I'm the neat freek in our house! Except when I'm creating a new item! Seems that when I'm cleaning my room I get more ideas on what my next project should be.

I'm like a hummingbird when I'm sewing, quilting, crafting...flit back and forth from project to project. As a result, I've got stuff strewn all over the house, multiple projects in various stages all over. I'm sure there's probably a better psychological name for this, but hummingbird just sounds so much better and so much less neurotic!!

Wow! You have the same story as my life.
My DH's neatness habits are rubbing off on me, and that's a good thing. But, I'm really getting frustrated by the mess that is made from de-cluttering and cleaning.
Good luck!

got the same kind of hubby--i found a flaw in his philosophy, though. if everything was supposed to be perfect, there would be no need for a "junk drawer", and as far as i know, everybody has one, hidden somewhere! he has a couple of them in his workshop. my philosophy is "cleanliness is next to godliness--but around here, it's next to impossible." a perfect house is one that has no soul, no activity. i'll go to my grave as the "clutter queen"--but i'll never wake up wondering what i can do, today!

Hubby and I have items all over the house. Like I told him, two slobs don't make for good housekeeping. Wish one of us was a neat freak. Instead we spend a day mad dashing around the house cleaning for company and when they are gone we can't find a thing. LOL.

I 'know', I 'know'... how he does it. If money were no object, I would hire someone to follow me all day and pick up after me... but they would have to put things in the places "I" designated OR ELSE how would I know where things are! LOL

Clutter develops wherever I am working on something that is sewing related. And, I am usually too busy trying to make a deadline to clean it up 'while' I am working on it and have to get to trying to make that next deadline to clean up from the previous project.

I like what someone said about creative people work best in clutter. I swear... I can create the coolest things in clutter and the other necessary ingredient is 'at the last minute'!!! LOL :D:D:D:D:D:D

Guys look at projects two different ways: they're either creating OR doing. The doer mode has to have everything organized. The creator type doesn't mind having stuff around, ready to grab and audition and perhaps discard.

There's also a question of project SCALE. My husband loves making miniature clipper ships and small project leather-working. All of his clipper ship stuff goes into a fishing-tackle sized storage box with drawers. The same for his leatherwork; his leather scraps occupy a large drawer he installed under his work table. His tools are on the wall. You just can't do that with sewing and quilting - even miniature quilts. There's also very little variation in supplies and requirements for his ship projects - they're all the same scale. One queen sized quilt (nicely folded) simply requires a far greater volume of material and supplies than one of his ships, and there are far more opportunities for variation in finishes: pieced or simple borders, sashing, binding, quilting thread colors, batting (one package of batting is the same size of or larger than one of his ships). My husband also does not have more than one model ship or leatherwork projects going at the same time; right now I have four lap quilts, a dress-up bridal gown & veil, and eight customized placemats in various stages of assembly to get ready for Christmas.

I clean up after the project is finished, never before. I have a sewing room but it is small so I could never imagine starting another project in a mess.... just me.

Ditto, I feel the same...well said...LOL

How funny that we quilters marry men that are neat freaks. My husband hates even leaving a toaster on the counter. Fortunately I have a sewing room which he totally avoids. But he does want me to sit and watch TV with him, so if I am in a middle of working on a project that requires hand-sewing, it usually will be left next to where I sit until the project is complete. That doesn't bother him too much. It drove him crazy when I would leave my sewing machine out before I had a sewing room. So when our daughters moved out, there was no argument over me turing one of the extra rooms into a sewing room.