1. it takes up precious space when i need to lay something down
2. it makes it hard to clean counter tops if they are covered with shit
3. it generally makes me feel uneasy, whereas if i come home and there is not a mess i will feel more like relaxing
given that we can design homes and spaces for organized living, is it possible to have spaces that are organized most of the time? my parents' house is a perpetual mess; every drawer is a junk drawer. but they also have a pack rat pathology that wont let them be lean on stuff or diligent about purging the crap.
assuming spaces dont have overly large storage (like most residential clients seem to want), assuming that people have a fairly normal amount of crap that they use most of the time, assuming that people have a reasonable sized home (1oooSF for 2), and assuming people are not total slobs, is it impossible to have a home that looks like an ikea showroom or a photo in dwell magazine after the photographer cleaned up?
you are designers...are your homes messy most of the time or tidy most of the time?
I can't get my house mates to flush the toilet or put their used floss where it belongs. Much less put their clutter in the cabinets. They are not designers though, they are pseudo "psychologists". Evidently I have a psychosis because I don't fit into their nudist, new-age, meditate with your finger up your ass with Enya bullshit on all day lifestyle. If it weren't for them it might happen. I guess I need to "find my own north star" in accord to their diagnosis.
Nov 25, 07 4:39 pm ·
·
"I'm sorry, but I have to take this back to the bedroom."
All of my friends tell me I'm slightly OCD in that I like a space that is, for the most part, tidy. I attribute it to my mother whom, when my brothers and I got into our teenage years and left stuff out, used to take it for three days. I learned really quick to pick my shit up and put it away. Out of defiance though I don't make my bed unless I have friends over. Better run and do some more picking up before I leave to go to my parents' house for dinner. HA!!
BTW - my brothers are pretty much the exact same way... we all like things neat, sparse and tidy.
nobody goes around constantly tidying up, but if there is a system set up whereby it's easy and not a daunting nightmare of a task to make the place look presentable then it's not a big deal to clean up like once a week.
humans are messy. mess is life. one of the best things about a clean kitchen is that you can cook and make a mess and have yummy food and fun with friends over. i try to have a dirty counter in the kitchen where all the dirty dishes go before the major dishwashing happens which is not often daily. i try to corner the mess and keep the clutter from taking over...give it its spot.
my house is usually a mess. cant get my unwed wife to not throw her clothes all over the floor and she cant get me to stop kicking shit out of my way when it's on the floor...pretty normal if you ask me...
i have been accused of being anal and ocd, but i wouldnt say i put my clothes on hangers more than once a week. i would say that i have gotten the apt to a level where we can make it look decent in about 15 minutes if someone is coming over...in a sweep all the junk into a basket and put it under the coffee table kinda way...and pull the bills out of it later
and there is definitely a difference between a place being tidy and being clean.
I give over a relatively substantial portion of my time to reducing the number of objects that I own and therefore have to keep track of. Obviously the best practice is to not acquire the things in the first place (impulse buying). A few things that I do if it seems necessary to acquire:
-Clothing, cookware, furniture, etc must be accompanied by recycling or donating what it is replacing.
-Scan documents that I need to keep and shred/recycle the originals.
-Borrowing, though this is increasingly difficult to do because people are used to simply buying things new if they need them and so I seem like a "mooch".
I love that I can get all my entertainment in digital format now. I love, for example, that on Steam (www.steampowered.com) I can get video games on my computer without having to go to the store or to amazon and purchase a box/manual/disc.
Growing up my parents argued constantly because my Mom never threw anything away. My attitudes today toward 'stuff' is probably heavily influenced by that. I don't dislike people who are packrats (love my Mom to death) and i'm not anti-stuff because of environmental reasons, though that has contributed to it, it just bugs me to have more than the essentials to be accountable for.
i am definitely a proponent of services instead of stuff, eg i refuse to buy DVD's...i would rather rent them; besides, why watch them again and again when you can watch a new movie. and i would rather rent a snowboard or skis than pay rent in a bigger place to store the gear since i dont use it often enough
One way I keep the "clutter" at bay is by not actually owning a lot. I have a friend that is constantly buying stuff and it baffles her that I can walk around the store with something for 20 minutes and then put it back b/c I don't really need it.
Things are pretty much sorted into "holding" areas if I don't feel like dealing with it at that particular moment. When it starts getting too large I then go through it and sort it out. For instance, the mail goes on the chair by the door. The laundry gets thrown into the hamper or put on top of a chest to put away. But even then it doesn't sit for very long b/c if it's out the cats will sleep on it. I usually get everything tidied up Sunday evening so that I can let it go the rest of the week. I don't own that many dishes so if I don't do them at least every other day I have nothing to use.
"A place for everything, and everything in its place."
It's really defeating to have stuff that doesn't have a place. But, if there is an automatic spot for it to go (mittens, gloves, hats have always gone on the shelf in the coat closet, ever since I was little), it won't stay out for long or at all.
I used to love shopping at Pier One, and I have way too many candles and tea light holders. However, most of it has been in a box labeled "brickerbrack" since we moved.
Living a minimal lifestyle is so freeing. However, I recently realized that there is a difference between 1) being fresh out of school and having a bare apartment and 2) being out of school for a few years and purging the unnecessary stuff. Said another way, there is a difference between 1) a bare room and 2) positive "white space."
And why is it that our house is the cleanest right before company arrives? I suppose it is purely that we want to convey the casual ambience like "this is how we always live."
...except my wife. seriously. never stops. i can put bread on the counter and, while i'm getting mustard and ham out of the refrigerator, she'll have put the bread away. it's kind of amazing.
There is absolutely NO reason for clutter. Most people own too much sh*t that they will never use and just shuffle it around from room to room. My wife and I constantly re-evaluate whatever begins to be 'cluttersome' and either donate it or throw it away/recycle it as necessary! I love purging!!! My god, it's liberating!!!!!
'nobody goes around constantly tidying up' ....yes they do!
My observation is that clutter comes about as the result of impulse buying, hoarding, or being too sentimental/emotionally attached to any object crossing your path.
I avoid clutter by not doing any of the above and trying to give away, recycle, and/or throw out things out as I acquire new ones. If it hasn't been used in a year or so it's likely on its way out.
One other thought/question - at what point does owning a collection of a particular object or type of objects go from being respectable to being nothing but clutter?
Ok,Ok
Nobody like to live in a messy world (shit , is already such a mess without some of us trying not to contribute much..)
but we need things, we need to have places where we put them, store them ,find them..and they are not always tidy ..I also think that a mind that need to file ,square things up .wrap them, align them has some problems,
My desk at work appers to be a mess but I know were things are in what other people perceive as a mess( drive my boss crazy, he cant find any thing there, hence he keep me employed...)you see there are advantages...and that all for the moment.
Sorry chaps (male and females) I had almost a bad day today ..so it is time for me to get my nose into Adolf Loos. Works and Projects just received
i have a personal vendetta against clutter. I grew up as a pack rat and have spent the last 10 years working my way out of it. Over the holiday I visited a relatives' home that is quite beautiful but overflowing with stuff - especially due to their 4-year old. she complained to me about how her home has no storage. I looked around and saw a 3,000 sqft home where every room has a closet, a gigantic kitchen, a built-in hutch in the dining area, another in the tv area, and at least 3 antique wardrobes positioned around the home, as well as a garage and storage space under the deck. I wanted to barf. they just keep buying shit they don't need.
I live in 1200 sq ft, and yes cleaning is quick b/c everything I need has a place. I purge my belongings often and in quantity. I don't keep old mail. If I buy new shoes, I give a pair away. I repair what I have before replacing, then recycle or discard the old. It's not that hard, folks.
i own a lot of objects or as nonclutter folks would refer to as "shit" or "stuff". i've kept old mail from friends from when i was 14 years old but i have recently purged those (i think i regret it a little bit). i have a whole bunch of souvenirs from travels (from receipts to train tickets, etc..). i keep concert tickets as well. i'm pretty much a souvenir freak. i have those things shelved. i also own about 500 vinyl records and some home recording equipment. yeah, i got clutter...
the original post assumes that people have a normal amount of crap. what that means is not impulse buying as mentioned many times above, getting rid of stuff you dont need, and not having a ton of stuff like plates and bowls for 20 when only 2 live there.
let's also assume that the inhabitants are normal people, ie not severe sufferers of obsessive compulsive disorder or super tightwad anal organizational nazi freaks.
collections are normal. keep your little figurines in their place. i have my guitars on the wall with the keyboard, amp and drums underneath
and tidy means that shit is not everywhere - not that your change is all in neat little stacks on the dresser aligned with the pyramids or something wierd
everything has a place but doesnt always live there...sometimes you have to put it back but it seems like an endless mission
hmmm, and I thought creative people were usually messy? or are they just lurking, afraid to post?
I'd like to add that while my place is messy, it is clean. For instance, I get the dust bunnies behind the couch quite often, but I rarely make the bed.
Am I the only one here that has to has to fight the urge to pick up at some one's house who is a clutter bug? I also have a hard time sitting around a table with dirty dishes, like at a dinner party. When I host dinner parties I practically start clearing the table the second the last person had put their fork down. Wow, I just realized that sounds pretty pitiful.
LOL! Garpike. Can you come and clean my car interior? It hasn't been vacuumed in quite a while. My desk at work currently looks as though a paper mill puked on it.
how funny tuna! ha, you are so not alone in your urges (as seen above). but alas, i don't have the guts to act on my urges. maybe only with people closest to me will i ACTUALLY pick up their stuff! i'm so happy that others share my neurotic behaviours! thank you all!
clutter
there are 3 basic reasons i hate clutter:
1. it takes up precious space when i need to lay something down
2. it makes it hard to clean counter tops if they are covered with shit
3. it generally makes me feel uneasy, whereas if i come home and there is not a mess i will feel more like relaxing
given that we can design homes and spaces for organized living, is it possible to have spaces that are organized most of the time? my parents' house is a perpetual mess; every drawer is a junk drawer. but they also have a pack rat pathology that wont let them be lean on stuff or diligent about purging the crap.
assuming spaces dont have overly large storage (like most residential clients seem to want), assuming that people have a fairly normal amount of crap that they use most of the time, assuming that people have a reasonable sized home (1oooSF for 2), and assuming people are not total slobs, is it impossible to have a home that looks like an ikea showroom or a photo in dwell magazine after the photographer cleaned up?
you are designers...are your homes messy most of the time or tidy most of the time?
be honest
great amount mess enveloped by nice volumetric white space...honest.
I can't get my house mates to flush the toilet or put their used floss where it belongs. Much less put their clutter in the cabinets. They are not designers though, they are pseudo "psychologists". Evidently I have a psychosis because I don't fit into their nudist, new-age, meditate with your finger up your ass with Enya bullshit on all day lifestyle. If it weren't for them it might happen. I guess I need to "find my own north star" in accord to their diagnosis.
"I'm sorry, but I have to take this back to the bedroom."
[Did Orhan watch Interiors recently?]
All of my friends tell me I'm slightly OCD in that I like a space that is, for the most part, tidy. I attribute it to my mother whom, when my brothers and I got into our teenage years and left stuff out, used to take it for three days. I learned really quick to pick my shit up and put it away. Out of defiance though I don't make my bed unless I have friends over. Better run and do some more picking up before I leave to go to my parents' house for dinner. HA!!
BTW - my brothers are pretty much the exact same way... we all like things neat, sparse and tidy.
if you are alive you produce clutter.
Do you really go around constantly tiding up?
nobody goes around constantly tidying up, but if there is a system set up whereby it's easy and not a daunting nightmare of a task to make the place look presentable then it's not a big deal to clean up like once a week.
humans are messy. mess is life. one of the best things about a clean kitchen is that you can cook and make a mess and have yummy food and fun with friends over. i try to have a dirty counter in the kitchen where all the dirty dishes go before the major dishwashing happens which is not often daily. i try to corner the mess and keep the clutter from taking over...give it its spot.
my house is usually a mess. cant get my unwed wife to not throw her clothes all over the floor and she cant get me to stop kicking shit out of my way when it's on the floor...pretty normal if you ask me...
i have been accused of being anal and ocd, but i wouldnt say i put my clothes on hangers more than once a week. i would say that i have gotten the apt to a level where we can make it look decent in about 15 minutes if someone is coming over...in a sweep all the junk into a basket and put it under the coffee table kinda way...and pull the bills out of it later
and there is definitely a difference between a place being tidy and being clean.
I give over a relatively substantial portion of my time to reducing the number of objects that I own and therefore have to keep track of. Obviously the best practice is to not acquire the things in the first place (impulse buying). A few things that I do if it seems necessary to acquire:
-Clothing, cookware, furniture, etc must be accompanied by recycling or donating what it is replacing.
-Scan documents that I need to keep and shred/recycle the originals.
-Borrowing, though this is increasingly difficult to do because people are used to simply buying things new if they need them and so I seem like a "mooch".
I love that I can get all my entertainment in digital format now. I love, for example, that on Steam (www.steampowered.com) I can get video games on my computer without having to go to the store or to amazon and purchase a box/manual/disc.
Growing up my parents argued constantly because my Mom never threw anything away. My attitudes today toward 'stuff' is probably heavily influenced by that. I don't dislike people who are packrats (love my Mom to death) and i'm not anti-stuff because of environmental reasons, though that has contributed to it, it just bugs me to have more than the essentials to be accountable for.
i am definitely a proponent of services instead of stuff, eg i refuse to buy DVD's...i would rather rent them; besides, why watch them again and again when you can watch a new movie. and i would rather rent a snowboard or skis than pay rent in a bigger place to store the gear since i dont use it often enough
One way I keep the "clutter" at bay is by not actually owning a lot. I have a friend that is constantly buying stuff and it baffles her that I can walk around the store with something for 20 minutes and then put it back b/c I don't really need it.
Things are pretty much sorted into "holding" areas if I don't feel like dealing with it at that particular moment. When it starts getting too large I then go through it and sort it out. For instance, the mail goes on the chair by the door. The laundry gets thrown into the hamper or put on top of a chest to put away. But even then it doesn't sit for very long b/c if it's out the cats will sleep on it. I usually get everything tidied up Sunday evening so that I can let it go the rest of the week. I don't own that many dishes so if I don't do them at least every other day I have nothing to use.
"A place for everything, and everything in its place."
It's really defeating to have stuff that doesn't have a place. But, if there is an automatic spot for it to go (mittens, gloves, hats have always gone on the shelf in the coat closet, ever since I was little), it won't stay out for long or at all.
I used to love shopping at Pier One, and I have way too many candles and tea light holders. However, most of it has been in a box labeled "brickerbrack" since we moved.
Living a minimal lifestyle is so freeing. However, I recently realized that there is a difference between 1) being fresh out of school and having a bare apartment and 2) being out of school for a few years and purging the unnecessary stuff. Said another way, there is a difference between 1) a bare room and 2) positive "white space."
And why is it that our house is the cleanest right before company arrives? I suppose it is purely that we want to convey the casual ambience like "this is how we always live."
...except my wife. seriously. never stops. i can put bread on the counter and, while i'm getting mustard and ham out of the refrigerator, she'll have put the bread away. it's kind of amazing.
I love organizing and sorting things.
There is absolutely NO reason for clutter. Most people own too much sh*t that they will never use and just shuffle it around from room to room. My wife and I constantly re-evaluate whatever begins to be 'cluttersome' and either donate it or throw it away/recycle it as necessary! I love purging!!! My god, it's liberating!!!!!
'nobody goes around constantly tidying up' ....yes they do!
I don't own a lot of stuff, but the stuff I do have is messy.
My observation is that clutter comes about as the result of impulse buying, hoarding, or being too sentimental/emotionally attached to any object crossing your path.
I avoid clutter by not doing any of the above and trying to give away, recycle, and/or throw out things out as I acquire new ones. If it hasn't been used in a year or so it's likely on its way out.
One other thought/question - at what point does owning a collection of a particular object or type of objects go from being respectable to being nothing but clutter?
Ok,Ok
Nobody like to live in a messy world (shit , is already such a mess without some of us trying not to contribute much..)
but we need things, we need to have places where we put them, store them ,find them..and they are not always tidy ..I also think that a mind that need to file ,square things up .wrap them, align them has some problems,
My desk at work appers to be a mess but I know were things are in what other people perceive as a mess( drive my boss crazy, he cant find any thing there, hence he keep me employed...)you see there are advantages...and that all for the moment.
Sorry chaps (male and females) I had almost a bad day today ..so it is time for me to get my nose into Adolf Loos. Works and Projects just received
i have a personal vendetta against clutter. I grew up as a pack rat and have spent the last 10 years working my way out of it. Over the holiday I visited a relatives' home that is quite beautiful but overflowing with stuff - especially due to their 4-year old. she complained to me about how her home has no storage. I looked around and saw a 3,000 sqft home where every room has a closet, a gigantic kitchen, a built-in hutch in the dining area, another in the tv area, and at least 3 antique wardrobes positioned around the home, as well as a garage and storage space under the deck. I wanted to barf. they just keep buying shit they don't need.
I live in 1200 sq ft, and yes cleaning is quick b/c everything I need has a place. I purge my belongings often and in quantity. I don't keep old mail. If I buy new shoes, I give a pair away. I repair what I have before replacing, then recycle or discard the old. It's not that hard, folks.
i own a lot of objects or as nonclutter folks would refer to as "shit" or "stuff". i've kept old mail from friends from when i was 14 years old but i have recently purged those (i think i regret it a little bit). i have a whole bunch of souvenirs from travels (from receipts to train tickets, etc..). i keep concert tickets as well. i'm pretty much a souvenir freak. i have those things shelved. i also own about 500 vinyl records and some home recording equipment. yeah, i got clutter...
the original post assumes that people have a normal amount of crap. what that means is not impulse buying as mentioned many times above, getting rid of stuff you dont need, and not having a ton of stuff like plates and bowls for 20 when only 2 live there.
let's also assume that the inhabitants are normal people, ie not severe sufferers of obsessive compulsive disorder or super tightwad anal organizational nazi freaks.
collections are normal. keep your little figurines in their place. i have my guitars on the wall with the keyboard, amp and drums underneath
and tidy means that shit is not everywhere - not that your change is all in neat little stacks on the dresser aligned with the pyramids or something wierd
everything has a place but doesnt always live there...sometimes you have to put it back but it seems like an endless mission
Free t-shirts are.just.so.hard.to.resist.
(or at least they were for me, until I concluded that I have enough t-shirts plus some to spare for painting)
hmmm, and I thought creative people were usually messy? or are they just lurking, afraid to post?
I'd like to add that while my place is messy, it is clean. For instance, I get the dust bunnies behind the couch quite often, but I rarely make the bed.
I'm a bit of a mess, but if you move one thing in any of my spaces, my universe implodes.
But yeah, no bunnies. Ew.
Am I the only one here that has to has to fight the urge to pick up at some one's house who is a clutter bug? I also have a hard time sitting around a table with dirty dishes, like at a dinner party. When I host dinner parties I practically start clearing the table the second the last person had put their fork down. Wow, I just realized that sounds pretty pitiful.
tuna, I clean other people's car interiors. And I have the urge to clean their fridges.
I also move items on the shelves in a grocery store. 2 years of grocery store work will do that.
But alas, my desks and work spaces are messy.
LOL! Garpike. Can you come and clean my car interior? It hasn't been vacuumed in quite a while. My desk at work currently looks as though a paper mill puked on it.
how funny tuna! ha, you are so not alone in your urges (as seen above). but alas, i don't have the guts to act on my urges. maybe only with people closest to me will i ACTUALLY pick up their stuff! i'm so happy that others share my neurotic behaviours! thank you all!
Yeah cityboy. Like you I never act on my urges, unless I know them REALLY well. Talk about agony.
you guys wouldnt last long in john soane's crib...
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