Clutter Porn: The 2002 Messiest College Apartments Show!
March 23, 2002 7:27 PM   Subscribe

Clutter Porn: The 2002 Messiest College Apartments Show! Do these photographs, not to mention the no-hold-barred 360º tours, make you retch or smile? Are you a Messie or a Cleanie? Would you ever pay a professional organizer to unclutter your home or office? Or are you worried there are deeper issues, such as obsessive compulsive disorder, involved? Never mind if you are. A wonderful essay by Daniel Harris puts our untidy hearts at rest. [first link via Boing Boing]
posted by MiguelCardoso (20 comments total)
 
Were any of these people my roomies, I'd be in jail for homicide, now. Not just vanilla homicide mind you, but the sort of homicide that makes coroners quit and sends people back to church. "Jesus Bob, I didn't know you could actually stab someone with a brick" kind of homicide.

Guess that makes me a Cleanie, huh.
posted by dong_resin at 7:45 PM on March 23, 2002


Oh, and you can bet I'd have lain down plastic first.
posted by dong_resin at 7:46 PM on March 23, 2002


IMHO, there's a vast gulf between being messy and being filthy. I'm quite a messy person, but I hate dirt and filth. The examples on that site are clearly filthy and dirty, and pretty unhygenic.

As an example I present a picture of my own room. It's a mess, but it's a clean mess which is dusted and moved around regularly ;-) People who leaving food or old clothes about the place disgust me. But I respect a traditional 'mess' :-)
posted by wackybrit at 8:22 PM on March 23, 2002


Geez, and I thought *I* needed to put in an emergency call to Monback Brothers!
posted by realjanetkagan at 8:49 PM on March 23, 2002


That's pretty disgusting. What kind of a person accumulates a four-foot-tall pile of used toilet paper?

I agree, I'm the same kind of messy that wackybrit is. I'll throw my clothes on the floor and toss books around, but I couldn't stand to let a pile of crusty plates rot for 2 weeks or throw candy wrappers and empty bottles on the floor.

Oh, and from experience, I can say that many times messy college girls are far worse than guys.
posted by tomorama at 9:04 PM on March 23, 2002


Is it bad that I'm surrounded by four overflowing ashtrays, one of which spilled on the floor... two days ago? That my sweaty gym clothes are currently staining the dining room table? That my housecleaner refuses to go in my bedroom, and that she wakes me up by calling me lazy?

I could have won that 10,000 dollar prize years running, hands down. Love the Daniel Harris essay, Miguel. He's right: it is a lifestyle (and one of infantilism, ahem). My stove, however, looks rather more like Sam Francis than Morris Louis. This is a genius action plan. Hmm... I need to get remarried.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 9:27 PM on March 23, 2002


Pretty bad, but not too far above my current bedroom. Still, that's a whole different category of messiness. Our living room is hardly a sea of plastic cups.

Almost, though.
posted by Succa at 11:39 PM on March 23, 2002


How wierd to be reading this while 'the odd couple' is on tvland right now...from what I've seen there are more Oscar Madisons than Felix Ungers out there. The Daniel Harris essay, especially the part about dust, was really funny and true. My advice if you don't have time for a full emergency clean sweep is to replace all your lightbulbs with 20 watt bulbs: what cannot be seen can only be imagined.
posted by Mack Twain at 1:05 AM on March 24, 2002


dong_resin writes, Were any of these people my roomies, I'd be in jail for homicide, now.

Naw. Assuming you left the bodies in the apartment who'd ever know?

Now excuse me why I go call my mom and thank her for every time she got on my ass to clean my room.
posted by Qubit at 4:00 AM on March 24, 2002


Well, you've got me there, Qubit.
Wash your hands before you use the phone.
posted by dong_resin at 4:43 AM on March 24, 2002


Withnail: Right you fucker - I'm going to do the washing up!

[He strides towards the kitchen. I jumps over the arm of the settee and stops him.]

I: No no you can't. It's impossible, I swear it. I've looked into it. Listen to me, listen to me. There are things in there, there's a tea-bag growing. You haven't slept in sixty hours. You're in no state to tackle it. Wait till the morning, we'll go in together.

Withnail: This is the morning. Stand aside!

I: You don't understand. I think there may be something alive.

Withnail: What do you mean? A rat?

I: It's possible, it's possible.

Withnail [brandishing his comb]: Then the fucker will rue the day!

[He rushes up the the sink.]

(Withnail and I, Bruce Robinson)
posted by Grangousier at 5:01 AM on March 24, 2002


Or alternatively...
posted by Grangousier at 5:03 AM on March 24, 2002


I want other people to take pictures of their rooms and link to them here, go on, it'll be fun ;-)
posted by wackybrit at 5:32 AM on March 24, 2002


Heh, I'd love to Wacky, but I misplaced the battery charger for my digital camera months ago...and it just hasn't turned up yet... :)

I'm a packrat, but I try to keep the chaos from creeping down the stairs. My office is fairly cluttered...and with strange things...but the public areas; living room, dining room, kitchen, guest bath and bedroom, those I keep fairly clean.

About once a quarter I throw a big dinner party, which forces me to get the entire house 'white-glove' clean. But, I'm not a 'cleanie' by any stretch of the imagination.
posted by dejah420 at 8:57 AM on March 24, 2002


Wackybrit: this was my pad a few months ago. I'm currently in the process of painting and putting in new furniture, so at the moment the only things still in the room are that desk, a mattress on the floor and 4 bare walls.
posted by tomorama at 9:19 AM on March 24, 2002


Try reading the first chapter of The Fan Man out loud to another adult sometime! The author of "ET" also wrote the best description of mess, ever.

So that's one of the rooms where all this typing actually ends up! Wonder what the others look like?
posted by sheauga at 9:33 AM on March 24, 2002


I'm definitely consider myself a non-Cleanie, however today the place looks rather clean. (den, computer room, kitchen)
posted by brittney at 12:59 PM on March 24, 2002


They may be unpaid whores but at least they don't let this happen.
posted by Settle at 9:31 PM on March 24, 2002


I love looking into other people's rooms! Mine: kitchen, studio, office.
posted by evanizer at 6:05 PM on March 25, 2002


it's not squalor, it's a carefully balanced ecosystem!
posted by kliuless at 6:17 AM on March 26, 2002


« Older Cannabis   |   From windmills to whirligigs... Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments