Is this messy or normal?

This is literally a definition of 'tidying'

I think the 2nd pic bothers me more as the tidying isn't quite finished!

Genuinely laughed when i saw the photo of this "absolute mess"

I'd put it away as well, just into one of the drawers or one of the shelves in the cabinet so easily accessible.

Moving each other's items to fit your idea of right over theirs is definitely controlling

I Find that messy, but I would ask him to tidy it and then it’s up to him.

ETA just seen the update. Great news!

I have also noticed that people have completely different ideas about what tidy actually means.

As I said before I tend to be completely chaotic but if I do have a rare moment of tidying to completion, I like to do it what I consider properly. The end result e.g. in the kitchen would be that the counters are completely clear apart from the kettle, coffee maker, knife block, soap dispenser and two bottles of oil. Everything else would be put away, in a cupboard or in the room where it goes and I would have made a decision and either thrown something away/put in donate bag if I didn't want to keep it AND know where it goes. Empty jars would be in the bag for glass recycling. I'd also have wiped everything down with some hot soapy water and put the cloth in the wash basket and replaced the tea towel with a dry/clean one, if it needed to be.

Whereas DH on the surface is much more tidy than me. He doesn't leave a trail of destruction. He remembers to close cupboard doors. But his version of tidying is to collect items and arrange them into piles at the edge of the room. So I go into the kitchen after he has cleaned it and there are dirty washing up sponges piled by the sink, ketchup and mayonnaise neatly lined up with the oil, children's toys next to the fruit bowl, etc. He will even have lined up the empty jars and put them in a row next to the knives because he forgets where the bag is kept. I find all of this irritating because to me, it's not done properly, and it looks horrible. (It's mildly irritating - I can of course just take the few items and put them where I think they ought to go).

I think it's important to do things properly and one of my issues previously is that I wouldn't like doing half a job so I would not even start. I have overcome this now and will do half a job rather than none of a job, but I still like to do it properly even if that means I only have time to do half of it. (Dana K White as someone mentioned was extremely helpful for me). I would rather leave an item messily/in the way than put it "away" in the wrong place. To me something being messy is "I will get to that later" and so it doesn't register as clutter in the same way that it bothers me immediately when I see DH's neat piles of assorted debris.

You clearly have magical powers, OP! did you wiggle your nose like Samantha in Bewitched?!

Moving my husband's books is 'controlling'? Don't be daft.

He's put my books in alphabetical order. The absolute monster.

Ew

If you do buy him a bedside storage box maybe you should consult before getting one with a lid. My DH belongs to the "is it worth putting something away when I'm going to want it again next week/month/year" school of thought so would never put the lid back on properly.

Can you tell yourself that it's his side and therefore nothing to do with you?

Moving someone else's stuff to align with your way of "right" is controlling

You should get a cat. Anything on the surfaces will be on the floor in no time, job done.

I would have bought a small bookshelf and put the items in size order for DH.

It wouldn't be 'for DH', would it?
He might not want them in size order. If he did, he probably would have arranged them like that himself.

If someone has a bedside table or desk or bookcase that's used only by them, nobody else should be rearranging stuff on it, imo.

No I wouldn't insist, I would just do it myself

Insisting all the spines on a pile of someone else's books face out is definitely not normal

I voted YANBU because that original pile would have bugged the life out of me too. Having read the other responses I'm beginning to think I have a problem!

Glad your husband tidied it up (although the pill packets, cable and specs still need to go IMO). I definitely have a problem, don't I.......

I don’t have a leg to stand on as I’m far messier than this, but what I will say is that I know plenty of people who have the same density of stuff as in your picture but arranged in a way that makes it look neat. I look at that and think it’s messy, but I know that if it was a neat, size organised stack of books, a folded cable next to it and a pill packet next to that, I wouldn’t notice it at all.

The lens down on the glasses is now making me twitch!

THISSSSSS!

I've got the "I'm living in a sea of mess and it's causing me immense distress and I'm powerless to do anything about it" type.

I NEED TO KNOW OP'S SECRETS!

Hand him some polish and a duster and ask him to do your bedroom furniture while you do something else. Hopefully he'll tidy it up :)

It looks like just a random surface though. How does he operate with no bedside light? <misses point entirely> Maybe a nice lamp, a glass of water and a book might encourage less random bits of paper?

I'd probably just restack it and make it a bit tidier.

I'd hate it, I don't like clutter.

From the update picture, I'd have to move the packets of pills (but we have young DC so having them out like that would be a total no-no). And you just can't leave glasses lens-down so I'd have to turn them over.

Other than that, DH whinges about the stuff on my bedside table (which is messier than that) but it is my space, so it pisses me off when he does it tbh.

I'm not winding you up; this is a genuine question: that looks and feels less cluttered to you?
The cable hanging down is just asking for someone to put their hand or foot through it and trip/cause a box avalanche. And glasses upside down make me twitch a bit!
Having said that, I still wouldn't require my DP to change it if that was his bedside table. It's his business.