Altars
Our altar space is a sacred area devoted to the Goddess, a specific Goddess or Goddesses, and/or our magickal working space.
It can be small & simple appearing like any other normal house decor or be elaborate. We can have many smaller altars or a single one. We can have multiple ones devoted to different things even.
The most important thing is that it is your personal space.
Some paths may have very specific rules on how to set up an altar. For me personally and my path, there are no rules. It is just about what you love and makes sense for you and your magical workings.
I go into tools and items in this next section so I am not going to go over that much here.
I'd suggest having it in a quiet place where it won't be disturbed. Your cat won't knock everything over, your partner won't forget and keep laying their keys on it (yeah that happened to me lol), your parents, siblings, friends won't mess with it, etc....
If you are in the broomcloset you can definitely either keep it incognito by being very simple. Candles & crystals are pretty normal these days, at least candles. You can do wickless candles in a warmer, LED candles even, artwork, plants, etc....
You can also do a altar in a box that you pull out and set up as needed.
Useful vs Aesthetic
I recently saw a comment that said: "things should only be added if they are useful and used for a specific purpose and not just aesthetic"
I found this absurd at best and a big issue some within the craft has about their way being the only right way to do things.
First of all NOTHING IS WITHOUT PURPOSE. I can not stress that enough. Aesthetic is not without purpose. It is ok to care about the aesthetic! Surrounding yourself with beauty is important, it can trigger emotions and feelings and calm us. As witches who believe in the power of colors, symbols, tools, etc... we obviously should also see the power of what we surround ourselves with.
If we want to fill our altar with beauty and make it a reflection of us as in what we enjoy and what speaks to us. That also means we can make a very simple altar where everything is there for a specific meaning or purpose. Neither choice is wrong.