My wife ‘can’t breathe’ when she looks at this corner of our house

A man has sparked a fierce debate online after revealing his wife said a corner of their room was so messy, ‘she can’t breathe.’

Posting on Reddit, the husband from Stockholm shared a snapshot of a shelving unit housing children’s toys, with a desk space and a chair, alongside what appears to be bunk beds.

Each of the cubby holes is filled to the brim with various trinkets, toys and books while boxes on top of the unit house more items and toy guns and musical instruments hang on the wall. 

But the arrangement has caused some discord in the household, as the husband explained: ‘My wife says this is so messy ”she can’t breathe”.’

Commenters were left divided with some claiming it’s incredibly organised for a child’s play space, while others insisted there’s so much going on it makes them anxious.  

One commenter said they couldn’t understand the issue, saying: ‘It’s not a museum. People live there. To me this looks more than fine’, while another wrote that it looks ‘clean as anything’ to them. 

Another agreed there’s no point changing it, saying: ‘It’s a young kid’s toy nook though, everything is going to be ripped out daily. 

‘Honestly I think revamping it would be overkill for its function. I think when you have children you have to accept that parts of your house are going to belong to them as they’re growing up.’ 

‘There doesn’t have to be a system as long as the kid can find whatever they are looking for,’ another Reddit commenter wrote. Anything else is just pushing your own hangups and neurosis on the kid and might even make them develop a neurosis of their own.’

Some fellow parents could not understand the issue and said that they’ve seen children’s spaces that are much messier 

And multiple people commented that they wish that their children’s bedrooms looked as tidy.  

However, others weren’t so sure and said that they didn’t think that messy was the right word, but agreed that the space is not well organised. 

‘Things are shoved in shelves randomly and nothing is sorted,’ one explained. 

Another said they don’t think the set-up is suitable for a child, which is perhaps what’s triggered the wife.  

‘The thing that probably makes it messy for her instead of busy is that it’s obviously setup for a small person to access a lot of what’s there,’ they explained. 

Some people said they don’t think the space is messy but agreed that it’s too cluttered and offered solutions 

‘With how it’s arranged that small person has no hope of not making a huge mess out of it. Multiple rows of toys on a single shelf, books behind other items, and baskets to pull out all create an human instinct to dig and explore to find the “buried treasure” so to speak.’ 

‘And I’m guessing the wife is the one who more regularly cleans up the pulled out clutter in the aftermath. That’s what I see.’ 

A multitude of commenters suggested solutions to make the space look a bit neater, such as baskets and containers, and standing the books upright.

‘This will look a lot better if you get cube boxes and put all the stuff in a square box on all the shelves to the right,’ one wrote.

Plenty of people sided with the man’s wife and said that they too would feel anxious over the cluttered space 

Others said it would be a good idea to put doors on the unit so that the items are out of sight, or hanging curtains over the shelves. 

But others were totally in agreement with the man’s wife and said that a lot of clutter can be overwhelming, especially for people who suffer from anxiety.  

Siding with the wife, one commenter wrote: ‘I have really bad OCD and just looking at this is genuinely making my head swim and my stomach knot. Nothing intentionally dramatic about it in my case. 

Another agreed, saying: When I looked at this picture my chest instantly felt tight, I doubt it’s dramaticism. This much… stuff makes me feel very anxious, especially the way you can see everything out all at once, it’s really overwhelming.’