I left a rachet resting on the top of the doorbell cover in my hallway for a year.
I noticed it a few hours after I completed a project I was working on. I looked at it with the thought and intent to put it back in its place in the toolbox - I love a tidy toolbox. I live by the philosophy of “a place for everything and everything in its place”.
I got distracted and I forgot it in the moment. Right there in plain view, I forgot it. You could see it from the living room, dining room and kitchen. I walked by it several times a day on my way to my bedroom. I passed it mopping my floors and dusting artwork hanging bedside the doorbell. I looked at it as I cooked dinner. Each time I saw it, several times a day I made a mental note “I need to put that rachet in the toolbox.”
My husband and I had a conversation about the rachet resting on the doorbell cover, how it got there, why it was still there, how long had it been up there, etc. A completely legitimate conversation about a rachet on our doorbell cover in the hallway. All either of us needed to do was grab a stepstool from the closet and put it away. A task that would have taken 30 seconds.
Over time, I just kept forgetting to actually see it. Strangely enough, my husband was also forgetting to see it! It got to the point neither of us noticed it at all. In my brain, it ceased to be of any visual significance. That rachet had become so familiar to my brain that it no longer registered. This is an actual psychological phenomenon called habituation.
Habituation is a form of behavioral learning that occurs to virtually all organisms. Everyone does this naturally. It's an effective method to filter out the unimportant things we see every day in the safe environment of our home. The term “house blindness” defines this phenomenon in our daily environment.
Have you ever visited a friend’s house in March and the Christmas pillow is still on the couch? House blindness. Can’t see the dust on your fan? House blindness. The shoes under the bed? House blindness. You can also be house blind to the functional and beautiful things in your home. These become routine and unnoticeable over time.
I’m happy to inform you that I did eventually put the rachet away. While installing picture lights on a ladder in our hallway, I actually saw it. It was about a foot from my hand. A simple change of perspective switched the rachet visibility to ON within my brain. I reached over and tossed that rachet into the toolbox. It only took me a year of looking at it to get it done.
As a photographer, I see house blindness every day. We cannot see those things that are out of place, peculiar, or interesting objects in our homes. The hardest part of managing house blindness, from my perspective as a photographer, is pointing it out.
I’ve talked with many realtors who see the same thing. They all agree that this is a difficult topic. Asking a homeowner to make changes to better merchandise their home can make them feel like their home is not well kept. I’d much rather photoshop out the items stored under the bed than actually have a conversation about it. It’s faster and no one’s feelings get hurt. I confess that 90% of my edits are to correct “house blindness”.
Maybe the solution to working through a case of house blindness with a homeowner is changing the perspective. It enables you to look at things differently.
