Just So

October 24, 2010 2:55 AM

Things Organized Neatly is a photo blog of exactly what the title says.
posted by bardophile (58 comments total)

I don't need a blog, I need a maid !
posted by The Lady is a designer at 3:10 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow. I didn't know that I needed this, but I needed it.
posted by Joe in Australia at 3:22 AM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

This is neat!
posted by gomichild at 3:32 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

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posted by maqsarian at 3:42 AM on October 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm looking at this and thinking, "I could do that better."
posted by Splunge at 3:54 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The internet: Making your OCD into an art project.
posted by Jacqueline at 4:21 AM on October 24, 2010 [7 favorites]

I was worried that it would be like the Ikea catalog, but it's much cooler than that. Thanks.
posted by OmieWise at 4:40 AM on October 24, 2010

terribly disappointed. i was hoping it would show me how to organize my house, not my imaginary collections. so i went to unclutterer. and found this, which only has marginal applicability to organizing my house, but has a secret drawer in there somewhere. that was cool.

but i still need help organizing my house.
posted by msconduct at 4:45 AM on October 24, 2010 [8 favorites]

Nail on head, msconduct. Is this person available for house visits?
posted by Ahab at 4:47 AM on October 24, 2010

The top right camera in the "my cameras" one is a little squint.

Not a single attribution on them, though. Man, I don't wanna be there when Leonard Lee finds out a couple were lifted from Lee Valley Tools catalogues.
posted by scruss at 4:50 AM on October 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

This is pleasing to me.
posted by sciurus at 4:55 AM on October 24, 2010

A useful tip: Put a list of links to your archival material in a sidebar. That way, your visitors can click on a link to a particular month without having to load thumbnails from every intervening month.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:24 AM on October 24, 2010

Spreading your crap across a table is not the same as organization, even if sorted by color. In fact, the uniform density arrangements shown on this blog are analogous to thermodynamic systems in equilibrium, i.e. entropy is maximized. If you wish to decrease entropy, you need to confine the particles in your environment to small regions of higher pressure, such as a drawer or a tool box.
posted by ryanrs at 5:25 AM on October 24, 2010 [22 favorites]

My, earth really is full of things.
posted by dywypi at 5:28 AM on October 24, 2010 [9 favorites]

I'd say a more accurate title for the blog is "things arranged in a visually striking way".
posted by orange swan at 5:43 AM on October 24, 2010 [11 favorites]

I liked the railroad watch parts.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 6:00 AM on October 24, 2010

This is my worst nightmare.
posted by Xurando at 6:03 AM on October 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

"Ist nein Stackenblochen!"
posted by Servo5678 at 6:39 AM on October 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I do this to every set of objects in my vicinity under exactly two conditions:
I'm talking on the phone.
I'm having a difficult conversation. (on the phone or IRL)

Under both circumstances I'm left (however incorrectly) that entropy in my immediate vicinity has been DECREASED. Ahhh.
posted by asavage at 6:41 AM on October 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'd say a more accurate title for the blog is "things arranged in a visually striking way".

Yeah, this is only "things arranged neatly" in the sense that it's "things arranged in a way that makes you think, neat!"
posted by mdn at 7:16 AM on October 24, 2010

I can't decide which I want more: to organize all MY junk in a similar fashion, or to smash through all this neatly organized junk like a sugar-crazed toddler bent on total destruction.
posted by elizardbits at 7:23 AM on October 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

mdn: "Yeah, this is only "things arranged neatly" in the sense that it's "things arranged in a way that makes you think, neat!""

Neatness isn't just a function of arrangement along one line of symmetry. Everything on the blog, as far as I can tell, is about things arranged geometrically, which translates in my head as things organized neatly.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 7:32 AM on October 24, 2010

This is my worst nightmare.

This is my worst nightmare.
posted by mazola at 7:38 AM on October 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

Everything on the blog, as far as I can tell, is about things arranged geometrically, which translates in my head as things organized neatly.

I guess my colloquial use of the word is more utilitarian - things arranged in a well organized way. I thought it was going to be a blog about how to get your desk in order... there's a geometric angle to that (for some reason) but by itself it isn't sufficient.
posted by mdn at 7:39 AM on October 24, 2010

Creepy.
posted by oneironaut at 7:40 AM on October 24, 2010

So a few weeks ago, I'm round at a friend's flat with a few other people, and we're about to play some Guitar Hero, except that the batteries in one of the controllers have gone flat. So my friend reaches under the coffee table, and pulls out a box.

Labelled "batteries".

Which contains only batteries.

None of which, so far as I'm aware, are flat.

I think he must be some kind of Tidiness Deity.
posted by ZsigE at 7:43 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

What? I have a battery box. It contains only batteries. Where else are you going to keep your batteries??
posted by TochterAusElysium at 8:10 AM on October 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

Somewhere, someone is laboring day and night to make their personal stash of stuff worthy of posting here. It's taken years just to assemble the collection and find the right storage equipment. The interrelationships between the items has been carefully evaluated so that even the most discerning viewer will not find a thing out of place. Money has been no object; time no barrier for they are driven.

Once they learned of this site a new top project was born in their mind. It soon grew to consume most of their schedule. They've been tweaking the physical layout, planning the composition and reimagining the presentation in every possible permutation, but something - SOMETHING - is still out of place.

They will figure it all out and find just the right camera and lighting for their shot the day after the site goes down.

And thus a new photo blog will be born.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 8:39 AM on October 24, 2010

Pizza is already perfectly organized right out of the oven. Disassembling it to rearrange it in a visually interesting pattern, where it will cool off and dry out, rather than to eat it, will only anger the hungry teenagers for whom pizza exists as a concept in the first place.

and that looked like nice thin-crust Neopolitan style pizza, which is heaven on earth fresh out of the oven.
posted by longsleeves at 8:51 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Stay tuned for my new blog: crap in heaps.
posted by boo_radley at 8:54 AM on October 24, 2010 [17 favorites]

Something cool on Tumblr. (Sometimes Tumblr is skeery.)

I like the turncoat crayons.
posted by morganannie at 9:11 AM on October 24, 2010

This has both satisfied my urge to see things all nice and organized, and fed my reluctance to get to work the DIY version of the site. Awesome.
posted by empatterson at 9:29 AM on October 24, 2010

Most of that site makes me cringe at my own disorganization while admiring the neat layouts.

But there's one pic, of the food items all laid out ready to cook (second pic on this page) which bothers me. One little section of what looks like baking soda or baking powder is slightly mussed. Just enough to make me itch, wanting to fix it.

You just know that they had the shot all set up, and the food designer and the photographer were ready to go. And then some intern goes and messes up the baking stuff and everyone's like, "Oh, shit! Now what do we do? It'll take hours to set up again."

"Fuck it, just take the shot."
posted by misha at 9:40 AM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Stay tuned for my new blog: crap in heaps.

Oh, fine, you can come in and take some photos. Just let me find my robe first --- it's around here somewhere.
posted by Elsa at 9:40 AM on October 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

ROUND THINGS BELONG WITH ROUND THINGS.
posted by Zed at 9:43 AM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

I think we need to combine this and a recent post to get Muslims Organizing Things.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:05 AM on October 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

I kind of wish this was right next to the "Map of Non-Monogamy" post, two doors up.
posted by iamkimiam at 10:06 AM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Sadly, that website's front page is not organized neatly.


So my friend reaches under the coffee table, and pulls out a box.

Labelled "batteries".

Which contains only batteries.

None of which, so far as I'm aware, are flat.

I think he must be some kind of Tidiness Deity.

The godlike beauty of it is that the box of batteries is also conveniently located. Tidyness AND efficiency of thought and motion? Probably a serial killer.
posted by gjc at 10:10 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

A lot of these are ridiculous (and some are just plain dumb) but holy cow, I love this one so much.
posted by kate blank at 10:14 AM on October 24, 2010

I think we need to combine this and a recent post to get Muslims Organizing Things.

I kind of wish this was right next to the "Map of Non-Monogamy" post, two doors up.

Organize your four wives by height, weight or number of children?
posted by The Lady is a designer at 10:14 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I had to go back through the archives a bit to find something by Andy Goldsworthy (scroll down to the piles of rocks), but there are a few there, submitted by a guy with this photoset on Flickr. They look like they were scanned in from one of his books.

Andy Goldsworthy goes out into nature and piles and arranges natural materials (leaves, rocks, twigs, dirt, snow) into really beautiful compositions and then photographs them.
posted by marble at 10:22 AM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

Ooh I was inspired to look for more Goldsworthy on Flickr, and found this cake that someone made that is inspired by Goldsworthy. Just gorgeous. I would submit it to the site but I don't own the rights.
posted by marble at 10:31 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

This is my worst nightmare.

Ah, the Town Musicians of Bremen.
posted by ericb at 10:40 AM on October 24, 2010

Me:

[✓] -- Virgo.
[✓] -- OCD.
[✓] -- Gay.
[✓] -- A place for everything and everything in its place.
[✓] -- Finds this photoblog "neat."

posted by ericb at 10:44 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Somewhere, someone is masturbating to this.
posted by The otter lady at 11:03 AM on October 24, 2010 [5 favorites]

Blushes.
posted by ericb at 11:05 AM on October 24, 2010 [10 favorites]

Neat != Efficiently Organized. The latter is almost always a subset of the former, though.
posted by keratacon at 11:06 AM on October 24, 2010

They look like they were scanned in from one of his books.

Yeah, and without any kind of attribution on the links, which made me kind of unreasonably grumpy.

His fence/wall thing up at Storm King Art Centre was (is? is it still there?) gloriously awesome, and I say this as a person who just barely understands the need for art in the universe.
posted by elizardbits at 11:17 AM on October 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

The lack of attribution really just isn't cool. Someone is taking credit for other people's hard work without giving me a way of finding more of it. Tell me who did these wonderful things so I may find more!
posted by stoneweaver at 11:39 AM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Generally the entire MacFixit teardowns could be wedged here.
posted by mazola at 11:43 AM on October 24, 2010

boo_radley: "Stay tuned for my new blog: crap in heaps."

Somebody beat you to it.
posted by Rhaomi at 12:07 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

At first it was very calming for my OCD. Ah, neatly organized things. How calming! But as I scrolled to the bottom of the page, it wouldn't stop. It wouldn't stop! It kept on going and going and going. My panic levels started to rise and I had to close the page and take a breather.
posted by cazoo at 12:37 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The lack of attribution really just isn't cool.

The thumbnails from the FPP link don't give attribution, but the full posts link to the sources.

And this isn't organization, but they're mostly great photos.
posted by domnit at 1:34 PM on October 24, 2010

IDK, now I am actually even more irritated. The dude who is linked for the Goldsworthy pix also has a bunch of Dorothea Lange pix on his flickr with "© All rights reserved by Old Chum" slapped on them, which, hello, kind of dickish.
posted by elizardbits at 2:17 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

dywypi: "My, earth really is full of things."

I love you.
posted by IndigoRain at 9:01 PM on October 24, 2010

I agree with marble, This one looks like an Andy Goldsworthy creation.
posted by mdoar at 10:55 AM on October 25, 2010

It is, dude. Hence the side convo about attribution.
posted by elizardbits at 1:04 PM on October 25, 2010

Tumblr makes it difficult to attribute, especially if you don't really care where things come from. The attitude toward attribution seems to be more about giving credit to the poster whom you reblogged (that's the name of the button that publishes a Thing from A's Tumblr to yours - some themes add that person's name as attribution, some don't). You can see who's reblogged a particular image but, unless the very first person attributed it and everyone else copied that text along with the image (unlikely), attribution is essentially irrelevant to the Tumblr experience.

Tumblr is a weird place where maybe 10% of users post something new, even if it's an upload of an image they scanned or stole off Flickr, and the other 90% just reblogs it. What's funny is that the rebloggers often have more followers than the original poster.
posted by catlet at 4:23 PM on October 25, 2010