Have you ever been in an abandoned house? In 2001, This American Life told a fascinating story of a house whose family disappeared. And certainly, even if we don't venture inside, we've all seen houses that appear abandoned. Do you ever wonder what's inside? What happened? Why do people just leave so many things? Sometimes …
I have mixed feelings about self-help books. I recently read a scathing piece on the self-industry which characterized self-gurus as con artists convincing you that you are inadequate so that you'll buy more products promising easy fixes. Well, some doctors sell you snake oil and some doctors make you better. So while I may have …
October arrives! Welcome witches and all! I'm here for it, in spite of everything. But this post isn't really about Halloween. One of my goals as we in this hemisphere slide into winter is to create more space or rather to clear out more stuff that I do not need. Last year, I tried the …
I still have my little altars of objects and treasured things. We still have hundreds of books. No one is ever going to walk into this house and say, "Are you a minimalist?" I feel that's important to make clear before I again mention that most trendy of lifestyle phenomenon names Marie Kondo and confess …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 