My friend Cindy was a pragmatic professional who had realized (like so many other busy women) that Prince Charming wasn't just going to just walk up and knock on the door. So Cindy posted to an online dating service. She was selective about her candidates, but over and over again complained that she just wasn't "connecting." I listened to her talk about these dates for three years. She went on dozens of dates, and the stories always had the same ending.

"I thought it was going so well," she would say. "So I invited him over to my apartment for dessert. But then he started acting strange and left."

What was happening? I had a hunch that it had something to do with her apartment, so I finally asked if I could see it (we had met through mutual friends and for some reason I never been to her place before). Cindy is a successful career woman, so I was shocked when I walked to into her living room and found that she had decorated it like the inside of a Hallmark card. There were paintings of irises on the walls, floral couches, and kitty cat knick knacks on every shelf in the place. No wonder the men ran away terrified from this nursing home! I had to say something. It was for her own good. "Cindy. Sweetie. You need to hire an interior designer."

Reluctant but desperate, she took my advice. She brought in a professional who took one look at the place and backed me up. With the objective of making her apartment more "male friendly," Cindy's interior designer threw out every knick knack in the place, repainted the walls in earth tones, and bought comfortable modern furniture. She brought in an energy saving refrigerator and a flat screen TV. Soon thereafter, when Cindy brought a date home, they didn't want to leave.

Cindy got married last Spring to a terrific man she met online. In her thank you note she scrawled, "I owe you so much! Thanks to you, I will never buy a floral print again!"