DON’T TRY TO ORGANISE ME
It’s National Organising Week.
I should have written about this earlier but life has been somewhat chaotic.
So, let me just … step… over… this busted printer… around… this stack of books… and … sort through this pile of papers… and…. Ah hah! Here it is!
One of my all-time treasured books.
It’s called: A Perfect Mess. The Hidden Benefits of Disorder. In it, US authors Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman explain how “crammed closets, cluttered offices and-on-the -fly planning make the world a better place”.
And let me also give you one of my favourite findings from the book – organised people spend an hour a day filing and storing, but messy people spend a mere 15 minutes a day looking for stuff.
Now let me wedge it under the door so the dreaded de-clutterers can’t get in and try to tidy my life out of existence.
The huge, multi-billion dollar organising industry, with its vast array of products, TV shows, seminars and experts, is growing exponentially in need of a clean-up, in my opinion.
I swear these busybodies are everywhere with their files, plastic shelving and typed labels – all profiting from the notion that a tidy world equals success and happiness. They’re very keen to promote the idea that “de-cluttering” can “change your life”. That it’s “vital to success” to be organised…But is it?
Let’s look at Albert Einstein, or, more particularly… his desk.
Yep, it’s a shit-fight.
Or as he so famously said : “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”
If the organisers had their way, the Prof. would have spent half his life writing on multi-coloured tabs and filing stuff, thus depriving the world the Theory of Relativity.
There is good evidence to suggest that a messy desk and office is wonderful for creativity because an array of visual stimuli helps you make the sort of “Eureka!” connections that can’t be made when everything is filed away in a cabinet and shut out of sight.
And now I offer a snapshot of a corner of my office.
I’m no Einstein, but what organisers see as a project to be solved, I see as a treasure trove of random thoughts and memories that fire my imagination.
The authors of A Perfect Mess argue that when we express embarrassment or anxiety about clutter and disorder, it’s not the mess itself that causes these feelings.
It’s the assumption that we should be neater and we feel bad when we aren’t.
Exploiting that sense of inadequacy is what the anti-clutter industry does so well.
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33 Responses to this article
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Emma September 5, 2012
I agree Wendy – leave the people who are happy with their clutter alone! I live with a person who employs the “horizontal filing” method and I leave him to it. i just make sure any really important paperwork, like bills that need paying, don’t disappear into the mass of paper on his desk. I’m half way between clutter and clean. I try to corral the stuff in my life into it’s own area of the house, but haven’t got the coloured tabs out yet!
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Suzanne September 5, 2012
I am messy and always have been. My parents, teachers, husband and various other ‘experts’ have tried for years to beat me into submission and get organised but alas I am still messy. But I dont lose things, never pay bills late and feel quite happy about my lot. I also have messy handwriting which many people in my formative years tried to ‘fix’. That was until I met an English teacher who told me that messy handwriting was a sign of creativity and intelligence I stopped trying to ‘fix’ that too!
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Kate September 5, 2012
At my job it’s necessarily different. At home I’m definitely untidy, with very occasional, momentary lapses into tidiness. I can’t maintain it. Life’s too short to spend your life filing.
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The Huntress September 5, 2012
I am chaos theory personified. I have driven so many people to despair with my seeming lack of organisation. But I do have method in my madness – when my desk is piled sky high with research papers, books and other odd paperwork, I can always find exactly what it is that I want. It works for me so the organisers can stick it (in the nicest way possible!).
Incidently today is also National Indigenous Literacy Day and World Sexual Health Day. I just wanted to note that, because in my mind they’re both great causes that deserve a bit of attention.
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Ro September 10, 2012
Excellent thinking, pal! I concur.
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Rivka September 5, 2012
For once, I agree with the majority. I find mess overwhelming and have a need to be tidy, but I consider that a character flaw. Yay for mess!
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Merryl Chantrell September 5, 2012
Chaos, Clutter, Mess are all part of the rich tapestry of life and living. You know if you throw away something you have been keeping ‘just in case’ you will need it again in about 3 days.
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Marcus September 5, 2012
Einstein may have been messy and cluttered, but he wasn’t disorganised. In fact he was a member of a union.
Explaining why he was a member of the academics’ union he said: “I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and . . . to secure their influence in the political field.”
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Margaret September 5, 2012
Thank you Wendy.
We creative types must stand up for ourselves.
Loved Albert’s quote. In fact might make a sign with it and hang it in the home office!
We are bright parents with bright kids.
Clutter – get over it and enjoy life I say.
Thankfully we have cleaners fortnightly, so there is a certain level of tidying of the floor before they arrive. We have covered this in preious blogs. “The cleaners are comng…” -
Jo-Anne September 5, 2012
As much as I can dig your space Wendy… & I love and agree with “the swamp being a biodiversity of creativity” … I also believe that there are allowable areas of personal clutter like teenagers bedroom… & other areas that need to be clean & tidy! I just know that the frustration caused by not being able to find stuff when the clock is ticking drives me insane & I swear there are these naughty “unseen” gnomes watching…and gang up on me when they see me in a hurry looking looking looking… hiding my stuff! So to reduce Stress & Aggravation in my life .. I’ve created places to put stuff ; ear rings go there…. make up in one place…. folders for study there, the untold notes & instructions from school, lessons… there.. A sense of “success” comes over me when I know where it is! x
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Pinky September 5, 2012
I think your office is as it should be Wendy! I had a desk covered in things at a previous job and was labelled ‘messy’ and ‘disorganised’ by a co-worker. She didn’t notice that I knew where everything I needed was and when putting together events- pulled them off without a hitch- dis-organised people can’t do that! Don’t judge a person’s productivity or creativity by their desk…or do!
On the other hand, at home, I have a basic filing system and the reason why is- I want to pay bills and take care of ‘admin’ and get it of my sight! Then I can have more room for the things I love. -
sam September 5, 2012
Mess makes me depressed. It fills me with anxiety. Simple as that. I am a creative person, who can’t work in clutter. If the kitchen is a mess I can’t start cooking. If my office is a mess I can’t start designing.
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lisadp September 5, 2012
Thanks for echoing me, Sam. I feel a great sense of satisfaction keeping certain spaces in the house down to a minimum of clutter. Number 1 being the kitchen and number 2 being the living area. Get the kids to learn to restore their play space to roughly its former state once they’re tired of playing!
Sure, let the office and other rooms with closable doors be happy swamps of chaos, but don’t forget the value of clean, minimal clutter-free spaces for after work and family time. Of course, compromises have to be made for little ones!
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Amacamchumps Sarah September 5, 2012
You got it Sam – clutter makes me anxious. I’m a creative person too, but clutter just crowds my mind with unwanted anxious energy. And I never can have a good night’s sleep in a cluttered room – it’s like all that energy, junk, and lack of self discipline is crowding in on me as I dream! It doesn’t need to be perfect, but it needs to be a blank enough canvas for me to work with…
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Rudi September 5, 2012
I’m the opposite, Sam – I find a clear desk, bedroom, kitchen, car or workspace fills me with dread and trepidation – I can only function when I’m surrounded by piles of papers.
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Shannon September 5, 2012
Thanks. Been struggling with this one. I like everything to have a place but abhor the tedium of putting everything back in its place
Time to accept the truth, I will always be more than a little bit messy -
Margi Macdonald September 5, 2012
At home: teetering stacks of to-do projects and creative glories and rods in the fire here, there and everywhere. If I can see it, I’ll get to it… eventually, when the time is right, when I feel like it.
At work: IMMACULATE order and precision. -
Marnie September 5, 2012
My husband is inherently tidy, he cannot stand clutter and drives me crazy when I am trying to cook (usually his domain) as he constant hovers and puts things away as soon as I have used them. If we are renovating, my job is to keep everything clean. Tools have to be cleaned and positioned where he can find them next, Drop sheets have to be cleaned as soon as paint drips on them etc I, on the other hand, suffer from AFS. Any Flat Surface in the house has to have something on it. Yet somehow we’ve manage to survive in the same house for forty years.
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jazzy100 September 5, 2012
Famous saying: Tidiness is the artform of the non-creative.
I have it framed on my office door.
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sami September 5, 2012
I am proudly non-creative and I LOVE tidiness. A messy desk drives me coco-bananas. Luckily I have scored a job in Quality Assurance so I can indulge my love of structure and formatting and RULES! Oh yes.
I find it interesting that National Organising Week is held at this time of year…. us Virgos love a good organised space
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MichelleP September 5, 2012
If I walk into a house that is clear and tidy and museum-like with bare walls and surfaces and floors my first thought is ‘Where is all your stuff?’
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Toni September 5, 2012
I am a Queen of Clean! Don’t like clutter and trying to stop accumulating stuff which is HARD. We lost everything in 1998 Australia Day Floods when 1.5 netted of water went through our house. Was a cleansing process in more ways than one when I threw out the 20 year accumulations of three kids christening and birthday cards, fading yellow wedding dress that some skinny women must have left in my wardrobe 25 years prior. Trailer loads of plastic containers, cookie cutters, books, makeup, shoes, toys and kitchen appliances driven to the tip for days on end! A little tear here and there turned to joy as all that junk filling my house and my life was carted off to the dump. 13 years later… I try hard live a minimalist life but the one thing I can’t seem to do, is trust the computer! Still like hard copies of everything and the clutter gremlins seem to be gathering in the linen cupboard, wardrobes and
garden shed.. It is very difficult being Anti Clutter! -
Catherine September 5, 2012
This shall remain a treasure in my messy collection of writing, quotes & inspiration. Love every messy detail of it xxx
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Sarah September 5, 2012
I’ve never been the person to make sure every corner of the house looks immaculate all the time, I’m too busy actually going out and having a life to worry about what it all looks like. I’ve even put a little sign up just inside the front door that says ‘This house was clean last week, sorry you missed it!’
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susan September 6, 2012
Tidy house = tidy mind. Clutter distracts me, distorts my energy flow and upsets my harmony. When I can operate from a base that’s focused, flowing and in harmony I can conquer the world!
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Hannah September 6, 2012
Your desk isn’t a mess, Wendy. I can barely find mine! If it wasn’t up against the window, and if I didn’t keep my chair in front of it, I’d probably never see it again.
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Alberta September 6, 2012
I hate mess and clutter. I believe the microcosm reflects the macrocosm. I think tidy peaceful surroundings create a sense of order and allow the freedom to be creative.
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Rhoda September 7, 2012
Wendy, your desk tells me you love your home and your family and are super busy with the things that matter.
You really hit a home run with this article. I have a niece who is into ‘tidy’ in a big way. She was boarding with her grandmother for awhile and took it upon herself to declutter every single room in the house. At first I went along with it. Who needs a 50 year floor polisher etc etc. Then it go to the drawers. Everything sorted into neat piles. Everything extraneous boxed up and labelled – removed to the remote corners of walk-in wardrobes. The silver found a home in the proper wrap-up. The drawers were introduced to dividers and liners. Anything frayed, aged, yellowed, torn, not perfect – dumped. That’s when alarm bells started ringing. My mother took umbrage. But and it’s a bit but – my niece hadn’t finished quite and went through her BEDSIDE DRAWERS. And that’s when it stopped. Mind you she was decluttering not snooping. She’s a nice kid.
And then there was my great aunt who died and left me her house – filled with stuff. And in HER bedside drawer was an implement I’d never seen before – and hope not to see again LOL
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Miranda Muer September 8, 2012
approx once a month i “clean-up”. gradually…… Chaos weaves it’s wicked,tangled web enveloping me to strangulation point whereupon i muster an amazing vortex of energy a supernova black hole would be proud of to, once again, bring my living space into a sense of calm and orderliness….and so the cycle continues……….the ebb and flow of universal energy.
is Shroedingers’ cat dead or alive????? -
Cybele @ BlahBlah Magazine October 16, 2012
The number of times I have regretted throwing things out is ridiculous. I think clutter is a valid part of the creative process x
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Georgia January 2, 2013
Oooh love this topic because I am always described as “messy” and “in chaos” and my sister who is trying to help, gently explains that I should pass on my possessions to those less fortunate (she makes a good point) and part of me loves the idea of the freedom of space but most of me loves the corsets draped with boas (feather not constrictor), hats and shoes, make up and eyelashes, stuffed animals and statues, spice racks and cook books, cushions and pillows, lovers’ cards and sketches and and….yep messy creative loving it ha ha ha
