Self awareness around the home..

[Jenny]

I'm cat sitting for the month at my mum's house and as I walked in to the bathroom i saw an array of half finished shampoo bottles, shower gels etc. I became quite annoyed, thinking 'why can't she just finish one before moving on to the other!?'. Then i started thinking.. hey maybe this is some projection or something!? I am the prime example of starting one thing before finishing the first thing off and maybe seeing this in the sense of physical bottles just sparks something off in me.

Does anyone else see anything around their/others house that could be a reflection of their personality? For example, are the surfaces/floors in the house tidy but when you open a cupboard everything falls out!?

I think our home say alot about us :)

[andyhp]

Well for sure if you opened a wardrobe in my house you may well be killed in the avalanche while the 'seen' bits are neat and tidy. My kitchen cupboards are 'black holes'...no matter how many bin liners I buy I cannot find any!

Now at my partner's house all is neat and tidy, seen or unseen. Everything is to hand...bin liners, toilet paper, everything.

I have been described by various people as 'annoyingly' organised. I feel I am disorganised and scattered... I think I just put on a good act and haven't been found out yet! My partner describes me as scattered and 'elusive' sometimes.

I would describe my partner's personality as disorganised and scattered. She feels she is organised and not scattered. Others have said she can be both organised and scattered at the same time.

I have no idea if this reflects anything!

[Jenny]

That's kinda like my flat Andy.. on the outside, the 'seen' bits it looks tidy but open up any cupboard and it's so messy. I try every now and then to create a system so that i can keep things organised but it usually lasts a few weeks (if lucky) before going back to normal.

I do think this reflects me as a person though. To look at me i'm all 'together' and even look and act quite 'normal' (whatever that is). But i feel like underneath it all, if i allowed anyone to open up any of my cupboards.. well.. it's a mess in there!

[TDM]

My room is in organised chaos. I have a 'noticeboard', which is really little bits of paper stuck on a cupboard door with blu tack. It's my organisation system, so I know what I have to hand in, or prepare, and when I need to do it by. It makes perfect sense to me. To my mum and dad, they're random little coloured bits of paper, stuck on seemingly odd places on the door.

In my room, I know where everything is, and everything has its own place. It's just that no one else knows where anything belongs. Apart from my bookshelf. That's all neat and tidy -- the only neat and tidy thing in my room. My desk is littered with crap, but my wardrobe is organised, ie, I know where everything is, but no one else does.

But the rest of the house is freakishly organised and neat and tidy, because that's Mum's domain, not mine. She's not allowed to clean my room -- I can never find anything when she does. Her personality really shows through in the house, because it's so neat all the time, practically TOO neat -- even Dad's office is organised and fairly neat and tidy, and it's only because Mum swept in and cleared it all up.

This is a good thread, I've been following it with interest.

TDM

[andyhp]

Well, I guess the 'seen' parts of my house could reflect what others see of me, or perhaps what I allow or want them to see of me. Outwardly, for others, organised, neat and in control while underneath the surface, the unseen (in 'the wardrobes' of my deeper mind?) all is far from neat and tidy.

What is then seen could reflect the rational, logical, controlled part of me while the unseen reflects a more primitive, chaotic part of me. Ego and id? Functional and dysfunctional schemata? Dichotomous self constructs?

Sounds rather good but to be honest I am lazy. I shove 'stuff' in wardrobes because it is exactly where it cannot be seen! On the other hand am I just throwing that which I do not want in my rational part into my primitive part...OMG I am actively repressing shameful material (in the form of unironed clothes and other 'stuff' that has no proper home) into my unconscious!!!

Hang on, I can't be actively repressing into an unconscious...I would have had to forget I had repressed it and then forgotten I had forgotten and I remember every time I open the wardrobe...bit hard to forget when you're buried alive!!

I am joking around...I guess it is possible for our homes to reflect our personalities...or just maybe, as we are seekers of meaning and will seek it anywhere, we 'see' what we want to see in many things...or not, if you hide it in the wardrobe!

[andyhp]

Hey TDM I've got one of those!! Mine isn't a door it's on a proper notice board, one of those green ones...does that still count? It is hidden away in my 'computer room' though and is the only 'chaos' (to others not to me!) on view.

Thank you TDM...replying to your post has made me a senior member!!!!

[IndieSoul]

My room stays clean for about two weeks after I clean it. Walking into the room, it looks pretty clean and organized, but when you open my closets...:boo: The funny thing is, when it's dirty and crap is laying everywhere, I can find stuff. When I put stuff in random boxes and put the boxes on shelves, I can't find anything. I'm not really sure if any of this reflects my personality, but this thread is very interesting so I had to reply :)