How Well Do We Know Our Own Homes?

According to a recent news story, a man in Japan discovered a woman living in his closet and eating food out of his refrigerator. The funny part of this story isn't the mysterious woman in the closet, however, but the whole year it took this unnamed man to figure out she was living there with him.

I might not know where I put my scissors, and I might not know what happened to that jar of strawberry jam, but I'd like to think I'd know if another person moved into my apartment a year ago. This story is a little frightening, though, because there's a chance that like this Japanese man, I might be too busy or dense to notice. After all, how well do any of us know our own homes?

Taking precautions against burglary and other catastrophies are always good ideas, but some of the modern luxuries we take for granted may be keeping us from enjoying the homes we work so hard to keep. Here's what I mean: the busier and more chaotic our lives, the more time we spend away from home every day. And we overcompensate for our prolonged absences by paying for services that keep us from needing to go home as often. Here are some examples:

1. Renters and Homeowners Insurance

If I'm paying for renters insurance, I might not think twice about coming home late from work or spending the weekend at a friend's place. In fact, knowing my stuff would be replaced if it all disappeared overnight makes me fell less compelled to be there to protect it.

Renters and homeowners insurance gives us the mental leeway we need to not worry so much about our prized possessions. Granted, there are irreplaceable things like photo albums and keepsakes that no amount of insurance could make up for, but what burglar would take that funny wooden bird from Antigua or the scrapbook of cute cat moments? Knowing that you could be financial compensated for loss of jewelry, computer equipment, and DVDs gives us peace of mind to live more of our lives outside the home.

2. Dog Walkers and Pet Sitters

Working fourteen hour days or taking frequent business trips used to prohibit people from owning pets, but now you can pay for any number of pet care services to take care of your furry friends while you're out. That German shepherd you got as a back-up alarm system needs to be fed and walked while he's protecting your home. Knowing you can call your regular pet service means that you're in no hurry to let Fido out to go potty and Spot won't chew up your slippers in the meantime.

3. Professional Organizers

The busier we get, the harder it is to keep our homes tidy and organized. Before, you had to drag yourself to Home Depot to but shelves and spend the whole weekend organizing your closet to deal with the clutter, but now you can pay a professional to do it for you. Besides hiring a housekeeping service, you can now hire an organization specialist to determine how to best make use of your space. These entrepreneurs will come to your home, evaluate your stuff, design a plan, install the necessary shelves and hooks, and put your stuff away for you neatly. Now you can go out all weekend instead of taking care of the house.

4. Work, School, Eat, Sleep

In a culture in which what you do defines who you are, there's a push to succeed. We're being told that to get out of debt, get a good job, get a raise, or just get by, we need to constantly improve ourselves. So we put in extra hours at the job to prove our worth, and we go back to school for more skills and better degrees. It's a wonder we don't drop dead from exhaustion. In the race to get more stuff, many of us only make it home to eat, sleep, and get up to do it all over again.

As the world makes it harder and harder to get home, how well do we really know the places where we live? If my neighbors don't know me, how would they know if a stranger moved into my home? And, are they even home enough themselves to notice?

The last thing I want to do is tell anyone else how to live their lives. But in reading this news piece, I felt a strange connection to the man whose home had been invaded without his knowledge. In college, my live-in boyfriend and I were so busy between work and school that it took another roommate to notice that my boyfriend had moved out of our apartment. Even then, we weren't sure my boyfriend was really gone for another week or so.

As you can probably imagine, that scenario was a real wake-up call. If I can't enjoy the place I live or the people I live with, then maybe I'm working too hard. I had to find out the hard way that working a little less hard and having fewer luxuries means having more time to enjoy my life and my home, and that's worth more than any promotion.

Resources:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080531/ap_on_re_as/japan_closet_woman

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7426950.stm

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,360427,00.html