My friend with the "eclectic" house

I have a friend who recently posted an update about a "new" armchair for her living room. She picked it up off the street.<br><br>Here's my friend's house in a nutshell: every piece is an incongruous, vintage or older piece of furniture. We needed an extra chair for a dinner party, and she got an armchair from her friend one night. Then she had to give it back. She has a tired, stained armchair, a striped armchair, a corner sofa with a slipcover, a white armchair with a wicker backing, a vinyl beanbag chair, an upholstered chaise, a stained recliner, a coffee table older then me, a glass coffee table, a seagrass armchair with a wicker backing, a yellow seagrass armchair with a wicker backing, a stained tired navy blue armchair, a wicker dining table on the way out with older chairs then me, a striped wicker rocking chair, an older stained oversized stuffed armchair, a seagrass loveseat, an oversized beanbag chair, and I am sure I have forgotten a few things! It's like a different story in every corner.<br><br>How many armchairs do you really need? Do you really need a stained older beanbag chair in your home? In an hour, I saw three armchairs in the same corner. One had been there for years, and two had just been added.<br><br>This is the most frustrating thing about friends who have significant clutter, it makes me anxious to be in their home. I do not think my friend is a hoarder, but she has an abundance of clutter. I feel very badly about the state of her personal space, I wish I could help.<br><br>I am not an extreme minimalist, I like a certain amount of colour, and texture in my spaces. But in this house you cannot look at anything and not see a spot of clutter. <br><br>I can see a few corner areas that are relatively neat. <br><br>My friend's husband is a minimalist. He has tried to help her be more minimal, but she has a tendency to be a hoarder when she feels anxious or overwhelmed. <br><br>I do not think my friend's house is spotless, I think it's very cluttered, and it makes me anxious when I am in her home. I am very organized and clutter free, and it makes me uncomfortable when the space I am in isn't tidy. <br><br>My friend's house is tidy. But cluttered. Her dishes are always done, and her laundry is always done. Her floors are always done. But it's cluttered, there are older furniture pieces everywhere, as you have read above. I think my friend's house is spotless, but cluttered, I would not call it filthy, I would call it cluttered. <br><br>I am extremely close with this friend, her husband, and her daughter, I know they are very clean people, and I do not think they are lazy with cleaning the house. It needed an hour of my personal time, and effort one night to get the living room/dining room cleaned up just a bit. But in 3 nights, it was cluttered again. And spotless as well, the floors were done, the dishes were done, and the laundry was done. <br><br>I do not think my friend's house is spotless, but I do think it's cluttered and very messy, and I think the mess is her anxiety. It makes me anxious to be in her home, but I do not blame her, I blame the environment she grew up in. <br><br>I think my friend's house is cluttered, messy, and overwhelming. But I do not think it's filthy. <br><br>I am not an extreme minimalist, I like a little clutter, a cozy throw, a few knick knacks, and I think my home is beautiful in it's cluttered state. I have clutter, but I can walk into my home and not see a big mess of clutter.<br><br>This home is not a home you can walk around in, it's a spot you needed to be in. It's a needed space, but cluttered as all hell.<br><br>I just do not get it, I do not get the need for every person to keep everything they own older then them. And I do not get why people clutter up their spaces then complain they are anxious. But in hindsight, I think clutter does make people anxious, and I think my friend's needed personal space was cluttered and made her more anxious. It just doesn't make sense to me.<br><br>TL;DR - I needed an hour personal time to clean up my friend's living room/dining room/kitchen then in 3 nights I came back over to visit and it was cluttered again. Her home is spotless but cluttered, and I do think there is a difference.