Wow, I thought I was messy and I’m definitely not level 1 but I’m not even level 2. Guess I’ve got license to clutter!
The lazy secret, btw, is lots of shelves and other containers. I never throw clothes on the bed or floor because there’s a hamper right in the bedroom for stuff to wash, and shelves for pants / shirts that can go a few more days. They’re not folded or neat, but they’re in their place which is not on the floor, and the effort level is probably negative (no bending over to pick stuff up, if you’re super lazy).
this can’t be right. nobody is a level 1 except my dad, chronic OCD, active military, and prison inmates, i’m only a level 2 (unless you count dirt which doesn’t show up too well in the pictures)! my mom was about 4 and my aunt was a 7or 8 (in a 2 story farm house)
Last year, a group of us helped a friend clear some of their stuff. She had been sleeping on the couch because the clutter had taken over the bedroom. I think we donated about 20 rubbish bags full of clothes, but there was a ton of other stuff too. I think in her case, she was just overloaded and couldn’t deal with addressing the issue by herself.
My dad has always had a lot of stuff, although it’s generally pretty well organised – tens of thousands of books, building materials, tools, computers and peripherals etc. He had the same pile of wood that was in the garage from before I was born, that mostly lasted for two moves between countries over 30 years. Finally he got rid of it, and the next week I asked him whether I could take some of it for a project. You just never know when you’ll need it…
Many years ago I was asked to do an emergency plumbing repair in a large older house and warned by the referring person: “You will have to move some things to get at the bathroom access panel”. No kidding? The piles were so deep in this house that some of the doorways we had to pass through had only enough room to crawl through the remaining top 2 feet, like we were swimming in stuff or cave diving. The entire time in the house was like surfing on piles of … everything. We had to dig 3 feet deep in the back hallway and make piles to expose the access panel, basically working in a trench of material goods. This wasn’t the first place I had been in that was overcrowded with stuff, but it had the best stuff. A fantastic collection of scientific instruments in all manner of disrepair, books, baskets and milk crates full of things like fishing reels, clock parts, tools, cameras, on and on. A steampunk/maker dream house. Quite remarkable.
The woman told me they hadn’t used their kitchen in 20 years since her husband turned it into his laboratory. If I can find a few of the pictures I took I will post them, think it’s ok to do that now since they died many years ago. When they cleaned the house out the contractors built chutes from the first and second floor windows into an 80 yard dumpster which they filled at least 6 times, this after the auction house came and carted off truckloads of things they considered of value. I heard from a book dealer friend that over $40,000 of books were sold on the first day of the auction! When the house was held open for sale, I went in to look at the cleaned-out rooms. The extensive period woodwork, wall coverings and floors were in great shape having been buried for so long in unmoving piles of junk! There were fireplaces I hadn’t even seen on the way in, so deep were the layers.
I agree, although against the sentiment of the topic. Just own that much. The kid makes enough mess, but I don’t mind.
But, be aware, I think, people saving or hoarding lots , is just/only an other mindset. Not worse or better.
It depends if it is an impediment to your daily functioning — one way or the other. Some people can handle clutter or barrenness, other people have it get away from them. I evolved into sparseness over time, but keep centred about it…
Everything up to about level 5 seems like it could be made at least presentable with some closets & shelves.
There’s at least three axes of clutter:
organized <-> chaotic
not much stuff <->lots of stuff
hygienic <-> unhygienic
I’m not great with keeping stuff organized, but I also don’t gather an excess of stuff (IMO). My spouse is much more organized, and currently engaged in an active campaign to reduce the total volume of stuff in the house. I’m not totally in agreement with everything that’s leaving the house (I think raisins that are 2 months past their best-before date are still fine to cook with) but I’m making a point of generating as little push-back as possible on what seems like a fundamentally sensible goal.
