My mother-in-law came by last night with a Dyson. What?! Yeah, you heard right. She bought us a brand spanking new Dyson. Now, although I think it's an amazing gift, Mr. Branflake nearly cried with happiness. You see, he is a neat freak and I am not. Although I hate germs I am not what you call organized or orderly. In fact, I am completely and utterly the opposite.
image via Sunken Treasure
I know that in Mr. Branflake's heart, this photo is how he wants our home.
But for some reason I cannot get myself to commit to this lifestyle.
We always joke that with his aversion to clutter and my fear of germs that we would have the cleanest house in the world. But instead we just annoy each other.
For example, his bookshelves are perfectly in order. Mine are a fat mess with papers and books laying about. It looks more like a book graveyard than a bookcase while his resembles a library. No, his is more organized than a library.
I am trying everyday to be more organized but it's hard. Give me a ten hour rehearsal on two hours of sleep and a a granola bar for dinner any day. But to find a place for every thing that I own? I count that as almost impossible and just frustrating.
Some consider my disorganized life a trademark of an artist. Although I think it's a negative and superficial stereotype towards artists, in this case it's absolutely true. My dance bag? Chaos. My side of the closet that is slowly creeping to his side? It looks like Forever 21 on Black Friday. Let's not get started on my night stand that holds everything from books to Christmas cards from 2009.
How about you?
Are you organized and orderly?
Or are you like me and have a constant rotating pile of clothes
from the chair to the bed to the chair to the hamper?
True Story:
In college I was at least ten minutes tardy to my 8 am French Class every single time.
My teacher's reaction?
She would get this wistful look in her eye and say,
Ah! La Boheme! (The Artist!)
She knew I was a dancer and somehow that made my tardiness totally understandable.
37 comments:
we are soo NOT neat freaks but i wish we were!!
oh a place for everything - that is indeed not possible! clutter is homely - no? xxxx
my fiance is the one who is a little messy...thankfully we have separate bathrooms and closets so i just shut the door :) in the other areas of the apt he is REALLY good about cleaning up his stuff... i'll admit im kinda a freak about clutter. it drives me nuts. and i have NO hesitation about throwing things away (not always good). sooo i guess it's good to have one person in the relationship who is a little more sentimental about things. good luck! xo jillian
ahahaha! you are too funny. I was always the orderly one ;)
I am incredibly orderly and organized...iny my own way. What looks messy to others is completely perfect for me. To each his (or her) own, I suppose! :P
I always say I'm organize in my own special way. But I refuse to let anyone come to my home if it's not in order.
Oh my goodness I bet Mr. B is in the clouds!!!! And yes, we will see you this weekend (if you can get Mr. B to stop vacuuming long enough to kiss some baby cheeks ;)
Haha, I'm SO with you on this one!! One good example - when Mardy had moved into his new place (about a year later), we had taken a friend there to see it. When she walked into his room, she said: "It doesn't even look like anyone lives here. There's no stuff!" And then when she came to see my place, she said, "Okay, THIS is what a room looks like!" Hahaha.
I have so much stuff, and I honestly have no idea how I acquire it to this point! And my stuff is always sneaking over to Mardy's side - he eventually had to stake his claim on a corner and defend it. I'm going to say it's my artistic tendencies too...and the fact that I'm a girl :) Girls just tend to have more STUFF - we can't help it! Look at all the makeup and hair products we have over guys ALONE.
My workdesk is ALWAYS disorderly, but I know where everything is. I could tell you if a paper was at the bottom of a pile. So I go crazy when anyone tries to help me clean, because then I can't find anything anymore! :)
Anyway, it's good that our men balance us out. If they had stuff and were messy too?! That would be bad :)
sadly im not a neat freak. i wish i was! my fiance likes to make sure everything is in order - so it'll be interesting what it'll be like once we are married and live together. hehe.
I am totally not a neat freak. . . I work best with my papers spread all about and my books stacked haphazardly around my desk. Our bookcases only look neat where the books we rarely use are. . . That being said, I'm a paper/book/clothes monster and Dr. J likes order and neatness. Thanks to residency his need for neat has decreased which makes me a much saner person. I think we're about equal right now in terms of cluttter.
haha i'm just like your mister, i LOVE the cleanliness, i have to have things organized. my problem is that i let it go sometimes cuz then i feel so gross all the time until i take care of it...
haha! that's so funny. i am totally both messy and organized. my natural habit is to be completely and utterly messy, with my stuff thrown about the house. but every few days i get these strong compulsions to clean and organize everything, putting everything in its place and clearing out anything i don't need {or hiding it in a cupboard so i never have to see it}. sometimes i feel like two very different people inside who have to learn to live together.
i used to be organized and orderly but not so much anymore. i want those windows in my house!
I laughed when you said you have christmas cards on your nightstand because that's totally how I am! I think I am very disorderly when it comes to our bedroom, but I liked the rest of the house to have a little more order. Maybe it's because I'm trying to keep up appearances, but with our bedroom, I can just close the door, you know? Luckily, my husband and I have similar styles, but on the flip side, it means our house is always in need of cleaning. Especially with a 16 month old!
lol thats funny! I wish I had your teacher. I am by no means an artist, however I am a tardy person (although I am really really trying to be better) and go through waves or being organized and being a total mess..
This is SO me & Bryan. I'm the germaphobe, he's the neat freak. I'm not even allowed to do the laundry because I don't fold it properly. I'm not unorganized by any means, but I do have a problem when it comes to leaving my clothes EVERYWHERE. I'm pretty sure I have the makings of an outfit in every room of my house right now.
I'm not really organized, but in my house I keep things neat except in my bedroom/closet. M's side of the room is neat as a pin while mine looks like a clothing store exploded. It's the one place I allow my messy side free reign.
Your husband's ideal organized home (going by the photo) is like mine, but then I moved to college and realized something-- I like a little clutter! It makes a space look lived-in. I did that this year in my dorm room and got lots of compliments for its coziness.
I have a friend with OCD, who you would think would be super organized. She is but her house is messy in some areas. I don't like anything too perfect. It makes me think the person is unhappy.
I'd say I'm in the middle... but if I get too behind with putting things away, then the thought of organizing those piles overwhelms me and they become a feature of the room ;)
"La boheme!"... Love that!
xoxo J
i'm a borderline OCD neat freak psycho. jealous of your dyson, lady!
We are the exact same way. I don't mind things being messy, but they have to be clean. He's the opposite. So funny!
Oh Tiffany -- I love this post! I myself am what you would call an over-organizer. My husband is the complete opposite (not dirty but cluttered). My husband Mark is the artist in our house (an amazing writer & he also can draw anything to utter perfection) - of course this is one of the reasons I fell in love with him! When he was back in college he was always at least 10 mins plus, late for class but made up for it with hard work and talent. We now have a 23 year old son & artist (vocal and music major) and he has always been a disorganized genius! He is also regularly late for college classes - some professors have not been so amused by this - lol. I think it is just in the genes. Both my husband and oldest son are amazing artists/people (just like you) with generous kind hearts and really that's all that matters!!
xx's
What an inspiring picture! Love this picture!
http://blog.badjoan.com/
I'm an oddball- an organized dancer! All of my dancer friends in college had messes of a room- I, on the other hand, take pleasure in organizing things (maybe a little too much- I have an archive of old dance, martha stewart, and whole living magazines that are arranged chronologically and by title...)
i am so not organized, but I like to keep it real clean. That image is perfection!!! wish i could pull it off though :)
xo
I'm semi organized. I have unruly but still tidy piles of stuff. My husband is super messy but loves the dyson (speaks to his gadget loving side).
xoxo,
Chic 'n Cheap Living
i always wanted a Dyson... they are sooooo cool! i have to admit im a bit of a mess and struggle to be more organized... all the time!!!
Haha, I try so hard to be neat -- and yes there are times when my spaces are super tidy, but honestly my stuff are all over the place too. But it's funny because I know where everything is!
Everyone calls it my "creative" mess lol.
Whoa, if someone bought me a dyson, I might just paint a giant thank you mural on the front of my house. What a fabulous gift. Not a neat freak, but still definitely fall victim to almost every marketing campaign by cleaning companies.
I'm exactly like you!! and I need a dyson to suck everything up so I can start fresh. It's a hot mess up in here!
xo,
c
ps-the carpal isn't from posture--it's from hours on the computer/phone at work (executive recruiter)
this is funny :) I'm definitely the neat freak in our relationship!
p.s. i have sad news - our scotland trip is getting postponed to october because of my friends family =( isn't that really sad!?
Although I dream of the scenario you depict in the photograph, I, too, have never achieved this status ... and I am way older than you are. Not to worry because 'organised chaos' to my mind, is a mark of creativity. When I was teaching there were 'neat freak' girls who would ask if they could tidy my desk! Certainly, I would say and sigh with pleasure at the result ... but by the following day, chaos reigned once more.
you sound exactly like me. I hate dirt and I would consider myself clean but not at all tidy, the exact opposite of my boyfriend. His complaints about my nightstand and closet are endless and as an ex-dancer and current actress, i definitley empathise with the hectic artist clichés even though I know I'm fulfilling it!
xox
Every neat freak needs a clutterer! (I'm the tidy person in our house and I get a lot of stick for it.) Just imagine to OCD clean people - horror! 2 messies - Yuk!
How I wish my hubby were organized.. sigh. Neither one of us is. My home is totally surface clean. I get overwhelmed when it comes to organizing. My house is surface clean... just don't open the closets! I did organize my make up drawers yesterday... it took me 2/12 hrs... crazy, right? I took some photos but the before is so bad not sure I can share them on my blog.
Let me know if you like the Dyson... I am thinking of getting one. xo
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