A household’s ordinary order should help its residents more than impress its occasional visitors.

A house arranged for visitors is arranged for the people who are there least. Display tidiness puts things where they look right rather than where they are used, so the daily cost of hunting for the scissors is paid by residents in order to impress somebody who comes twice a year. The mismatch is common and mostly unnoticed, because visitors are exactly who you imagine when you stand back and assess a room.

Move three things to where they are actually used, even if that looks worse. Judge your home by how a normal Wednesday runs in it rather than by how it photographs.