Footman's clutter

eldergrantaire said:

Me again with yet another random question. One of my characters works for the charity another one of them runs. It's a pretty unconventional institution so his job description doesn't conform exactly to typical early 20th century servant roles but the closest appropriate title would probably be 'footman.' The story is set in 1905.

I know he's definitely the sort of person to have a cluttered, messy room, I'm just not really sure what the clutter entails. He probably doesn't have more than a couple of outfits, so there aren't really many clothes to strew about. What are some examples of the kind of knicknacks he might have? What sort of books were popular among the working class? 1905 is a bit late for penny dreadfuls, and he's probably a bit old to read Boys' Own or anything like that. His secret dream is to be a tailor, but he doesn't have a lot of spare time or money to practice sewing.

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That might be part of the answer there: he dreams of being a tailor and so spends as much extra money that he can on books about tailoring and dressmaking.

Do you think that someone who doesn't have enough money to obtain the possessions he wants will be able to afford to be careless with the few possessions he does own?

Rather than making it a messy room because it's cluttered full of miscellaneous stuff, you might try shrinking it down to the size of a closet, and then cram in the basics. Likewise, you might furnish it with the family's old/damaged furniture, which might be a bit oversized for the space. Or you might have something he hangs onto because of sentimental value-- like his Dad's old whatever, or his grandfather's something.

In 1905, a first footman can expect to earn about £26/year. A second footman can expect to earn about £24. That translates into under $2600/year of spending power in present-day money. So if your not-a-footman-but-kind-of-like-a-footman is in that salary range, there's not a whole lot of room in the budget for frivolous purchases.

You might look at photos of servants' bedrooms of the period, and see what they've got.

If he has dreams of being a tailor, he'd be better off trying to get a tailor to take him on as an apprentice. Perhaps that's what he's doing in his room - bits of things to show his skill, a portfolio of sorts? Mending he's done for his fellow servants, garments handed down that from his employers that he's refitted/updated. Wasn't there a thriving business in second-hand clothes? Maybe he does a bit of 'refurbishing' for his fellow servants?