The badge table

Original fiction extract.

The table where we made name badges was cluttered with ribbon, empty backing sheets, pens and several half-finished cups of tea. Visitors kept asking where the scissors were. I knew there were three pairs, but finding even one took longer than writing a name. We cleared a small square beside each chair and put the shared tools in a tray. The table did not become beautiful. It became possible to see whether somebody had borrowed a pen instead of assuming it had disappeared beneath another sheet.

Use your own words to explain what the word “cluttered” means in this extract.