It strikes me there are two types of people in this world.
Those who like vast empty spaces in their homes.
And those, like me, who can’t abide an empty shelf or cupboard or cabinet or rack or window and feel compelled - perhaps even driven - to fill it chock full of, oh, whatevers.
How right you are. I keep trying to change from being a space filler and become a minimalist. Alas, I have failed, so perhaps I should just go with the flow. It's scary to think of what the result might be.
ReplyDeleteIn this big move and reduction of mine in the past few years, 20CW, I did try but I can't even walk by a bloody window without tossing a crystal or stone on it. Or hanging things from curtain rods....arghhhh!
ReplyDeleteXO
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I'm definitely a space filler! (I'm trying to cut down from being a hoarder... ;-) ) And we have so many more window shelves in our new house... :-D
ReplyDeleteJo:
ReplyDeleteYeah, much as I try to keep all ledges free of stuff, I feel panicky faced with emptiness.
Freud would have a ball, I'm sure!
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I'm from the school of less is more and am always putting things away. Only in my bedroom do I allow clutter in an organized sort of way. In the living room I don't like lots of little things standing around, gathering dust and taking up precious space. It all has to be functional or out it goes.
ReplyDeleteWe're somewhere in between. We try to avoid clutter and regularly offload stuff to the local charity shops, but Jenny is partial to beautiful knick-knacks and ornaments of one kind or another so spaces do tend to fill up!
ReplyDeleteMy father was a vast spacer, I'm a can't abider. There were four of us kids, we used to post a lookout at the front window for when he got home, then we'd scramble to turn the livingroom back into a vast empty space again. Invariably he found Something That Didn't Belong There.
ReplyDeleteHard to tell where the knick knacks end and the mess begins, knick knacks do serve a useful purpose.
My ideal is minimalism, but in common with most ideals, it's neither easy nor always sensible to try to live up to it. I do my best, but still end up with too much "stuff", too many pictures, sculptures etc. etc. etc.
ReplyDeleteI had two opportunities to start again - once after a big fire destroyed everything we owned, then, again, when I emigrated.
Both times the "stuff" built up again. I must be incorrigible.
GSW:
ReplyDeleteNow I'm the opposite, apart from books my bedroom is pristine. I hate stuff on floors but install far too many shelves. There are books and DVDs on them interspersed with pics and candles just about all over the house. I've just measured another long wall, for you guessed, more book shelves.....
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Annie:
ReplyDeleteI do use all the knickknacks, I love lighting the candles and displaying my owl collection (guess what my spirit animal is?!)
I love the story of your dad, control freak much? (so was mine).
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yes, so is mine, T, and I honestly thought this move would result in pale golden floors receding in the minimist style to the horizon with one single white chair for contemplating eternity.
ReplyDeleteHa!
As if!
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Nick:
ReplyDeleteYes I do offload on a regular basis, a lot of stuff that have been purchased at - tada! - the very same charity shop.
One woman recycler.
I love cushions and baskets and books - and favourite films and docs.
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you missed us middle-of-the-roaders who vacillate between too much and too little and are constantly moving things from storage to shelf to storage ;)
ReplyDeleteI like empty spaces, but generate clutter.
ReplyDeletePauline:
ReplyDeleteWelcome!
Storage gear as art form. I've tried to perfect that myself!!
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Duchess:
ReplyDeleteI know whereof you speak. I feel I shed clutter whenever I walk into the house, even though I divest when I walk out of it. It manages to pile up though...
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oh i am you. and doug is not.
ReplyDeleteLaurie:
ReplyDeleteThat must make for some interesting territorial disputes. How are the boys doing - are they opposites too?
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Although I love empty space, I am an inveterate hoarder; reconciling these tendencies takes some untangling! A winter purge left me with several boxes and bags full of stuff to bring to the local charity shops. The trouble is that even though I no longer pick up knick-knacks on impulse, the stuff I already have seems to have become self-regenerating.
ReplyDeleteStan:
ReplyDeleteI know whereof you speak. Someone should do a study on the breeding habits of knick-knacks.
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