When we hear the word “clutter,” we often think negatively.
This is fair, since the Merriam-Webster Dictionary specifically says that clutter is “a crowded or confused mass or collection.”
If you remember our post about words in Home Management, you’ll know that the meaning of clutter can be the dictionary definition (above) and the baggage that goes along with it.
Boy, do we have baggage when it comes to clutter.
In today’s world of minimalist aesthetics and portraying our homes as places people don’t live in, clutter is an enemy that must be vanquished. CLUTTER IS BAD!
Here’s the thing, I think we’ve swung too far to the “clutter is bad” ideology. I want to convince you that clutter can be a good thing, even something that makes us feel good.
Clutter can make us feel bad… but also good
Trust me, I completely understand that there is something unsettling about a room being extremely cluttered. As a woman with sensory issues, I understand how the little things add up to a big problem and become overwhelming. Do I rage declutter surfaces in my house every once in a while? Absolutely.
But there is also something about being surrounded by things that make you happy. The minimalist lifestyle seems to really limit the number of things you can have around you. It doesn’t seem to leave room for joy beyond its stark white walls.
It can also be a little frustrating. I am a Marie Kondo dropout, and one of the main reasons is because everything is supposed to be off surfaces and put away… but what about the stuff we need to use? I’m chronically ill, opening up a drawer or cabinet is an energy sucker, so if I don’t have to use some energy, I won’t. My husband has ADHD; if something is not out, he may literally forget it exists.
WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO LIVE!
Hollywood does have a solution
There is one place in popular culture that embodies this kind of thinking.
I have two words for you: Nancy Meyers.
Nancy Meyers is the creative mind behind so many movies, but some of my favorites are The Parent Trap (Lindsay Lohan version), It’s Complicated, The Holiday, and of course, Father of the Bride.
I’ve loved the Nancy Meyers Aesthetic for as long as I can remember. The house in Father of the Bride is one that I consistently think about and dream could be my own.
I just got distracted googling the Father of the Bride house and daydreaming about my charming life if I lived there.
That’s the beauty of them; these are homes you want to climb into and spend time in. I want to enter that house through the white picket fence, be surprised by my daughter’s engagement in that living room, and eat a family dinner in that kitchen.
I also daydream about the kitchen from It’s Complicated. It is a kitchen you want to have your kids all crowded in to taste what you’re making.
The biggest thing is that these are spaces where you can see people actually live. Now, do they have that much fruit and staged place settings? Maybe, I don’t know your life, but for me, no.
This opens up the case for how clutter can be incorporated.
Constructive, Intentional, or Curated Clutter
Three terms came to mind when I was thinking about good clutter: Constructive, Intentional, and Curated. While they’re similar, they all have a bit of a difference, so I’d like to define them.
Constructive Clutter
This is your working clutter. Think shoes by the front door. Appliances or utensils on a counter. This clutter has function and is part of your home system. This is the clutter that makes a home lived in, showing people do actually inhabit it, and is typically cleaned up if you’re having a party.
Intentional Clutter
Those staged place settings are Intentional Clutter. Does it have a function? Probably not, but man, it looks pretty and you like it. That collection of spoons your grandma gave you—intentional clutter. Random roosters around your kitchen—intentional clutter (looking at you, Mom).
Intentional clutter is part design choice, part storage, all happiness.
Curated Clutter
We are talking book shelves, people. The best type of curated clutter is a room full of books that are different colors, with breaks in their spines, uneven, and showing these books are not props. Maybe there are pictures and figurines on display with them, or memorabilia, different mugs, a random plant (I’m now just describing the bookshelf next to me right now). Anyway, it’s a kind of mixture of the two—intentional and functional.
Again, as a Marie Kondo dropout, the concept of 10 books offended me. And I’m mostly an ebook/audiobook reader!
I love all three of these types of clutter, and you’ll have to tear them out of my dead cold hands.
Clutter can create happy accidents
Not only can clutter just make us happy by being there, it can create opportunities for joyful moments. I had one this weekend that truly made my heart soar.
Now a little background—sometimes tasks don’t get done unless I feel a need and have the energy, and one of those tasks was folding my kids’ bed sheets… so they’ve been sitting on the floor outside their doors for a while now. Folding something so big is lots of arm energy, in case you’ve never noticed.
We are currently dog sitting (sweet Lily) for a friend. Her first night with us, she wasn’t sure where she wanted to go. We had her bed, but she was still figuring out her people, the layout, and the flow of the house.
Once the kids were in bed, I laid down in my bedroom and my husband went down into the family room. I looked out at one point and Lily had moved the sheets into the middle of the landing at the top of our steps and laid facing the kids’ rooms.
She could see both of the kids, Joe was just down the stairs, and there was a direct line to our bedroom. It hit me: she wanted a comfortable place among all of us, and used those sheets to get cozy on.
It just tickled me that something I would normally beat myself up about made a space for this little visitor to feel just a touch more comfortable in my home.
Even unintentional, uncurated, not fully constructive clutter made space for that moment.
It’s always about finding the middle ground
Just like with almost everything (I am learning), the healthiest amount of clutter is somewhere in the middle. Everyone’s level of comfort when it comes to clutter is going to be different, and we all just need to embrace and enjoy our own relationship with clutter.
Will I still rage clean surfaces? YES. Will any of those types of “good” clutter become “bad” clutter at some point because stuff just gets put on them because someone doesn’t know what an object is, and it becomes a dumping ground for stuff (not that I am very specifically thinking of my mantle)? Yes.
I’ve learned from Sara and Home Management for Everyone that these places can absolutely exist; sometimes it’s just about putting in triggers to make sure we don’t get to rage cleaning or on the verge of hoarding (a Clothes Chair is a great example of this).
Justice for clutter, it makes me feel more at home, and I may or may not clean it up for the next person that visits our house.