I saw lots of places like that when I ran my little in-home computer repair business.
A lot of the times that mess was centered around the person's computer desk/table and I had to wade through it to access the rear of the computer box, or to pull it out to check on internal components.
A lot of my jobs were to act as the final (unofficial) liaison person for the cable & phone companies to either establish a new link to cable/DSL or to troubleshoot things when the service quit working.
Saw lots of places like that.
The worst were the occasional "hoarder". Just amazing how people can refuse to let junk go.
Glad I don't do that job anymore, too, but for more reasons than that.