Hodge podge of stories this week. Modernists will enjoy the piece about New Orleans architect, Albert Ledner. And ATers might cringe (or be comforted) by the work of David H. Freedman...
- Stop feeling bad: Saying Yes to Mess.
- A New Orleans architect with New York buildings: A Modernist Beacon in the Post-Katrina Night. Includes a slideshow of Mr. Ledner's work.
- Benjamin Moore's new Aura paint: Quick and Easy, for a Price.
- Benefits and drawbacks for gardeners: With Warmer Weather, Different Decisions to Make.
- Room to Improve: Can I salvage my old chandelier?
In response to the "Saying Yes To Mess" article from the Times:
As a professional organizer, I agree that creative and busy people do not have the time or energy to devote to keeping their desks and homes in pristine condition. Their ideas and dreams sometimes thrive off of seeing all their projects out in the open. Sometimes.
But I feel there is a middle ground between a disaster area abound with chaos and confusion and an office that mirrors a photo shoot from the Container Store catalog.
This middle ground is called living a balanced life where bills are paid on time, appointments are kept and holiday cards are opened and enjoyed. We're all busy in this city but having some kind of order that works for each individual is a really healthy place to be.
My opinion was on the other open thread that disappeared. Often a pigsty is just a pigsty no matter how creative or brilliant you are. A lot of "absent-minded professor" types wouldn't survive without a grad student or spouse to take care of the bills, etc. (and other details of life as jeni mentions).
"Saying Yes to Mess" is the most emailed article today on NYTimes.com. I still say "no" to mess, but I think we've arrived at some sort of backlash!
Hell-llo, Mister Say Yes to Mess!
I am dumbfounded that no one has mentioned that 'filth' tends to come right on the heels of 'mess'.
I mean it's one thing to lose your plane ticket beneath piles of papers or trip over your shoes piled by the door... but it's entirely different when you acquire a pet problem because you neglect to take out the garbage regularly, or the line of soap scum in your bathroom makes other people hesitate to touch your faucets.
Pfft. The article says that "Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't keep a calendar"...yeah, b/c he's stinking rich and PAYS people to keep track of his responsibilities for him.
My working desks (both at home and the office) have never been the tidiest places on earth (my desk in my non-profit org. office has traditionally been a downright wreck, actually)...and I've gotten a lot of really great work-related stuff done. On the other hand, while I was working and letting the clutter pile up elsewhere in my home, I stopped painting, drawing, and making other forms of art for six years. I also stopped making music, gardening, sewing, crafting, cooking, hosting gatherings, and a whole slew of other things I used to love doing. Why? Couldn't stand being in my home! The clutter pushed me out the door. I never got back to any of those things until I started de-cluttering, about three years ago now.
I don't think people should be expected to have everything in their universes neatly organized, but I'm not buying the "mess = genius" thing anymore, either.
Untidyness is good - creative and fun - messiness is starting to head towards bad where your unwashed dishes start to breed infections - as in everything else in life try to strike a balance - keep it clean people but live life rather than spending your free time tidying
(By the way why do these items from the NY Times get posted on here? - don't you all read the NY Times anyway??)
One source in the article quoth: "if youÂ’ve never had a messy kitchen, youÂ’ve probably never had a home-cooked meal."
The article seems to conflate TEMPORARY mess-for-project and ongoing life in chaos, at least here. To cook, you take out the stuff, cook the meal, and then clean the stuff and put it away. If your kitchen always looks as if you just cooked a complicated meal, you're probably too daunted by the mess to do much more cooking (and getting roaches, too).
wende, that quote about cooking annoyed me too. TOTALLY not the same thing as living in a cluttery and/or dirty mess. (Anyone who's ever lived in a small space knows you can't cook without messing up the kitchen...but you can't live in the space if you don't clean it up afterwards, also!!)
I was also kind of bothered by the narrowness of the theme: the whole "war" between being cluttered/messy and keeping your crap organized. What about having less crap in the first place? Seems like the anti-organizing movement (or the anti-anti-clutter movement, as the article calls it) may be just a sop to people who want permission/validation for acquiring and consuming more and more material possessions, whether they need (or even really want) those things or not.