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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. :shocked:
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"?
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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".
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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.
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We have 12 cats...my whole life is chaos! :lol:
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! :P
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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.
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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!
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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. :lmao: :wail: :dizzy: It's a wonderful life. :)
Post Merge: August 03, 2016, 11:50:46 PM
I'm lucky enough to have plenty of space, too.
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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 :)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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For sure--especially if you have something like OCD
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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.
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Having collections everywhere to the degree of my pony room in my house would be visually overstimulating to me. and 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 taking 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 and still (lots of cats, dust mites, we live in a rain forest so tree pollen like crazy too. it ends up everywhere).
I feel you on open shelving! Thankfully it takes a lot to get my allergies to act up but in a way its kind of horrifying to see open shelving if I really let myself think about it. I've seen so many beautiful collection displays and pony/doll rooms with open shelving. I can appreciate how gorgeous they are, for sure. But then I keep looking and its like oh god, that's awful! There would be so much dust! Especially when people have huge collections and open shelving. I have no idea how anyone would be able to keep them all clean.
Dust can seriously damage things, even irreparably depending on what it is. I have a Barbie from childhood who was very special and more "collector" aimed. I was allowed to open her and play lightly sometimes but she was mostly restricted to the higher of the two open shelves on my wall. Her beautiful blonde updo? Its gray now, literally. Completely caked with dust. It doesn't come off because it settled into the product on her hair. I doubt it would ever come out. And dustrot with cloth stuff is a thing. Dust is a killer for collections.
To me, open shelving is the most chaotic type of collection. Its even worse than extreme overcrowding.
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Dust <shudder> ew! I have not been able to convert all my shelving yet. My dad is retiring at the end of December and said he'd help build me some permanent enclosed shelving since I overflowed mine. 913 ponies as of this moment. That doesn't include duplicates accessories or playsets. I love my storage and have all unused or extras squirrled away in cupboards. Right now I just have to clean weekly. Luckily no allergies. We're at high risk for mold up here. The dust isn't nearly as bad as when we were in the high desert. As I said, I'm lucky. We have 1525 sq ft of house for my daughter, my 15 lb dog, and myself. The previous owner did a ton of work remodeling and I have so much storage. Plus, not allowed to drive so no car taking the garage. We're blessed. :) I also agree that it is a matter of perspective. What looks chaotic to one, may be calming and orderly to another. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don't style my ponies much because I can't bear to change that riot of original curls. My comment on my interior design background helping make it aesthetically pleasing is to my personal aesthetics. I'm sure some would hate my color organization. They actually have a whole class on how to listen and interpret what design would be most pleasing to each particular 'client' and their unique situation. Everyone deserves to be comfortable in their own space. I believe everyone needs that space to maintain equilibrium. I'm sorry if I came off snobby at all, before or now. Words can be difficult to express meaning properly.
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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.
I'm that way, though I'm back to living with my parents but my own first apartment was spotless til I got really sick. Moved back home and now the majority of my stuff is in storage and I'm stuck feeling claustrophobic if I stay home too much. Piles of my mother's stuff everywhere :( I just wish I could donate/throw out 2/3rds of it.
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What looks chaotic to one, may be calming and orderly to another. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I don't style my ponies much because I can't bear to change that riot of original curls. My comment on my interior design background helping make it aesthetically pleasing is to my personal aesthetics. I'm sure some would hate my color organization. They actually have a whole class on how to listen and interpret what design would be most pleasing to each particular 'client' and their unique situation. Everyone deserves to be comfortable in their own space. I believe everyone needs that space to maintain equilibrium. I'm sorry if I came off snobby at all, before or now. Words can be difficult to express meaning properly.
1) I love original curls. Brings me back to the 80's, it might not be tame, a section may be in a random direction -adds to the charm.... heartbroken to see them removed in favour of perfectly uniform straw curls/ or flat ironed out. I've spent hours giving ponies their lost "hasbro style" curls back, or taking out a reseller's hair styling (the photo is all hasbro! not my doing)visitors can't see pics , please register or login
2) I knew exactly what you meant. Informally I've been paid to help folks with colour selection, materials, shopping lists for furniture that would work and arranging what they had. it's so much fun to bring what someone wants and envisions, but can't quiet get to reality. It's usually not my personal taste for my own home either. :) almost went into a program like that. I was an art student and did/helped with a lot of renovation work. :) perfect marriage.
they are better in the states though. OH's friend was trained in your state. much better quality education and they gave their students a MUCH better understanding of building materials and codes. LOTS of bad designers up here that don't think about use and clients needs. like poor fabric choices for a family who owns a Labrador dog making the drapes impossible to clean. or ultra flat can't wash paint in a home with sticky handed children touching the walls while they're learning to walk. Like "if looks good for all of a week = it's a success" yeah, not
I'm that way, though I'm back to living with my parents but my own first apartment was spotless til I got really sick. Moved back home and now the majority of my stuff is in storage and I'm stuck feeling claustrophobic if I stay home too much. Piles of my mother's stuff everywhere :( I just wish I could donate/throw out 2/3rds of it.
I fell in love with a clutterbug..... It's not instant perfection but I am trying my hardest at being patient. He'll do a wave that frees space. He recently cataloged all his books and purged boxes he will never read again, or were duplicates..... I have extra stuff stored too. going to see if I can trade my things( I realize I'll never have proper room for) in exchange for a couple nice bookcases *with doors* for him. that would be perfect. or nicer storage furniture for other stuff of ours.... slowly.
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You can have an organized collection if you have the room, but mine is far from organized. I wish I had more room so I could be organized.
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I keep most of my collection stored away and out of sight. I put the rest on shelves and then switch them out with the collection in storage. I just can't stand the idea of dusting everything. But some of it is ok.
I do know the feeling of being cramped by other people's stuff. But normally when that happens it really is chaos and the room itself feels dark and cramped.
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I'm an organized collector, as much as space allows. My ponies (and my dolls/DVDs/etc) all have a place to go and are usually put away. If leave them out, they drive me nuts. :)
That said, my closet is packed in one corner with bags of stuff that I don't have room for. My garage has a corner that is overflowing with things to sell and donate. I'd get rid of more, but I lack time and - more importantly - I lack a car. If I had more of both, I'd be far more organized. :)
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It is possible to be an organized collector, but the bigger the collection, the harder it is. Given enough money(for display and storage options) and space, any collection can look organized. If you're low on either, things can quickly go to cluttered looking.
I have a *tiny* pony room with weird shaped walls and a huge window which severely limits the places to put shelves. I have a *massive* collection. The two don't go well together. I can't display even 10% of my collection at any one time, and I kind of let the whole organization thing get away from me for several years. I'm trying to fix that, but there's nothing in the world that's going to make that room look uncluttered. Too much stuff + too little space = a whole lot to look at in that room. It's not messy, and it's displayed attractively, but it can be overwhelming to look at. And that's with things being pared down a lot. I don't have my ponies lined up in tiers of little armies like a lot of collectors. I do my best to balance having a lot on display with trying to keep the room from getting claustrophobic.
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My collection is very organized. Those and my books are the most organized things in my home. My home on the other hand is an organized chaos. It might look a mess sometimes but I know exactly where everything is.
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Yes, collections can be organized. I just started a toy room because most of my collection was in boxes. I wanted to see and touch everything so I have open bookshelves. I know dust is an issue, so I will have to clean them eventually.
However, all the toys will not fit in the toy room, so some are in the hallway and bedroom. They are on shelves and in cases so they are still "organized" but I could see someone not thinking that because the are not all in the toy room.
Anyways, my attempt to get all my collection out and displayed is to be organized about it :)
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Everything is chaos, just ask jeff goldblum.
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Absolutely, collections can be organized!
Well, most of my ponies (except one or two - are in storage so it is easy for me to say!), but I do have other collections as well. Mostly more usable stuff though like china or books - but I don't like clutter at all. Not to say that my apartment is tidy - it is not. All my things do have their place, but they just not always find it. I also have a puppy, and she doesn't know what it means to clean up. I have shoes and mismatched socks all over my place - even in the bathroom! Puppy loves to hides her "steals" from me :lol:
Back to point; I actually think that many non-collectors look at collectors as messy because they confuse collectors with hoarders. To me, those 2 types of people are two very different things. Hoarders collect whatever, and never get rid of anything - whereas most collectors collect something very specific (be it ponies, postcards, stamps or china). Some collectors might have many different collections, others might have only one - but they all collect specific things. They just don't buy whatever and stuff in a drawer and forget about it. I actually think that most collectors are very organized, it might not show up in minimalistic homes - but most of us are very organized with our collections, be it displayed or in storage. If you collect it, you usually care about it - and will do your best to take care of it as well. It is most often far from chaos :biggrin:
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My mom was totally a hoarder while I was growing up (she got it from her mom, it pretty much runs in my family to varying degrees of severity) - it was just contained to certain rooms, then a shed outside when it grew too much for in the house. I picked up some of her tendencies but I've always been really good at keeping it contained (at least when I felt like it). It was just a huge mess in the way it was contained. Like seriously - my closet was a puzzle only I could solve. Everyone was afraid of it because move one thing wrong and you might get hurt.
Once I started collecting I realized if I wanted to do it, with my limited space I'd have to start getting rid of other stuff. So I purged about 20 - 30% of the stuff I had stored in my apartment and her basement. The rest is all organized and sorted; since I can really only do this once a year when my family visits due to lack of transportation. There's also the fact that some of my things I'm looking for that will affect decisions are mixed in with my mom's mass heap which will take her years to get through. Since she's been alive longer, especially since she's had significantly longer where she's had sole control.
But because of collecting I have much less chaos. My collection is stored in my closet in numbered bins, with codes on their bubble wrap. Then I have a spreadsheet of information about each item and it's location. I'm working on turning this into a database with an awesome interface so it will be easier to use and maintain. The G4s and G2s that aren't stored are up on shelves. They're not set up the way I'd like them to be, but at least they're up there and out of the way. The G1s hang out on my book cases for now. Some of them will stay there others are awaiting being cleaned and put away.
So at least in my case collecting has actually curbed chaos - thankfully before things got way out of hand.
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I still live with my mom so I only have my bedroom where I can store my ponies. Since I also collect a lot of MIB G2's they do take a lot of space. Currently, I am keeping 90% in boxes because I don't have room to put them somewhere else except in my 2 cabinets...
I hope that when I do move out I can have a pony room to put them in.
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I haven't been a collector for years. As some of you might remember, I closed my website and donated most of my toys years ago. I didn't keep much and what I have is tucked away in a chest in my closet. Clutter really bothers me, so my room is pretty bare. Other people's clutter doesn't bother me; I just don't want it in my personal space. As long as it's organized and not thrown in a dusty, messy pile, I wouldn't call a collection "chaos." :)
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Mine is chaotic currently, but only because I don't have my own place. If I had room to display them properly (i.e., the way I want them displayed), then it would absolutely be organized! I don't like clutter, but to me, "clutter" is not the same as just having a lot of stuff.
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I think you should live how ever is comfortable to you ,as long it does not cause harm to your self or others. My house is very small .so it looks like chaos. It is lived in.
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Personally I find large collections create a lot (too much for my taste) of visual noise, and can seem chaotic, even if they are well organized! I'm not a fan. But it's all up to personal taste. It's your home after all :)