When I think of creativity, Freda, I think of it in terms of brain exercise... That is the ball of wax when it comes to creativity... You mentioned above "great ideas"... Well, creativity isn't just about "great ideas" but "many" ideas... I once took (and have also taught) a class on "creativity and the first class started something like this:
"You have 10 minutes... Write down as many uses that you can think of for old tires."
Most people would come up with 20 or so, which isn't really bad... But at the end of the class, as we looked at the thought processes that go into problem solving when asked a similar question about another object the number of responses doubled...
That's the creative part...
Now on the product/art/crafts side, yes, distractions are just that and if we can get them out of our space then we now have more room for "creating" but without the mental exercises we won't be any more creative...
However, here's the good news... When we clean out spaces we are confronted with a bunce or problems which, in themselves, push the creative buttons and exercise the brain... It's really about problems... That is the motivating force behind creativity...
Just a few thoughts from this way-too-creative-for-his-own-good hillbilly... In other words, I have lotys of problems...lol...