What to do with the house in October

Summer energy is all fire: out late, windows shut, air conditioning on, mail piling up on the counter. Winter goes the other way, deep and quiet. Fall is the gentle stretch in between, and it is the best time of the year to reset a house.

The leaves are letting go. It is a good moment for the house, and the people in it, to do the same.

Pick a cool, bright morning and work through these. None of them costs anything.

1. Open every window once. Start on the main floor and open each window in turn, then do the same upstairs and down. Let the air move right through. When you have opened the last one, go back to the first and close them in the same order. By the time you finish, the stale air of a shut up summer has gone. This works at any time of year, but it never feels as good as it does in October.
2. Clear what summer left behind. You were outdoors and things slid. The magazines and newspapers go out. The summer clothes go away. Empty the corners of each room so the air can get round them, and water the plant you forgot.
3. Wake up the rooms nobody uses. A room that sat empty all summer goes flat. After 50 that can be half the house: the rooms nobody sleeps in any more. Go in, put the lights on, turn on the radio and leave it playing for an hour. Better still, sit in there and watch something funny. A house likes to be used.
4. Change a few small things. Swap the summer flowers for branches and leaves. Put out the darker towels. Small changes like these tell your own mind that a new season has started, and it is easier to move with a season than to fight it.
5. Dress the front door. Feng shui likes a front door with a guardian on each side. The tradition uses a pair of fu dogs. Two good pots do the same job. Fill them with the golds and rusts of the harvest and you have protected the house and cheered up the street.
6. Slow the evenings down. Dim the lights after supper. Light a candle, find a blanket, read. Take a walk under the moon, or stand on the step for ten minutes and breathe the cold air. Fall is the season for being gentle with yourself, and the busy end of the year is coming whether you rest first or not.

One job that is not about the house

Before the holiday invitations start, get out your address book and write down the people you actually want to see this season. The ones who matter. Then make the plans now, while there is room in the calendar.

Time with the most important people is the first thing to get crowded out in December. A list on the fridge in October is a small defence.

From the archive. First written for my journal years ago, and rewritten for life after 50.