A great principle I learned many years ago from an architecture course was that "less is more."

There is beauty and form in emptiness. This is true in landscape design, web page design, music, interior decorating, and many other disciplines. What is not there is as important as what is there.

Plants must be properly spaced to allow them air circulation. Web pages with space at the sides of articles and between paragraphs are easier to view and read; the same is true of books and magazines. The silences and spaces between musical passages and notes are a part of the beauty and majesty of great music.

When decorating your home consider that a single item displayed on a space, such as a bookcase or countertop, can make much more of a statement than a collection of items, even if they are all expensive, beautiful, and decorative.

It is very difficult to focus on several items at once, and frequently the eye simply slides across multiple items without seeing any of them.

Try clearing off an area where you usually display multiple decorative items. Return only one of the items to the area and add nothing more. As you pass by the area for the next week observe what you notice. Do you find yourself seeing the single object in more detail than you did before when it was one of many items? Do you see more beauty in the single object?

Perhaps, seeing more of it, you decide that it is not very attractive after all. You will certainly be in a better position to view, assess, and appreciate the item than you were before. This can cause you to re-think the value, beauty, and quality of the item in question.

There is a reason that good art galleries usually display only a single picture on a wall for the viewer to enjoy it without the distraction of other pictures, however beautiful those other pictures may be.

Take a minute to consider Japanese artistry in interior decorating. The Japanese have made an art out of scarcity. Traditional Japanese homes are minimally furnished with functional pieces with clean lines.

Decorating with spareness and simplicity, they display one or a very few intrinsically beautiful items. A single beautiful item carefully placed and artfully displayed can convey a haunting beauty that can never be achieved with a multitude of similar items. This style of decorating conveys stillness, peace, and calm.

You may have heard this idea before, but if not, allow me to introduce you to the vacuum principle of interior decorating.

I originally learned this concept as the vacuum law of prosperity from a wonderful man named Randy Gage, and I found that the idea worked so well when applied to cleaning, decluttering, and interior decorating that I now apply it as the vacuum principle of interior decorating.

Basically stated the vacuum principle of interior decorating holds that if you want to gain an item of value and beauty you must first clear the space for it. The corollary is that you will not find the best item as long as you hold on to the things that are now taking up space in your house.

Applying the vacuum principle may involve getting rid of many items of negligible value and low utility, or items that lack quality and beauty that are currently in your home. Good advice is to keep only those items that are useful, beautiful, or that you love.

It will be much easier to locate and obtain an item of outstanding beauty and quality for your home when you have created a vacuum for the item to fill.

Furthermore, I believe that you will only recognize the perfect item when you have been able to view the area in your home where the desired item will be placed while that area is empty.

Take time with this; relax and view your home with some empty space. Don't be too eager to fill it up.

Again, it is not necessary to purchase many things to improve the look of a room. Indeed, it is much better to purchase just one item of true quality, rather than multiple cheap items.

Sometimes you can improve the look of a room simply by rearranging things so that the best item or items you own are showcased and displayed to advantage. A good way to do this is to isolate that item so that it stands out, or to simply spotlight one item of bright color or distinctive appearance.

You may notice that a Japanese garden usually displays multiple shades and textures of green plants with subtle gray tones from stone and brown shades from soil. There may be only one or two other colors from plants that bloom for a brief time in their season, such as a camellia or azalea, or changing leaves in the fall. These bright spots of color are even more effective because of their brief and isolated appearance.

Try this experiment: line up several very similar items, say forks that all have black handles, then lay one fork with a green handle somewhere in the line. Now ask your family members one by one which one of the forks they would choose to eat with. The odds are very strong that the one unique item will be the one that everyone wants. That is the item that draws their attention.

If you have ever tried to find homes for kittens or puppies you will know that the one white kitten in a group of black kittens will be the one everyone wants, while the week before the one black kitten in the group of white kittens was the favorite. (Sometimes just showing one kitten at a time will bring quicker success, but this ties in to the fear of loss- the perception that there is only one kitten to be had- which is a discussion for another time.)

The point of all this is that people usually focus in on just a few things or maybe even one thing, so why not focus your energy (and budget,) and their attention on a single elegant or attractive item?

The next time you visit the mall look at displays in stores and store windows. What catches your eye?

Which windows look most elegant? Which look cheap and gaudy?

Do any displays appear over-stuffed or too busy? Would you like to be responsible for keeping those displays clean and free of dust?

Are there any displays that you would describe as having "understated elegance?"

Apply the same test to magazines- the cover, the ads, the articles- and to websites. Most people over the age of twelve will not be captivated by the site that displays red text on a black background with leaping, rotating, and gyrating icons and gifs, playing awful music.

Now use your imagination. What can you learn from all of this and apply to your home?

So you would really like to apply the vacuum principle, the "less is more" principle, or the "one different item" idea in your own home, but "my house is too much of a mess," you protest. "I can never get it cleared out!"

Yes, you can. You can clean up and declutter your home.

If the prospect of clearing out and decluttering your home appears too daunting or even impossible, if it seems an overwhelming task, don't despair. Helpful and expert advice can assist you in getting through this chore and allow you to create stillness, peace, and calm in your home.

I highly recommend (and use!) Declutter Fast, a guide to decluttering your home that contains practical, workable, effective advice from a sympathetic and compassionate viewpoint.