Your House Is Talking to You with Myquillyn Smith

There is a specific kind of overwhelm that hits when you walk into your own living room and everything in it seems to be asking you for something. Finish this puzzle. Put me away. Read the rest of me. Myquillyn Smith, better known as The Nester, says your house is talking to you. It is not shaming you. It is telling you the truth about your stuff.

Myquillyn is back in the guest chair, this time on her own, and her new book House Hushing is out now. She walks us through backwards decluttering (pull the loose stuff out of one room, stash it somewhere else, live with that room for 48 hours, and let it prove its case), the threshold where a room tips from fine to too much, and why so many of us cross it earlier than our mothers did.

We also get into the confession she hears most from women about their homes, the difference between a room that is quiet and a room that has no soul, how pattern and contrast work like volume dials you can turn up or down, and why she owns seasonally instead of just owning less. Plus a dead butterfly hot glued into a frame, and the ten minute fix for anyone whose house is currently yelling at them.

We are in our Say the Quiet Thing Out Loud series, and there is plenty most of us never say out loud about our own homes. This one gives you permission and a plan.

Thought-provoking Quotes:

Whenever you feel friction happening in your home, that is your house actually talking to you. And it is not shaming you. (Myquillyn)
Less stuff leads to peace, that is what the minimalists say. But I would say intentionality leads to peace. (Myquillyn)
More begets more. But the opposite is also true, which is so hopeful for us. Less leads to less. (Myquillyn)
Of all the places in the world, wouldn’t it be nice if we created a home that quietly welcomed us? (Myquillyn)
It is not a mystery, that feeling you get of just a little bit of overwhelm and a lack of joy. (Jen)

Resources Mentioned in This Episode: