What does clutter have to do with dogs?
It doesn't, but actually it does. Clutter can be a hazard to dogs. Dogs may get bored or anxious then chew up clothes, devices, or really anything you leave around. And if you handled it, you got your scented oil on it, so your dog can definitely hone in on that scent and find the object you handled.
Anyway, this post isn't about environmental management and dog behavior or about organization and dogs. It's just about clutter and living with a chronic clutterer -- but we'll come back to dogs in it. There are plenty of other resources on how to manage a dog's environment to prevent unwanted behaviors and how to use those methods in conjunction with training/behavior modification.
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Since the time I was in college, my mother has been a chronic clutterer. Not as bad as hoarding, but chronic cluttering definitely had a negative impact on our life. There were times when the dining table was so covered with magazines, envelopes, and newspapers that there was no room for a guest to sit down and eat. My mother invited a coworker to dinner at our house right after an outing with her, and who ended up removing stacks of magazines from the table? Me. My mother had also been stacking magazines on the living room coffee table, and they were getting out of control. Some years later when my mother moved to my aunt's house to help her through a difficult family time, I visited and saw the same problem: stacks and stacks of books and magazines on the bedroom floor. I'm pretty sure my aunt just closed her eyes and tolerated it or didn't even look in there since she needed the moral support during a difficult time.
The same thing happened years later when my mother had left my aunt's home and was living in the Santa Rosa area. Her apartment was filled with moving boxes. I had to say something to get her to do something about it. There was no place to move around or sit down. The situation didn't really improve much, though. One time I went to her place to water the plants while she was out of town, and there was clutter everywhere, including the dishwasher, which she was using as a cabinet.
There were many other examples of clutter. Keeping clothes and shoes from the '70s and '80s. Hoaring makeup and filling trays, drawers, and countertops with it. Never dusting any of it off and leaving it to pile up.
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| No room for pool supplies |
Then she started to buy more and more appliances to stack in the basement wet bar. And because there was no room in the cabinets, she started to stack containers and other items on the counter. Years ago, we said we would build it out and convert it into a kitchen, but she said no. OK. It wasn't her decision, but we didn't take action on it. Then she bought even more appliances and bought a cart to continue expanding her stuff, as there was no room in the cabinet.
Ultimately, we decided that this situation was enough and with funds in hand, we had the wet bar converted to a functioning kitchen with new appliances. It wasn't without argument. She had placed a big box in front of a toaster oven on the cart. When I told her to remove it, she balked and argued, claiming it was to protect the dogs. Um no. That cart with appliances shouldn't have been put there at dog level in the first place. Like my aunt, I tolerated the clutter ... for a long time. My husband and I tolerated it until we couldn't. The area may not even look that bad in pictures, but in person, you could see used, pinched-up paper towels, crumbs, food residue, containers, food stored IN the sink, rags, cardboard boxes left for months in various spots, and more.
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| It was a mess and an eyesore. |
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| Our contractor, who did our kitchen and bathroom remodels, taking notes based on my plan and the result. |