Oil paints are so messy though, a major operation to have them out.
So this and my love of arranging things, like things in a room to be aesthetically pleasing, I thought this was a type of Si maybe. I can actually feel uncomfortable in a work or home* environment that is aesthetically displeasing. If I am going to spend productive time there I need to correct it.
*(however my home or areas of it can get quite messy at times! particularly when distracted or because I am overwhelmed)
When I was in grad school it was an intense time because I was teaching 500 kids a week, then evenings driving across town to college at night, only scraps of time available to study, and my bad marraige that I was in denial about didn't help any. So a super-sensitivity about aesthetics was probably heightened because of great pressure I was under all the time..
Well one of my classes (in this otherwise gorgeous college that was always peace-giving to drive into and to walk across campus and into the beautiful buildings) was in this brightly florescent-lit room with garish rust-orange carpet. They had those small arm-rest chairs so when I took notes all class this ugly carpet sort of enveloped my field of vision, and I was annoyed. I needed calm to concentrate and I needed to do well because I SURE did not want to take the class over.
So I went to the fabric store and found a fabric of pleasing pattern of various blues with the tiniest traces of the orange of the floor in it (to coordinate) while being as a whole the very opposite color of the orange floor. I got out my Elmers and scissors and completely covered my notebook in it, inside and out, so that
now its color surrounded my paper when I wrote notes - oh, and I switched to pale blue matte stationary for note-taking, as the white paper had glared in the bright room - and tese two things being of opposite color,
"canceled out" the orange - and the annoyance. It did bring me peace and it was a perfect solution for me (which I never told anyone, thinking no one could ever relate to it.)
But other people's messy houses I can take. I see the person, the comfort of the interaction is what matters to me. Someone might start apologizing about the mess if that is their situation but I always say, "But I can't
see it. I block it out".
However if I am going to spend a few days as a guest I have to hollow out a little section of order, usually that's just my own guest room. Or if we are home and not out-and-about all the time I will get started straightening the living room or cleaning the kitchen.. I did that with my SLI, at first relaxing and talking amidst the chaos and eating meals balanced on laps since the table was piled high with junk and mess, just enjoying his company. But then after some time I had to make headway, and started with the kitchen, and then I (we) never stopped - now coming up on two years since that first visit, its perfect: all organized, everything in its designated place, no junk, extremely pleasing colors and shining surfaces.. It took some time!