How can I make a comfortable home?
Last updated 10 August 2026 | Created August 2026 | More big questions
Sub-questions
- What makes a space comfortable? What does comfortable look like for me?
- How did our home patterns come to be? How much are these rooted in traditional gender norms? Which should be changed?
- How can I keep my house clean and organized?
- Why do aesthetics matter in our spaces?
- How much stuff is too much? How much stuff is enough?
Keywords
- interior design
- home decor
- home
- house
- remodel
- home improvement
- architecture
- aesthetics
Reading
Blogs and newsletters
Interesting writers on interior design. *=newsletter with RSS feed.
- The Aesthetics of Joy (Ingrid Fetell Lee) – home design and how it relates to our joy and happiness
- ⭐ FOR SCALE* – architecture, interior design, culture
- The Last Layer* (Colin King)
- McMansion Hell (Kate Wagner) – architecture criticism
Bookshelf
Related books I’ve read since 2021. Links go to my book review.
Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff
by
(non-fiction, organization)
2026-07-09
A Dirty Guide
to a Clean Home
by
+
(home cleaning)
2026-04-18
The Homeowner’s Guide to Contracting, Building, and Remodeling
by
(non-fiction, remodeling)
2025-12-10
How to Keep House While Drowning 👍👍
by
(non-fiction, organization)
2022-09-11
Workshops, podcasts + videos
Articles
Articles or longer responses I’ve written. Loosely reverse chronological by heading.
- ⭐ To buy or not to buy: making our selves through our homes
- Questioning collections: the emotional weight of uncollecting
- Elevating a book collection to a personal library
- The rotating bookshelf art show
- Electrifying my house: the first year with a heat pump
- Aesthetic fascism
- Misadventures in leaded dishware
- What we think about when we think about history
- When your space feels off
Notes
Bookmarks and quotes from articles I’ve read.
Emotional
- Home organization is often a quest for control
- Reframing home as a productive rather than consumptive space
- Coziness comes from life
- Make your home a sanctuary
- Reclaiming the “rec room”
- Minimalism as a way of taking up less space
- Confronting Sources of Guilt and Overwhelm in the House
Aesthetic
- “The aesthetic is liquidity.”
- Article pairing: houses as homes, not investments
- Neutralizing reality to sell
- The Homogeneity of Millenial Design
Practical
- Deciding which books to keep
- Non-toxic flooring options
- How to hang things on the wall with screws
- Curtain hanging guide
Projects
My house projects.
