I'm so excited to be working with a new contributor. Susanna Salk will be writing a monthly column about easy, inexpensive must-haves for your home and will be a guest blogger here from time to time. You may have seen Susanna on the Today show or read her blog, Open House. If not, read how she Susanna learned to let go of the stress she felt over her house. Then, check out her blog.

When is a house a home?
From Open House by Susanna Salk

For the past two years since we bought a little lake house, we have rented out our main house for the summer.

As passionate as I am about my home and the things that are in it, when it comes to allowing strangers to sleep in my bed and sit on my sofa, I am strangely unpossessive. I clear closets but I don’t hide anything away. There’s nothing overtly valuable or delicate here: just very sentimental and therefore deserving of staying in its little hallowed place to be appreciated.

In fact it felt less taxing knowing everything stayed and waited for my return rather than having to disassemble my life only to put it back together again like some jigsaw puzzle.

For many years, I was so passionate about our home that I felt under a heady spell that soon felt albatross-like... Find out how Susanna leaned to let go of her burden.