her, I could see that her living space did not reflect who she was -- a tasteful, dignified woman.

It wasn't just the mishmash of furniture, but there was too much of it. She once had a lovely large home, and had downsized, trying to keep as much as possible. Her first step was to purge and de-clutter down to her treasures.

From my experience, when there is disharmony and discomfort in one's living space, excess and clutter are common culprits.

If your home doesn't currently reflect who you are and is cause for discomfort, don't despair. There's hope, and there are steps you can take, the first perhaps being to purge down to your treasures -- those things that are meaningful to you -- not necessarily in a monetary way. Isn't it our treasures that help define who we are, and not the extraneous clutter?

I encourage you to begin step by step to create a home that reflects who you are. It will be time well spent. See you in two weeks!