Over the weekend my husband and I inspected houses. We've just sold our investment unit and we were looking for something to replace it a little bit further out.

Not an actual photograph of a property we saw, but it serves as an illustration.At the end of our expedition we came up with a 'top three' of the properties we thought we would consider. And then it occurred to me: all our favourites were empty. There were no tenants in them.

We were amazed at the amount of stuff that was in every property we inspected. And I have to say, it really put us off. It wasn't that they were grotty. True, a couple were, which wasn't nice. Most were clean and tidy. But they were all full of clutter. And, almost without exception, an entire room was given over to storing people's extra stuff. A junk room. It made me very keen to get home and clean out the garage!

The other thing that struck us was the number of people who lived their daily lives with the curtains drawn. We saw a few houses that were tenanted but empty of people and we expected that the blinds would be down. But again, almost without exception, every person we saw inside a house was living in the semi-dark. I felt depressed and oppressed by it.

I'm enjoying the fact that in my house now, there are spaces without stuff. Spaces that make my eyes feel relaxed. And I'm loving living with light pouring in through the windows. It makes me feel alive and happy. Clutter-free, 'light' living, in more ways than one, is definitely a good way to go.