We had the joy and the fortune to spend Thanksgiving week living in a home away from home. My aunt & uncle’s neighbors, who were away for the holiday, graciously offered up their home to us while we were in town visiting. Thus, we spent the week in this lovely modern style home with clean lines and fantastic amounts of light filtering into the 14' wall-to-ceiling windows facing southeast (with new light from each day filtering in).

It is a funny experience to spend time in someone else’s home--someone you don’t know--and to be surrounded by all the stuff of life that tells a story about what life is like for their family.

1. Getting dressed in the morning takes way too long, it’s stressful and you don’t always like the results. You have a closet full of clothes, but nothing to wear!

2. You resent constantly picking up after your family...so much so that you consider taking a trash bag around the house with you instead of putting things back where they go!

3. Cleaning your home is like a marathon: slow and steady and man does it take forever.

4. You have holiday cards up from last year, and--now that you mention it--pictures that got stuck up on the fridge years ago, and knick-knacks you’ve never touched except to dust.

5. You are constantly purging, but it just doesn’t seem to make any difference. Your home still feels cluttered right after you’ve spent a good chunk of time picking up and purging.

6. You target everyone’s stuff but your own. My stuff?: ‘Oh, it’s pared down about as far as it can go.’ (No judgement--I’ve been there.)  

7. You have so much “useful stuff” in your garage/junk drawer/utility closet that when you actually need that widget, you can’t find it, even after an hour of hunting. You could go out and buy another for $3, but you don’t, because you know it’s here somewhere!

8. You’re not 100% sure what is at the back of that closet, deep down where the light never shines.

9. Walking into your home at the end of the day, you feel overwhelmed and exhausted. Everywhere you look, there are things to do, piles to put away. You plop the mail down on the growing stack--you’ll deal with it “later.”

10. Just figuring out what to make for dinner is so overwhelming, you decide to order out… again. It’s just so much easier.

11. You’re not comfortable hosting Bookclub or having friends over---your space doesn’t accurately reflect YOU.

It's been a challenging few weeks: lots of sickness going around, not a lot of sleep for my stuffed-up two year old (or her mama) and work deadlines that have had me at the computer on weekends when I would rather hike a mountain for a 7-year-old's birthday party!

Saturday evening found me and my husband sitting at the table after dinner--kids playing together in the living room. In those precious moments when we could talk, I admitted that I was feeling drained and exhausted: as an entrepreneur, as a mom, as a wife, as a friend. My home hadn't seen the attention I love to give it. Things were breaking and we weren't finding time to fix them. As a Feng Shui practitioner, I am all too aware of how broken things around your home correspond to things breaking down in your life. 

Read on for the worksheet and video!