F
or the first seven months working from home, I was surrounded by my failures. We had set up a makeshift office in our loft, which over the years had come to resemble an oversized junk drawer. My chair faced a pile of boxes filled with clothes and books my girls had outgrown, holiday decorations and kids crafts with bags of yet-to-be shredded bills teetering on top. The nearby futon couch was buried under old toys and myriad items that had been stashed upstairs during family parties and never taken back down. Everywhere I looked, I saw something that I had neglected to organize, donate or toss. It stressed me out until we finally cleared the room, bought new furniture and set up storage. The framed family photos that replaced the clutter in front of me have done wonders for my mood.