Vigilante

Do you prefer to have pictures, memories and decoration around your home or apartment, or do you prefer minimalist design, with solid colors and order and very few loose items in the room?

For me, heaven:


Not so much.


It's not the style, it's the flow, or lack thereof. I like solid lines, fast transitions of color, a center piece that forces you to stare at it and it alone. The bottom one makes me nauseous.

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Reese

Short term, I like Minimalist. However if I spend a lot of time in the room, I like "busy." They actually cause the opposite reactions in me. A minimalist design with sharp lines, bold colors etc cause me to be anxious and feel out of place whereas a busy design with lots of things to break up the view and natural colors really relax me and I can spend more time in them.

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Xerxys

The bottom pic is Exactly how our house looks like for 5 minutes after I'm done picking up around it. I love the first picture but then that is because I like being a bachelor!

mixedmedia

I used to be the latter (in a hobo thrift store kind of way). Now I am happily the former. It was a transition that took a cataclysmic life change and about five years after that to complete.

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Tully Mars

I try to keep what I own to a min. I used to have a house full of stuff and a storage area. Now I think very carefully before buying more stuff.

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noodle

I'd actually choose between the two. Because I need books and my workspace is cluttery. But, I like when things can be somewhat minimalist. Too much order and I get anxious, too much clutter and I shut down. And then usually make it worse. Which is what is happening right now to my place... I need shelving so I can unpack.

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GreyWolf

Well, since I tend to have books lying in piles everywhere (too many for the shelves), I have to go with the second. And I love my then 8-yo son's reaction to my wife's complaint about having too many books when he replied with absolute shock, "But Mommy, you can NEVER have too many books!" That's my boy!

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thirdsun

I highly prefer minimalist design. I can't live with a lot of clutter in a space, especially if I am going to be doing any real creative work there. Yeah, sometimes certain areas get out of control, but for the most part, our place is happily minimalist.

Part of it is reaction to my parents house. Its even busier than the sample photo. Every square inch is covered with magazines, knick-knacks, photo frames, and just tons of stuff they have collected for over 60 years and won't (or can't) throw away. It drives me crazy. There is no freedom to be or do anything in their house, which is more like a cluttered curio shop than a living environment. It's a claustrophobic nightmare.

seamaiden

I love the first, but live in the second...the reason is; We love our stuff. Solution...a bigger place so we can spread it out. That might achieve a minimalist look (just don't open the closet doors).

The_Jazz

That's pretty much exactly what I came here to say. People who've been on video chat have seen my kitchen/family room from time to time. It's not real cluttered so long as we keep ahead of the kids. But we have books and toys lining most walls in most of the rooms where they play any significant amount. Conservatively, my two boys have about 500 books.

Minimalist is not an option with kids.

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Redlemon

I'm going to go with about 85% of photo 1, and 15% of photo 2. Our place is (usually) clean and simple, but there's still a bit of personal stuff around.

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ASU2003

I would say I have more stuff to make the room functional than in picture 1, but it isn't cluttered. I like to be organized, but if I don't clean for a few weeks it becomes this.


*No that's not my room, and it doesn't always get that bad.

Vigilante

I definitely see what people mean when they say they don't want to get rid of stuff. I'm as guilty as the next. I think I can find peace in having a minimalist living space with the clutter of belongings in other rooms. The trick there is to not let the rooms get out of control.

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-Winston Churchill

LordEden

I am a minimalist because I don't have alot of stuff. I have gotten to the point of living in the second picture of the OP, but now I just don't have that much stuff. I agree with Redlemon's stats, I figure if I have the money, that's what my place would be like. I'd like everything in it's place, but a room or two would be filled with junk/books (mainly books).

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Lasereth

I like organization but I do love the second picture much more than the first. I think it's interesting that people can love totally different house organizations. My house is like the first pic BTW.

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Salem

I like in between. I HATE nick-nacks. AKA small uselss things people collect from everywhere. Miniature cutlery and plates, bowls, spoon collections, 800 frogs. But I don't like bare things either. I like sentimental decorations. Family pictures, books, stuff like that.

Daniel_

I like to have things about, but hate dust catching doo-dads.

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Vigilante

My wife's fetish is frogs. She LOVES frogs!

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-Winston Churchill

Charlatan

I like the minimalist approach.

If I had my choice it would be as minimal as possible. Living with a wife and two kids, I don't get that choice.

No clutter. No useless stuff.

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Martian

I don't see why it has to be one extreme or the other.

The first photo is too austere. There's nothing warm or inviting about it.

The second photo is too claustrophobic and visually distracting. It'd be hard for me to be comfortable in a space that noisy.

I generally try to keep our home somewhere between the two. We have a few knick knacks and odds and ends, but I do try to keep it all organized. The only thing that really bothers me right now is a box of electronic miscellania that doesn't have a proper home. One of these days I'm going to find room for it in the hall closet, or something.

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CinnamonGirl

The second pic is entirely too busy. But nothing about the first picture says "home" to me. I don't like useless little knicknacks everywhere, but I don't really feel comfy without my pictures and books and such.

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Lindy

+1

I don't think that EITHER of Vigilante's example pictures look like anyone actually lives in the room. His "heaven" picture is way too fussily precise. It manages to look over-decorated even though minimalist. Could anyone actually live in that room?

"Not so much" is just as fussy, only with a lot more stuff. A lot more stuff, but it still looks like a place for everything and everything in its place. Real packrats don't live like that.

The only thing I like about heaven is the bright natural light. I don't like anything about Not so much, except for the comfortable looking seating.

Lindy

Stare At The Sun

Do want.

Minimalism is the way to go.

Plan9

Everything about my life is minimalist.

Including my crotch.

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Vigilante

Win.

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We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
-Winston Churchill

Xerxys

^^ I wish the action my crotch saw wasn't so minimal!