A home becomes easier to share when everyone has something they do not have to explain owning.

Living together goes better when each person has a small area that requires no justification. A drawer, a shelf, a chair, a corner of the worktop: somewhere things can be odd or untidy or excessive without anyone asking why. Constant negotiation over every object is exhausting, and the exhaustion usually lands hardest on whoever feels least entitled to space.

Give each person in the house one thing that is theirs outright, including the children. Say out loud that it needs no defending. Then leave it alone, even when you would arrange it differently.