Are collections chaos?

[teacher316]

I was talking to my sister-n-law today. She is not a collector and prefers simple aesthetic things in her house. She said she doesn't like a lot of "stuff". When she walks into a house with a lot of stuff, it feels like "chaos" to her. I wonder what she thinks of my house.
Anyway, it got me thinking. Can you be an "organized" collector? I guess that's my goal but my mlp collection has grown quite a bit in 10 years. How do you prevent your collection(whatever it may be) from becoming "chaos"?

[Tak]

I'm an organized collector. I simply can't handle anything remotely disorganized due to my memory. I also have a degree in interior design so I like my rooms to have a certain aesthetic. I do find that space helps. Utilizing the higher areas can make a room look less "cluttered".

[dragonfly]

In my experience, the people who say things like that are usually striving to live life like it's Pinterest. Chaos keeps life interesting. But I really like to organize stuff.

[shadowlark]

We have 12 cats...my whole life is chaos! 

I do try to keep my ponies organized though. Work in progress. I've actually got to pack them all up so we can repaint and re-carpet the pony room, buy another Billy bookcase, and then reorganize all the ponies. The rest of the house though? Disaster! 

[Leave a Whisper]

Yes you can be an organized collector. This may sound very strange to people, but maybe she's talking about more then just clutter or claustrophobia from too much stuff. Some people are sensitive to emotional energy imprints whether they consciously realize it or not. That is to say, an object can soak up the main emotional vibe of a house and person.

When my daughter got her Scrumptious for example, I felt that the pony was full of love and happiness. So I assume she was very much loved and her previous owner was happy.

Another time I received a doll meant for someone else,since the seller didn't ship to PO boxes that just felt sad, and all around negative. So perhaps the previous owner had suffered a recent crises or had self esteem issues or something?

Since a lot of us do get some of our stuff second hand, she may be subconsciously picking up on previous owners vibrations.

Or she may just dislike feeling enclosed by lots of stuff, no matter how organized it seems.

[Miniature Sheep]

I think it depends on the space you have and how you organise it. It's definitely possible to have a large collection that looks neat and ordered, it just takes a method of organisation that looks nice. One of my favourite methods is to make a varied visual line that is appealing, it's a lot of fun to organise objects of different heights in a way that looks good (often pretty challenging as well!) Chaos to my mind suggests a massive pile of completely disorganised stuff all over the place!

[Tak]

Yes you can be an organized collector. This may sound very strange to people, but maybe she's talking about more then just clutter or claustrophobia from too much stuff. Some people are sensitive to emotional energy imprints whether they consciously realize it or not. That is to say, an object can soak up the main emotional vibe of a house and person.

When my daughter got her Scrumptious for example, I felt that the pony was full of love and happiness. So I assume she was very much loved and her previous owner was happy.

Another time I received a doll meant for someone else,since the seller didn't ship to PO boxes that just felt sad, and all around negative. So perhaps the previous owner had suffered a recent crises or had self esteem issues or something?

Since a lot of us do get some of our stuff second hand, she may be subconsciously picking up on previous owners vibrations.

Or she may just dislike feeling enclosed by lots of stuff, no matter how organized it seems.

Oh my goodness, yes! I had to break a couple sets and have some at the back.

In my experience, the people who say things like that are usually striving to live life like it's Pinterest. Chaos keeps life interesting. But I really like to organize stuff.

For the record. I hate pintrest. Flat out refuse to go there, ever. I just have severe obsessive compulsive disorder combined with a memory damaged by 15 concussions. If something isn't where it belongs then it'll take hours to find it, even if it's 2a.m. plus I have a tendency to run into things as my depth perception is altered by the damage to my visual cortex.

For anyone else I'd agree with you. I'm I bit wacko. Even the dog has learned where it's ok to have his toys.  It's a wonderful life.

Post Merge: August 03, 2016, 11:50:46 PM

I'm lucky enough to have plenty of space, too.

[Taxel]

Collections can absolutely be organized. To me that would mean a small collection very carefully and thoughtfully displayed. I don't think all collections are chaos, but I've never seen a pony collection displayed quite the way I'm imagining. Like museum pieces.

Large collections can be fairly organized too but if you have hundreds of plastic ponies, dolls, trading cards, seashells, action figures, etc that's always going to be chaotic in some way. There's no avoiding visual noise in a collection like that, but depending on your space and displays there might not be overcrowding. There's a lot of factors.

For some people having a lot of "stuff", no matter what it is, is just chaos and they can't do it. And some collections are really overcrowded or otherwise chaotically displayed. One person's harmony is another person's chaos! Its all just personal preference

[kaoskat]

They can be either, or, or both. It depends on the person viewing and that person collecting what it seems to them. Each person will have different levels of tolerance and different ways of seeing things.

[banditpony]

Organized, of course. But being organized doesn't mean something looks aesthetically pleasing. That takes a designer who knows how to balance visual features.

That said. Museums have large collections and display their items very well.

[Barnacle_lady]

I always say that my house is not a museum Its organized the way I like it, I have to live with it. And there has to be some chaos.My ponies aren't all styled and can be found in the bathroom and living room too besides the ponyroom.
And you are a hoarder if someone else can not see the floor or if there is a health danger.

[Taxel]

And you are a hoarder if someone else can not see the floor or if there is a health danger.

I know hoarders with visible floors and no health hazards (like the typical cockroaches, box towers may fall, piles of dirty plates, etc people think of when you say "hoarder"). Its not black and white like that. Hoarding is a disorder and like any disorder there are symptoms and varying levels of severity. If you have enough space people may never notice your hoards of junk but that doesn't mean you need 20 years of disheveled magazines, junk mail, and random paper garbage in a pile on the basement floor.

[FantasticFirefly]

In my experience, the people who say things like that are usually striving to live life like it's Pinterest. Chaos keeps life interesting. But I really like to organize stuff.

I've known people who grew up as children in hording houses and their own places veer into the opposite direction. stark. spartan. Some people having things everywhere makes them feel intensely stressed, claustrophobic etc.

My folks never reached that point of hoarder of stacks and unwashed dishes, or garbage piled- but every surface had clutter, and closets were stuffed and finding something that was needed was "frustrating" lets say. the kids were tasked with retrieving things. In trouble when we didn't and another widget that was needed would be bought, shoved in a closet to be lost again. I silently seethed and dreamed of hauling 2/3 of that crap outside for a bonfire during my adolescence. This influenced how I like things. 

Having my own apartment and housing I was shocked, shocked, how easy it was to keep clean or find things. I am NOT a minimalist. I like the idea, but I do own backups of quality tools if I find another cheap, stock up my pantry with sales to the degree I could have had 5 kids living with me. As long as my closed storage I can find something easily, and it indeed saves me money in the long run I will stock up. I use little baskets and such in my closets so I just reach into the right one to grab my mittens, or sunglasses before walking out the door. I don't care if someone thinks it's too OCD, precious or pintresty. to me it looks orderly, and I find what I need immediately.

Having collections everywhere to the degree of my pony room in my house would be visually overstimulating to me.
I loathe open shelving. Dust gives me issues. so seeing too much stuff and open shelves to me, I get itchy just thinking about it. My poor dude, first move in thing I asked for was if I would be able to take down his open shelving (the kitchen seemed 1/3 bigger after!) and organizing stuff into closed storage. it was that or ask he pull everything down to dust weekly as I would do the rest of the house. Getting the stuff down and removing all those shelves I did get hives, even keeping up with my aerius allergy pills. (lots of cats, dust mites, we live in a rain forest so tree pollen like crazy too. it ends up everywhere on open surfaces).

So, I personally find a stark look to be visually unappealing, just as having too many things out on display in every room. One look is not for everyone.
My pony room, obviously it's just filled with ponies. people's reactions are hilarious! and many people do become completely overwhelmed at the amount of sheer stuff. and "don't know where to look". Some never come back up there (too overwhelming). others do multiple times and marvel they spot different things each time they go in.

[melodys_angel]

For sure--especially if you have something like OCD

[Eternia]

In my experience, the people who say things like that are usually striving to live life like it's Pinterest. Chaos keeps life interesting. But I really like to organize stuff.

well said!!!! I am the same way; my house is not 'neat' but everything has a place and it's organized.