I HATE CLUTTER!! !

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I seriously, probably to the point of neurosis, have issues with clutter. Of course, with two kids (1 and 3 years old) I've had to accept some things. My bedroom and the attached bathroom are my "safe place", toy-free and clutter free. There isn't much that's not absolutely necessary. Except a treadmill and small TV, which I've almost made peace with. Almost. Treadmills don't belong in bedrooms, but there's nowhere else for it currently.

I'm a minimalist. I throw away anything not needed, sell it if it is of value. My husband is quite the opposite. He has no problem with clutter. I don't even want to think about our garage. But I can ignore the garage. I refuse to park in it, I won't go in it unless I have to, etc. The house is another matter. The other day he cleaned his desk space (in our living room), and there was nothing on it. I thanked him genuinely, seeing the clutter gone was more soothing than a 4 hour massage.

Does anyone else have this problem? I think everthing has a place, and should be in it's place. I like it when stuff is where it belongs. I don't like unnecessary stuff. This is my worst, after sensory. Mostly I don't think my husband understands. I know he cares about me a lot, but I just don't think a pack rat can understand a minimalist's point of view on clutter. I spend every spare second cleaning, it feels like, and I never even catch up much less get ahead. I feel bad/guilty asking him for help with something he doesn't see as a problem. To him, it can wait. To me, I'm coming a little more unglued every second it sits.

My room got cluttered tonight because we got a new TV. The box and packing is one thing, but I was suddenly overwhelmed as my mind went through: what are we doing with the old TV? Is he going to remove the shelf and patch the drywall? Do we have the right paint for that? How long will it take? How long will I have to stare at that mess? Will it be weeks? Months? Should we have even gotten the new friggin TV? Was it worth this? Is there going to be a mess from mounting it on the wall (different location from the other)? I feel actually sick to my stomach, like there is this knot in there. My bedroom is my only safe place and right now it's a huge source of stress. I want to grab a couple of pillows and some big cuddly blankets and go live in my car for a while.

Oh yes...I hate clutter, when there is clutter it mirrors the neurological mayhem in my head, I adore having space......I let nothing build up, weather it be e-mails, texts, letters, bills, everything has yo be dealt with at once, in other words, nothing is left around to be done or dealt with at a latter date.

I love SPACE.

When my little 7 year old boy visits me, I get a bit overwhelmed because he fills this space with his joy and mayhem, i would say that space is even better than a night of passion. (Oh God I never thought it would come to this)

When I get uncomfortable (usually socially) I start to clean things and straighten up. I have one of the cleanest rooms in the dorms, I think.

Fellow neat-nick here. I must have my personal space clean and orderly....or else (insanity?) Chaos makes me crazy! I figure my mind is cluttered with enough data so I simply must have a serene personal environment or I just cannot concentrate. I am one of those few individuals who have no clutter. When I retrieve my mail, for instance, I immediately pay the bill and file the receipt. I love to vacuum.
I keep the laboratory clean and orderly to the best of my ability, within the confines of lab activity, of course.

I do not mind when someone else's home, office space, etc is cluttered - that's their territory, not mine, and I'm not judgmental.

Apparently, I was a neat-nick as a small child too. I virtually do not lose anything - ever. If I ever do (this is so rare) it triggers a meltdown. I know where everything is in my apartment and the contents of every drawer. Glad to know I'm not alone.

Analogously, I understand this is exactly how blind people operate, out of necessity. The blind, so I'm told, are the best housekeepers. They must, since otherwise, how can they know where anything is located except by pattern - everything has it's place. Makes sense to me!

I also hate extraenous stuff. If I use it, great! Otherwise, why bother? I suppose I'm not too sentimental.

sounds like we would make good flatmates LapPet. How interesting what you say about the blind being like us in this respect.

I feel just the same when I visit others houses, in fact most of my friends are very bohemian and I rather like being in their mess, as long as I can put my bag and jacket in a place where it wont get lost amidst the sea of unmanageability.

I think my spirit adores the wildness of life but in order for me to remain sane, I have learned to create space.

Much peace to you
Chris

I used to , back in the days when I was an ASD masquerading as socially successful NT!! I owned hardly anything, could move with 2 and a half suitcases,no muddle. Streamlined. No fuzz! Clean mean minimalism. I was very proud of it too!! Used to compare myself with all those sad characters with so much baggage and rubbish.
Now it just happens. I don't feel so driven to strip away the excess/the inessential anymore.
I even have lots of little messes clustering around my own little room!
I can actually handle clutter now,( but not the socialising ! !) . Muddle seemed to arrive with people living with me ( my son and his father) ! !
I still hardly ever lose anything though!! Yes, that's meltdown material for me too, as if something has gone wrong with reality.

I always try to find ways to unclutter things, to make them neat.

Tim

i hate clutter too! and if i wasnt such a messy person i'd probably be like you

Yes, me too! When I lived at home, I had one of the cleanest bedrooms of any kid, ever, in the history of mankind, lol I do this now when stressed, start tidying and ordering things. If the house is already clean, I start arranging my cabinets.

Same here!! !! That's really a good way of explaining it. I hang onto nothing, the stress it's presence creates isn't worth the sentiment it holds. My photos suffice for sentimentality. I do attach to objects, but not many. And I dont mind other peoples' clutter, as long as it is in their space and not mine. I like my order.

I hate clutter too! But I also love my stuff. I collect things: clothes, books, knick-knacks, etc. However, I make sure that everything has its home and I try my very best to put things back in their home at the end of the day. If my room gets cluttery because I'm so busy and I just drop things in there, I just avoid that room for a few days until I have time to clean it. My boyfriend, on the other hand, is the King of Clutter. I think I had about 100 fits of anxiety and anger over spending weekends in his cluttered apartment. I've come to realize, though that I can't be mad at him for the way his brain works, especially since he is trying to keep things neater for me. When we live together, I plan on making sure EVERYTHING has its own place to live. Sometimes it is hard for me to understand, though. Why would a person store important computer discs in with old shaving cream, new clothes, and dirty laundry in a big garbage bag under the bed? I used to get mad but now I just laugh and try to help him a little bit.

I agree with LabPet. My mind is cluttered enough that I can't stand my personal envirnoment to be the same way. Sometimes I get really anxious and re-arrange my clothes or books. I love to have space but I can't stand to part with my favorite things so I jsut make sure they are all organized, even if it means more furniture to hold them.

I am that SAME way! I USED to ALWAYS be like Felix Unger. Sadly, that is ANOTHER thing that changed after I became a teenager. 8-( Still, when stressed, I DO clean up!

I HATE clutter also!


Only, sadly, I can't find a way out of all of the this madness with 3 children and the 2 of us...*sigh*

It drives me insane, really. I literally have mini meltdowns when looking around, at times...I have even been known to hold people at the door and not let them in, if it gets to a state where I am not comfortable. Then again, the combination of an unexpected visitor and the clutter would be enough to give me a bloody heartache, I am sure.

There was a time (pre-children) that I would purge just about anything. At times I feel sad that I have not kept old memories, but at the time it made good sense. I don't have a single yearbook, photo, etc from my high school days and that is hard to cope with now that I am such a huge scrapbooker, but ...these are the breaks, I guess.

*sigh*

Only way I can imagine a clutterless house now is to have a never ending stream of visitors (which is never going to happen), but that is the only way I can find it in me to clear up these days...

I can't stand clutter either. It doesn't bother me if it's someone else's house (My friend's bedroom is the most cluttered place on the planet!) but i like to keep my room as spacious as i can, which is hard, because it's tiny (about 2m x 2m)

Let me put it this way, if it wouldn't deeply offend my husband I would've even thrown out my wedding gown long ago. If it doesn't serve an immediate purpose I toss it. Don't get me wrong, my house is far from clutter free, though. It used to be before I had my sons. My youngest especially. He is severely autistic, and needs constant supervision. I just don't have the time (without completely ignoring my kids) to keep the house the way I used to. For some reason, most of the time I can deal with it, okay. However, when I get a little stressed it seems like a downward spiral for me. Like, the kids are all being incredibly loud, the TV is loud, and my routine is off, because of something unexpected happened. Then, I notice all the clutter, the messes, and the things that I need to clean. It feels as if it's all closing in on me, like some kind of clutter claustrophobia. I guess you can call it a panic attack, or maybe a meltdown. It feels like I'm being physically assaulted by the messes everywhere. A few hours later I will calm down, and it all doesn't seem so bad, but at the time it feels awful, as if it were the end of the world.
The TV example that Siuan gave was very similar to how I deal with getting something new, and the packaging is everywhere. The Christmas morning aftermath is always a panic inducing time for me. I always seem to lose control, and yell at the entire family.

Yep, this all sounds very familiar. Quite comforting to know I'm not alone in this experiece, actually.

I collect clothing to some extent. Not a lot, but it is all neatly organized. I don't collect any stuff. I'm a one-thing-at-a-time kind of person. I attach to one item and all other material is pretty much .. eh.

As for Christmas morning, a trash bag for wrapping is kept nearby and utilized frequently

Whenever I am going someplace (socially) I always like my house to be clean before I go. I realize now why. I need to unplug after the social overstimulation, and I NEED the comforting feeling of my clean, tidy, ordered home when I return.