I once heard a professional organizer describe an orderly home as one in which every object has its own home—its own specific place. To me, as I’ve begun to see that each truly needful object in my home represents a useful spiritual idea, this makes perfect sense. But I didn’t always see it that way.

When I moved into my first home as an adult, I loved every little nook and cranny. But soon it seemed that every little nook and cranny was filled with stuff, such as unwashed clothes and dishes, unread books and magazines, and so on. The biggest issue, though, was unmade decisions—the things that hadn’t yet found a right place. 

It was an older home, and we were trying to steam off many layers of old wallpaper in our dining room, which was right at the front of the house. It looked like a bomb had exploded in that room. No matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t able to get control over the clutter and the dirt. I was frustrated, embarrassed, and filled with self-condemnation.