Our pallet (yes, pallet) of boxes and other items in our moving kit arrived this past Wednesday. Already I think we've made a dent and packed a lot of stuff. Still lots to go. We do have an agreement of sale on our house. It took about three weeks, which in our current local market is lucky. We had a visit yesterday evening from a young guy. He and his fiance looked at our house right after we put it up for sale. They went on vacation and then their agent did. By the time everyone returned we had received an offer from another couple. His fiance 'loves' the house. So we took down their name and number in case the first agreement falls through. We felt disappointed for them.
The above picture is what my office currently looks like. Actually, our entire house is pretty much in the same state. Half packed, definitely not looking like home.
I was going through house THINKING to see what I wanted to highlight and this sentence from the book jumped out at me.
Psychological comfort also depends on being surrounded by the meaningful objects and sensory stimuli that summon your desirable inner states - seemingly small things that help make a house or apartment feel like home.
A little background: Ms. Gallagher discusses the "environmental-behavioral perspective" of how we can take steps toward a home that is right for us. Thinking about past experiences, our personalities, our traditions and even our daily habits can help us identify the qualities we want in our home.
"Our houses and apartments require psychological as well as physical customization."
Back to the first quote: I realized that it is not about the things or objects themselves that make a house a home but the memories and feelings that the objects evoke either individually or collectively. And that is one area that the psychology comes into play. Ultimately, the things we have in our homes should speak to how we want to live and not just be fashionable. My brother and I made the most horribly ugly ceramic objects when we were young, but my mother proudly displays them to this day along the top of her kitchen cabinets because they remind her of us and when we were kids. I have a faded drawing done by late grandfather that someone else would probably pass right over if in a thrift store, but I cherish it because it reminds me of him (and maybe who I inherited my drawing ability from).
So when I look at my bare shelves in my house, I see the home it once was slowly starting to fade. But that's ok. We'll bring all of our favorite things to the next house and start creating a new home there.
