Down With Minimalism! Clutter Is The Productive Way Forward!

Giles Turnbull ()

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Thanks to Unminimalist Master, Paul Mison

There has been far too much stuff about minimalism on Cult of Mac recently, and it’s time we had a revolution.

Break free from the minimalist yoke! Fill your desktops with downloaded files! Abandon disk images and .pkg files all over it, strewn haphazardly among a mess of screenshots and torrents and clippings.

Delete your “everything boxes”. Trash Yothinkbo, Devonjim, Notational Tindernote and all the rest. Allow their contents to spill out across your desktop. Buy an external monitor if you don’t have enough desktop space to fill.

Follow the examples of these fine practitioners of the art of Unminimalism.

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(Thanks to: Heidi.)

20090922-brentk.jpg

(Thanks to: Brent Kirkwood.)

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(Thanks to: Leedybot, who subsequently tidied up a bit.)

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(Thanks to: Michelle, who might also have tidied up since this screenshot was taken in 2007.)

So, are you inspired to abandon your minimalist ways and follow the Path of Cluttersome Destiny? Have you always been a member of the Church of Mess? Can your desktop clutter beat any of the ones we’ve featured? Let us know in the comments.

27 comments »

About the author

gilest

Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. He has a website you can ignore and a Twitter account you needn't follow.

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Posted in Humor, Opinions, Top stories |

  • http://www.pahtfishcreative.co.uk gareth

    God! I’ll come and clean up you desktop if you want…. That just upsets me!!!!

  • http://www.eleganttechnology.co.uk Steve

    I do not agree.

  • moshy

    thank you!
    while I found all that minimalist stuff a nice novelty, it ain’t happening around here any time soon… besides it wouldn’t match the rest of my desk.

  • http://www.wreckeddreams.com Andrew

    I think I’m going to be sick! Clean it up! Please! I’ll do it for you!

  • aaron

    thats just windows like, im sick

  • Giorgos

    It’s about time someone made the argument for just getting things done, whichever way suits you most… that said, I do prefer a clean desktop, but when I’m at my most productive, my desktop tends to be messier

  • Yagan Kiely

    I had 6000+ icons on my desktop when I used a PC.

    Hmmm. Fun.

  • Greg

    Completely pointless post?

  • Why??

    What is the point of this article?? Humor? No.
    *sheesh*

  • Liz

    The main reason why I like clutter is how antsy it makes neatniks…they so easily freak out when confronted with messes. I figure, whatever system helps you work most productively and creatively, you should use.

  • http://www.toxicspark.com Andrew Macdonald

    I totally disagree. I could never use a computer with that much clutter on the desktop.

    Why have a gorgeous looking Mac, and you fill it with so much clutter and crap. Mac is about minimalism and tidyness etc

  • Jason O

    Thanks Giles for, once again, wasting 3 minutes of my life with a pointless contribution to Cult of Mac.

  • Knowimagination

    you can pry my clean organized desktop from my cold dead mouse hand.

  • http://www.mohanarun.com Mohan Arun L

    Actually clutter can be a way of improving productivity. Because everything is right there in front of your eyes all the time. If you have a big hard drive (>1 TB) and high gig RAM and 64 bit latest processor and a backup of everything (disk image) then by all means clutter is the productivity mantra. Me I run a tight ship due to limitations in hardware.

  • http://www.organizedbymarcie.com Marcie Lovett

    There is a happy medium between minimalism and complete disarray. The only reason for keeping your computer desktop (or any surface) clear is so that you can find things quickly and easily. The photos give me a headache from all the visual “noise;” however, if you really feel like you work better with a lot going on in front of you, go for it. Just don’t belittle people who like some breathing room.

  • Steven (UK)

    Wow. What a mess. Mac is about minimalism and tidiness. It stresses me to see such desktops as those above.

    You can tell these people don’t change their Y-fronts often ;o)

  • Anon

    Do you have anything substantial to contribute Giles?

  • http://web.me.com/mac.nz Mark Webster

    I tell people it’s bad to keep files on desktops because the Finder has limited resources and crashes can cause data loss – but is this still true?

  • Joanne

    OMG… these tidy folk need to take a “chill pill!” Can’t we all just get along??

  • Steve

    Those desktops wouldn’t make you MORE productive. It would take you more time to look through all that crap just to find the file you wanted. What a complete mess. It’d be like picking through the garbage to find something you accidentally tossed in there.

  • Alexandre Bonatto

    I really try to keep my desktop clean but (at least to me) it is an impossible task. Every time I am running out of time in some job / project, all the files I am using stay on the desktop. The closer I have been to keep it clean was when I created a stack called “It was on the Desktop” and a Hazel rule to move everything from the Desktop to it!

  • http://simplyblog.net Miguel

    Oh no, not good. I couldn’t take that! who needs focus? :) With a desktop like that, for me, it would be impossible to think clearly which leads to cluttered writing because clear thinking leads to clear writing.

    -Mig

  • http://www.vcaphoto.blogspot.com Max

    Computers are boxes that you put stuff in… The bigger the box the more stuff… When you need something from the box you tip it out on your floor. That’s what a messy desktop is. It’s beautiful.

  • http://www.airstriptech.co.nz Guy

    Joanne… totally agree… there is nothing more annoying than reading comments on a story when they are so vitriolic and nasty. Please, if you can’t be positive or humorous… just be silent… it doesn’t help anyone or your cause… that really bad desktop is amazing… gotta love the nice big LCD’s for how many icons you can jam in them… i want to see a 30″ Display crammed with icons… I have a 24″ crammed… anyone ??

  • weatherguy

    Oy! I’m not known to be tidy (heck, i’m known as the “digital pack rat” to my friends), but that just makes me cringe. To each his own, I suppose.

    My technique is pretty simple – instead of having several hundred files (and MB) on the desktop, I simply made a single folder there – “unfiled”, which contains everything. Now, this folder is just as cluttered as these desktops, mind you! :D

    That being said, I can put things on the desktop and know “do something with this now!” as it’s right in sight and obvious… Good for somebody who never looks at to-do lists…

  • http://arne.delaat.net arne de Laat

    Here are some good examples:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7h1uGzKvgE
    (first one at around 0:40, and after that some more)

  • Xavier

    Nice post :)
    And nice video too (from arne de Laat).
    I personally don’t care how cluttered the desktop is as I almost never use it. I don’t have a machine to look at the desktop, but to run applications ;)