Clutter: comfort or chaos?

Over the weekend, Yourhome.ca published a feature on the home of Austin Clarke. The celebrated author says he "couldn't live without clutter" which got me thinking about my own home.

I'm a super-organizational type, an 'everything in its place' kind of gal. I find clutter overwhelming, to the point where I'm sometimes tempted to tidy other people's stores, offices or homes.

My husband, on the other hand, thrives in "organized" chaos in his workspace, while maintaining a perfectly alphabetized library of video games, DVDs and CDs.

Of course, coexistence and busy lifestyles mean compromises with clutter must be reached. I've come to accept that it's not the end of the world if the dishes aren't all washed up after dinner (several nights of coming home from work and washing dishes past midnight during university helped cure the habit) and that mail will inevitably pile up prior to sorting, no matter how detailed your colour-coded and labelled filing system is.

I do, however, still need my own clutter-free, personal space. In previous homes, it's been a desk, a corner of the kitchen, my dining room or even a bookshelf which I can meticulously organize and will remain clean even during stressful periods like the pre-Christmas shopping blitz, work reviews or, up until recently, wedding planning.

With this coping method, I still get bothered by messes around the house, but it rarely keeps me up at night anymore. (Though, in the interest of full disclosure, I must admit to having clutter claustrophobe nightmares after flipping through Clarke's home slideshow).

Do you find clutter comforting or chaotic? How have you incorporated this into your home design?

Comments

[James]

Ahhh clutter.

One man's treasure is another man's...hell.

I think that it's obviously a matter of personal preference and lifestyle that determines the level of clutter you can and will put up with.

For instance, I know people who literally keep their stash of personal belongings to a very small pile in order to make shelves look nice and neat (and empty). That's not my cup of tea as I enjoy buying, owning and alphabetizing things.

In the end, I think, like most people, I aim at organization and neatness but settle for fairly clean and fairly neat. But I think that anyone who is passionate for anything other than cleaning will find themselves in the same place. My clutter does not bring me peace, but being solely worryied about it does.