I too have wondered about magazines where no one received junk mail, it never rains so there are no sopping wet clothes to set down, the pets don't shed, and brownies straighten everything while the occupants sleep. I like the concept, it just doesn't seem real. And then I trip over this blog entry on clutter which posits publishing a magazine for clutter: it is inevitable, so having solutions are far better than pretending clutter isn't part of this American life.
My anti-clutter stance is two-fold: absentmindedness (the easier the keys are to see, the less likely am I to lose them) and aethetics (dirty laundry isn't much fun to look at). So far, some open containers for tossing mail, shoes and dog gear at the front door, and reasonably organized closets seem to do the trick for me. The detris of life has a place, and I can easily get away with piling CDs and books wherever.
Posted at June 4, 2003 08:23 AM | TrackBackAnyone with unopened boxes from Amazon in his livingroom is an alien.
---L.
Posted by: LNH on June 4, 2003 03:01 PMYes, having places to put the clutter seems key.
Not places where each thing belongs, but a place to dump the stuff that doesn't belong in any one place until one is ready to actually focus on putting it "away."
A bin for the mail has, on its own, made a huge difference.
Posted by: Janni on June 4, 2003 05:47 PMI do think he's right that some house designs lend themselves--if not to clutter, to messiness, much more easily than others.
I remember noticing when we went from a relatively easy-to-keep neat apartment to a hard-to-keep-neat rental house; it was something in the inherent design of both that went beyond the former's presence of a dishwasher, though I'm not sure exactly what.
The current house seems to be somewhere between the other two residences, in terms of such things.
Posted by: Janni on June 4, 2003 05:52 PMAgreed: design and the resulting traffic flow make huge differences in how space tends to be used. The front hall closet is really in the back of the house, so the front door area attracts clutter quickly; hence my containers (a fancy word for pails).
Posted by: Liesl on June 5, 2003 10:51 AMFor me the challenge is having a place for things. There always seems to be an indissoluble residue of objects and papers for which no place can be found.
A mail sorter, lots of wastebaskets, a small shredder, magazine boxes for categories of things like "user's guides" and "financial statements", and a permanent box for donations have all helped. So has having an office with a door.
Posted by: Ann on June 6, 2003 10:19 AMThis discussion has been closed. No more comments may be added.