I’ve mentioned once or twice that I have a guilty habit: I’m a Realtor.com addict. I love to see inside of other people’s houses to see how they decorate them. I can do it from my laptop and it’s much safer than peeking into people’s windows and getting arrested for being a female peeping Tom.

As far as I can tell, there are four general categories of houses on Realtor.com:

1. Neutered. They painted all the walls light gray, dark gray or white, and installed dark wood-look engineered flooring on all the floors.
2. Trying to be trendy. They did all the things in #1, then went to Hobby Lobby and bought a car-load of wooden plaques with sayings like “Live, Love, Laugh” and “This is Us,” (and in the bedroom, “Always Kiss Me Goodnight”) and put them all over the house.
3. Love it or leave it. This is what house listings used to look like before staging came into vogue. Each room looks very lived in. Surfaces have stuff on them, walls have paintings, bric-a-brac, and family photos. Often there are dog beds or cat climbing units featured prominently. These are the “before” houses when it comes to decluttering.
4. Empty. These make me sad because there’s nothing to look at!

Years ago, when you toured houses for sale, most of them looked like #3, and you had to use your imagination to get an idea of how your stuff would look in their house. Now you just have to hope all of your stuff goes with gray. How times change!