diff --git a/mutalyzer/config/__init__.py b/mutalyzer/config/__init__.py
index 4d8d99403ad7d8ba05016ba97fa42a2741667310..0ca16a759d6c2c9391cebb106a401e1b06e9900a 100644
--- a/mutalyzer/config/__init__.py
+++ b/mutalyzer/config/__init__.py
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ class LazySettings(util.LazyObject):
         """
         Called to manually configure the settings.
         """
-        if self._wrapped is None:
+        if self._wrapped is util.empty:
             self._setup(from_environment=False)
         self._wrapped.update(settings)
 
@@ -87,7 +87,7 @@ class LazySettings(util.LazyObject):
         """
         Returns True if the settings have already been configured.
         """
-        return self._wrapped is not None
+        return self._wrapped is not util.empty
 
     def on_update(self, callback, key=None):
         """
diff --git a/mutalyzer/util.py b/mutalyzer/util.py
index a367f31b6e8798af747a24bc2df56ee1ae018391..702584c03974c9e67d17dcdbb628c651fd966a69 100644
--- a/mutalyzer/util.py
+++ b/mutalyzer/util.py
@@ -917,10 +917,14 @@ class AttributeDictMixin(object):
         self[key] = value
 
 
+# This is used in LazyObject to define the empty wrapper.
+empty = object()
+
+
 # Helper for LazyObject.
 def _new_method_proxy(func):
     def inner(self, *args):
-        if self._wrapped is None:
+        if self._wrapped is empty:
             self._setup()
         return func(self._wrapped, *args)
     return inner
@@ -937,7 +941,7 @@ class LazyObject(object):
     _wrapped = None
 
     def __init__(self):
-        self._wrapped = None
+        self._wrapped = empty
 
     __getattr__ = _new_method_proxy(getattr)
 
@@ -946,14 +950,14 @@ class LazyObject(object):
             # Assign to __dict__ to avoid infinite __setattr__ loops.
             self.__dict__['_wrapped'] = value
         else:
-            if self._wrapped is None:
+            if self._wrapped is empty:
                 self._setup()
             setattr(self._wrapped, name, value)
 
     def __delattr__(self, name):
         if name == '_wrapped':
             raise TypeError('can\'t delete _wrapped.')
-        if self._wrapped is None:
+        if self._wrapped is empty:
             self._setup()
         delattr(self._wrapped, name)