Say Yes to Mess

I just found this December NY Times article on the web and am rejoicing in its message:

IT is a truism of American life that we’re too darn messy, or we think we are, and we feel really bad about it. Our desks and dining room tables are awash with paper; our closets are bursting with clothes and sports equipment and old files; our laundry areas boil; our basements and garages seethe. And so do our partners — or our parents, if we happen to be teenagers.

This is why sales of home-organizing products, like accordion files and labelmakers and plastic tubs, keep going up and up, from $5.9 billion last year to a projected $7.6 billion by 2009, as do the revenues of companies that make closet organizing systems, an industry that is pulling in $3 billion a year, according to Closets magazine.

This is why January is now Get Organized Month, thanks also to the efforts of the National Association of Professional Organizers, whose 4,000 clutter-busting members will be poised, clipboards and trash bags at the ready, to minister to the 10,000 clutter victims the association estimates will be calling for its members’ services just after the new year.

But contrarian voices can be heard in the wilderness. An anti-anticlutter movement is afoot, one that says yes to mess and urges you to embrace your disorder. Studies are piling up that show that messy desks are the vivid signatures of people with creative, limber minds (who reap higher salaries than those with neat “office landscapes”) and that messy closet owners are probably better parents and nicer and cooler than their tidier counterparts. It’s a movement that confirms what you have known, deep down, all along: really neat people are not avatars of the good life; they are humorless and inflexible prigs, and have way too much time on their hands.

AMEN, PREACH IT BROTHER! I have never been able to keep a neat office and have gotten flak from every boss I've ever worked for. My response is always the same - ask me for whatever document or item you want and I can put my hands on it within 15 seconds. If you make me file it away, I'll never be able to find it again.

I remember when I got a promotion back in the early 80's and took over the files of another guy. I found piles of stuff that had been filed and hadn't been used in years. I threw it all away. It represented many hours of somebody's efforts, but it didn't matter anymore.

I used to have an office neighbor who was a genuine neat freak who created files for every piece of paper that crossed his desk. I, on the other hand, would let stuff pile up and then every now and then I'd just thrown everything away. I figured if I'd had it for awhile and nobody asked for it, I wouldn't need it anyway so why bother filing it away. It drove my neighbor crazy.

I still tend to pile things up and every so often clean off my desk (by tossing stuff in the trash) so the powers-that-be feel better about it. However, I embrace my messiness and know that I can find anything I need anytime I need it......unless I threw it away.