while I was not always like this, I also hate clutter. Although even at my worst, my house never looked like those pictures (except the basement and garage) I think my change started when the kids were younger and I was homeschooling and in the house with kids for 24/7. It was like an ADDs nightmare. It is very hard for me to concentrate when the house is real messy - and I wasn't always that way, it's come over time. I've never been a particularly good housekeeper, but I do like the floor and counters fairly cleared off. I could not work in the kitchen like that. I'm very minimalist when it comes to kitchen stuff.
yeah, and it seems that the "average middle class LA family" lives very differently than we do. We've always been a 1 tv household. This was a conscience decision on our part and wasn't always easy with 6 kids, but we stuck to our conviction. Don't ask how many computers we own ;)