Does tidiness really equal a clean mind?

[retroHelen]

If I see a house that is very minimal and very clean and tidy i think the people don't have a mind of their own. The house is an impersonal show house and not a home. Interesting people may have a bit of untidiness going on because they have ongoing projects and other interests happening in their lives.

 

Tidiness is something else though, It's more about good storage and being more organised with what you have. A sister who makes and fills dolls houses for a hobby and part-time job - she is disabled, so at home a lot - showed me a spare bedroom in her house. It had a wall of little cubby holes/partitioned shelves, full of useful tiny bags of bits and pieces that she uses as sources for miniature furnishings. It was fairly tidy, but she was busy making a fabulous Persian inspired Dolls House with fancy carpets and lanterns that was going to be wired up for electric lighting, so we could peer through the windows at the wonder of it. 

 

My parents and Grandmother were artists as a hobby, so paints and pots of brushes were often left out beside paintings that were drying ( oil paintings are built up in layers then varnished and take weeks to dry) on easels -. Interesting untidiness.

 

I am so glad that there is more recycling happening in our town now. I hate waste and can't throw out anything I thought someone else might be able to use. I do tend to hoard stuff in that category until I find a home for it or recycle it. Hoarding can make tidiness and issue if I'm not careful. I think this habit is because my late Grandmother and Auntie were the same. They lived through 2 World Wars and the Great Depression of the 1930's in UK and rationing & poverty makes people very frugal and careful and not wasteful. I have inherited button tins - most of the buttons cut off old clothing and kept.Some buttons over a century old. A bedding box of cloth scraps - I recognise bits from dresses that relatives had made decades ago. There's even fine silk in the box - collected up in the streets  by women after Air Raid Sirens had given the All-Clear.Silk taken from dud  incendiary bombs that came down under silk parachutes on the town during the 2nd World War.Used to make underwear because such fine stuff couldn't be bought in wartime.

[Saffron]

12 hours ago, retroHelen said:

hate waste and can't throw out anything I thought someone else might be able to use. I do tend to hoard stuff in that category until I find a home for it or recycle it. 

This is part of my problem. 

 

12 hours ago, retroHelen said:

parents and Grandmother were artists as a hobby, so paints and pots of brushes were often left out beside paintings that were drying ( oil paintings are built up in layers then varnished and take weeks to dry) on easels -. Interesting untidiness.

Definitely this too. I kind of wonder if artists and creative people are messy in general. It seems that way sometimes. 

 

The last bit reflects what is going on in my mind. My house is a mess at the moment, just like my mind. This winter depression has been awful this year and it certainly shows. I have been watching declutter and organize videos on YouTube to hype myself up and to get some good ideas on how to store things nearly. It worked. I'm making progress, even though it feels like it is taking forever. I definitely feel calmer and more in control when things are neat and orderly, so I will keep plucking away at it. 

[Vinnie]

On 1/17/2019 at 6:48 PM, Tortuga said:

Have you tried closing one eye? You'll only see half the clutter...

Sorry, to disappoint because i am disappointed by this fact that  if you close one eye, you only lose around 1/5  of the clutter. 20-30%, not 50%.  Wait a sec.... One way around this is  to keep both eyes closed when your around the clutter or where really dark sunglasses or  just consider it SEP. Someone else's problem.