Those who have taken my "DeClutter Your Creativity" classes have heard me say all too often that it's not about the stuff. If you can truly create freely surrounded by piles of this and stacks of that, there's nothing broke that you need to fix.
And some very creative people can do just that.
Here's a glimpse of Beethoven's working space, as described by a contemporary of his named the Baron de Tremont.
Picture to yourself the darkest, most disorderly place imaginable...blotches of moisture condensing on the ceiling; an oldish grand piano, on which the dust disputed the place with various pieces of engraved and manuscript music; under the piano (I do not exaggerate) an unemptied chamber pot; beside it a small walnut table accustomed to frequent overturning of the secretary placed upon it; a quantity of pens encrusted with ink...then more music. The chairs, mostly cane-seated, were covered with plates bearing the remains of last night's supper...
I felt quite comforted by this the first time I read it; despite the piles of manuscripts on my writing room floor and the empty soda can on my desk, I suddenly seemed like a paragon of order and cleanliness.
The larger point is this.
Beethoven's working quarters were clearly a big, fat, grungy, malodorous mess.
But his oeuvre was abundant, his music sublime.
The true test of a creative space is the work that is made there, not how it looks.
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