Sally Augustin

It's difficult to start to live with someone else. The easiest part of the whole process is getting all of your possessions into the same space (and that can actually be quite a hassle depending on the elevator situation). The psychological adjustments required are exhausting, and there isn't a salve...

Nostalgia and spurring those thoughts about the past with physical reminders in your home can up the reading on your personal happiness meter.

In 2008, researchers in Psychological Science found that nostalgia can help counter feelings of loneliness, and tchotchkes and other souvenirs in view seem likely...

Moving into a new home is a shock to our emotional equilibrium, even when we don't get lost on the way to our new address or argue with the movers after they grow frustrated with our attempts to find the perfect place for the sofa. Our bond to our home...

It's spring, and flowering plants are popping up outdoors in gardens and inside on store shelves. So, it's the perfect time to bring some of those plants to the windowsills and tabletops in your home.

Indoor plants can enrich our lives in many ways. One of the benefits is that...

Spring comes just in time for many of us. After we settle in for our long winter's nap, we start to feel glum as dust and things we haven't had time to put away start to pile up. With the new season comes also the medicine to cure our melancholy:...

We all agree that in the perfect world we would all know how to be organized and live clutter free. But as is all too clear, the reality is that we have stuff, and that stuff can't always be neatly packed away into color-coordinated storage baskets and file cabinets we...

New Year's resolutions -- it's that time again. This year, when you vow to exercise more, eat less, be nicer, read more books, etc., also resolve to make a few changes in the places where you live.

There are lots of things that can affect your mood during the holiday season... what do holiday sights and sounds add to that volatile mix?

At least in the Northern Hemisphere, the holiday season comes at a time that's short on...

Chatty Cathys talk all the time. They are the life of the party even when there's no party. Quiet Quentins hardly ever speak, even when people ask them questions. Every gathering you host this holiday season will include some Cathys and Quentins, as well as a slew of regular Janets...

Want to feel at home on nights when you're not sleeping in your own bed? Wondering if the office replication service that Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock uses has a residential division? When traveling it's hard to feel the same comfort you feel when you're at home. In this article...

Your home is filled with sights, sounds, and scents. Which ones should you select to build positive relationships among the members of your family? This is the third article in a three part series about using home design to enhance family ties.

Consider the colors you put on your walls,...

Humans are social animals and part of successful socializing is understanding the person we're talking to.

To smooth the communication process, we continually signal who we are by fiddling with the spaces in which we find ourselves. We read and interpret "signals," whether they're sent by family members or others:...

Many families are struggling to develop and maintain the sort of family bonds that Norman Rockwell's paintings have seared into our psyche. Not all families can achieve the bliss that he portrayed so evocatively, but everyone can use the physical environment to help build positive relationships among family members. This...