Sunday, August 11, 2013

In Defense of Messiness

I've gotta confess, sometimes reading the minimalist blogs gives me a bit of a complex. People post these pictures of their immaculate and orderly homes, and I can't help but feel a bit inferior.

It's not that I don't try, but let's just say that neatness has never really been one of my strengths.


But as I was perusing the interwebs this morning, I happened upon an article that gave me new perspective on the entire issue.

The article is about a study recently published in the Journal of Psychological Science where researchers found a link between messiness and creativity.

On some level this makes intuitive sense... you know, the creative genius has better things to do with his time than to worry about trivialities like tidiness.


But what I found most interesting was that they didn't just find a correlation between the two, they actually found that a messy environment stimulated out of the box thinking, while a neat and tidy environment tended to engender conformity and a need to "do the right thing."

Hmmmm... well, speaking as a person who has never really excelled at either order or conformity, I have to say that I find this idea refreshing.


I guess some part of me has always assumed that the neat and tidy crowd feels, well, neat and tidy inside. But the more I look at it, the more I question this assumption.

I mean, there have been times in my life when I have managed to create clean, uncluttered horizontal surfaces, but the truth is, surrounding myself with order didn't really make any of my internal chaos go away.

It did give me a bit of an illusion of control, but I'm not entirely sure that holding onto control is always a healthy thing.


When you really look at it, life is fundamentally an out of control experience. We're born, we live, and we die... and while there is much we can do to influence the direction of our lives, on some level we're really just along for the ride.

We get to choose what we do, but we don't get to choose what we feel or what things life throws at us.


The older I get, the more I realize that while we may get to control the rudders of our personal ships, the wind and the waves have a mind of their own.

And oftentimes having the ability to go with the flow, and the willingness to take a zig zag path will serve us much better than a hard fought battle against the tide.


So, perhaps my slovenly nature is not merely a symptom of hopeless inadequacy on my part after all. Maybe, just maybe there's a bit of a gift in there as well.




Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having less stuff, and I'm certainly not suggesting that anyone go out and cultivate messiness for the sake of creativity. But I do think that perhaps we'd all be better served if we tried to make peace with our inner slobs.

Take That, neat freaks!



43 comments :

  1. I like to be neat and organized to the point where I am not wasting time sifting through a mess to get to what I need. I also believe too much of a mess can cause stress. However, I could never be a true minimalist!

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    1. Ha! Well, I do have to agree that life got easier once I started making myself put my shoes away in the closet. It was remarkable... when I needed shoes, I always knew where to find them!

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  2. We always get in trouble when we compare ourselves to others because we really don't know their whole story. Those who appear neat may have everything hidden in a closet. Or those who are neat may need that order to feel comfortable. Some people can function well under some disarray and according to the study it can stimulate their creative thinking. Others cannot.

    However, I'm with Alex. When things are messy enough that I can't find a bill or can't fix anything to eat in the kitchen, that's too messy for me and I get anxious.

    Now, I have to take my own advice and stop comparing myself to others because the people I pick to compare with always make me come up short (or so it seems).

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    1. I agree that comparing yourself to other people is a losing game. Especially with the internet, because people can so easily control their image. It's sorta like comparing your just out of bed hair to someone who has just emerged from the beauty salon.

      But I am sort of chuckling about the finding bills part. Every time I decide I'm gonna "get organized" I "put things away" and then have to spend hour upon hour searching for them because I can't remember where "away" was! :-)

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  3. If you're naturally messy and you feel comfortable in more messy environments, then great.

    I am a bit of a neat freak, most of the time anyway, although I don't think it's a control thing. I also have no delusions that a neat house means anything other than that. I feel a big difference when my environment is tidy. When things are put away I feel more relaxed and happier with my surroundings.

    I think it's all about finding what works for each of us and ignoring any voices that makes you feel bad about that, whether it's your own or others.

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    1. Well, it's not that I particularly enjoy messiness, I just find it less horrible than trying to make myself clean up all the time! But I totally agree that we need to find what works for us - maybe we each have a "messiness tolerance threshold."

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  4. It's funny because I am an organizational + detail freak. I can not mop my floor for well over a month, but I can spend hours cleaning baseboards. Or I'll take apart a remote to clean with a toothbrush but not make my bed for a really long time. For me, it's the details I find overwhelming. Since I have ADHD, if things are too chaotic physically, then my mind goes with all the chaos. For me at least, the more organized my home is, the less time I have to spend worrying about that and can think of other things (even though I like to organize and re-organize and re-re-organize). I'm wondering in that study if it has more to do with personality than anything. For example, messy people tend to score higher on creativity related measures whereas neat people may score lower. It may not be that an environment causes a surge, but rather can enhance what is already there for that set of people. It would an interesting study nonetheless to add in that factor.

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    1. Well, I agree that there is a point of messiness beyond which I cannot function. I generally don't have to have everything neat and tidy, I just need to have it not so bad that I couldn't make it all presentable in an hour or so if I needed to.

      But I totally get it about the details... it's part of the reason I avoid "tidying up" unless I have a deadline like company coming over. If I don't have something to keep me focused, I'll set out to file some bills and 5 hours later I'm sorting through the entire file cabinet, and then I poop out... of course by that point there are piles of paper all over the living room floor, and I'm exhausted, so then I just end up stacking all the piles somewhere and the house looks even worse than it did before I started!

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    2. Oh... and the interesting thing about the study was that they put people in the same office... sometimes neat and sometimes messy, and then asked them to perform certain tasks like thinking up uses for a particular object or some sort of "doing the right thing" question. And they found that the messy environment actually stimulated creativity while the neat one made people more conformist.

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    3. I read the ABC article and don't take away the same thing the author of the study did, and I can't find the actual scientific article for free. GRRR. My take is that a tidy room encourages optimism. Taking the apple over candy isn't conformity to me, but rather feeling free to take charge of one's life and taking steps towards health/other things that may get in the way. In the messy room, more took candy and less donated, which signals an "I give up" attitude. I notice this between my family and my in-laws. My MIL is all about tidiness. She is also far healthier than my mom and creative in her own way (an amazing seamstress!). My parents are messy and full of clutter. They are also unhealthy and unmotivated to get healthy. However, they are highly creative and liberally minded (signals high on openness). From this and what the article states, I come more to the conclusion that tidiness signals motivation. In terms of creativity from mess, it may also be a factor that what's in sight may be easier to prime. When things are put away, they aren't able to prime you. In essence, having a tidier/less cluttered house actually forces you to use your creativity muscles a bit harder. It takes more to elicit them, which in turn strengthens them. Anyway, just my take lol!

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    4. Hmmm... very interesting. I do have to say that I tend to agree that a very cluttered space can lead to a feeling of being completely overwhelmed, which certainly doesn't lend itself to optimistic thinking! And it is also interesting that both the apple and the donation were seen as signs of "conformity" rather than signs of health or generosity!

      It would certainly be nice if we could see that actual study rather than just the conclusions!

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  5. Oy, don't get me started on minimalist blogs, they always fill me with guilt for having so much crap. I wish I was able to live and work in neat, sterile environments, but the truth is I love having toys on my work desk and books/decorations/assorted junk in my apartment. I like organization but my house tends to get quite chaotic by the end of the week, so Thursday night is usually cleaning frenzy night :o)

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    1. I know what you mean about the sterile environment thing... for some reason it makes me really uncomfortable. I can't relax because I'm so afraid of messing something up... I feel like I should be sitting in a straight back chair, wearing a corset and balancing a book on my head or something.

      I think for me, part of the problem is that I like to have everything I need within arms reach. This leads to lots of duplicate stuff like glasses, telephones, dictionaries, cat brushes and nail clippers at every sitting spot. I guess the minimalist would say that you should just have one of everything and go get it when you need it, but when you're all settled in with a blanket, a cup of tea and a cat on your lap, it's just such a pain get up to go find whatever it is that you need!

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  6. I'm quite bothered by mess- I think because I see the mess/clutter/dirty thing as an unfinished job that I really must do before I relax (I definitely get this from my dad!). So even if I am sitting doing something like knitting, I have the nagging 'do the job...do the job' voice in my head. Other people's houses being messy thus don't really bother me, if I don't have to live in them...but I like having a place for everything at home, to reduce wasted hours searching for stuff.

    I realised recently that I am actually naturally fairly messy and rubbish at putting stuff away- I have to make a conscious effort- and that one of the reasons I like having less stuff is that there is less to get messy...lazy minimalism!!

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    1. Well, I'm striving to get closer to the old "a place for everything and everything in it's place" motto, but somehow I don't think I'll ever get there.

      My problem is that life just changes so darned frequently that as soon as you carve out a place for everything, some situation changes and you have new things (like a box full of kitty medications, or tons of claim forms waiting to be filled out) that need a place.

      Maybe someday... in the meantime I'm just gonna keep reminding myself that my mess makes me creative! :-)

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    2. I have the place...it's just putting the things in the place as I go along, rather than doing lots of tidying in on big go that's my problem!

      I find that the tidiness means my brain is less chaotic- I find it hard to be creative when there is chaos! But I imagine that if someone gets obsessed with perfection and having things 'right' all if the time, they're less inclined to try stuff out that might be 'not right',, a dead end or otherwise a 'waste of time'- and that would stifle creativity...

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    3. I think my problem with tidying as I go is that I'm never quite sure if I'm done using something or not. I'm a very "out of sight out of mind" person so if something needs any sort of attention, I can't put it away until I'm completely finished dealing with it or it will never get done! And usually when something is unfinished it's because there's some sort of emotion attached to the task that's uncomfortable.

      Like, for example... I've got a pile of insurance claim forms that I need to submit for Smoky, but I'm avoiding it because the form asks for a "diagnosis" and we don't have a firm one yet, and it gives me a knot in my stomach to think about it. Or the box of probiotics that I need to email the vet about to make sure I bought the right ones. Somehow, the whole topic of my cat being sick is just one I'd rather avoid.

      Or... the electric drill and toolbox that are sitting on my desk because I have to place a few screws for my makeshift awning... but I'm not entirely sure that I have the position marked correctly and I'm afraid I'll mess it up, so the thing is just being held up with clamps while I get up the courage to take the somewhat permanent feeling step of drilling the holes.

      It goes on and on... Anyhow, my point is that I don't really think messiness is a sign of laziness... I think it's much more complicated than that.

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    4. Definitely not a sign of laziness- and I think that having a completely obsessively neat house could be a sign of emotional issues just as much as a really messy one- life is about balance, right?!

      I put jobs off for all sorts of reasons- because I think they will be difficult/time consuming/boring- even though I also know that I will feel better once they are done, and once I start the job I will often actually enjoy it. My most hated task at the moment is meal planning- I know that if I actually do it I will waste less food and eat better..but..Urgh. It's not like it even takes that much physical effort. I don't even know what puts me off doing it!

      Maybe it is like all the repetitive tasks, like the washing up...I find myself thinking 'but I did this earlier, why doesn't this just stay done?!'

      Sigh.

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    5. Ah yes, "Done." It's such a wonderful illusion isn't it? I think the reality of it is that we're never "done" until we die! :-)

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    6. Indeed- as I recall, you wrote a whole post on 'done'... :) Must learn to chill out about the 'done' and just go with the flow!

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  7. I need my work space to be a certain level of neat in order to focus on other things. A very messy desk will distract me until I tidy up. But a few stacks of paper or an open book (if I'm using it) are fine.

    One of the reasons minimalism appeals to me is that then there are fewer things to organize, store, and put away. It's worked really well in terms of clothes, books, and DVDs. Of course, I make an exception for chap stick - I have about six or seven tubes at any one time, sprinkled around the house (silverware drawer, nightstand, purse, living room side table, etc.) so I never have to go too far for it.

    But back on topic - as some other commenters have said, do whatever works for you and don't worry about anyone else. They have their own desk to think about ;)

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    1. Well, I totally agree that having less stuff in the first place makes it soooo much easier to keep things put away.

      But your first sentence gave me a bit of an insight... or a thought anyway. I do agree that messiness can be distracting, but... along the lines of the study, I'm not entirely sure that distraction is all bad, at least where out of the box thinking goes.

      I used to do quite a bit of computer programming, which can often require a great deal of creative thinking in order to figure out the best approach to solving a problem. I found that focusing on the problem and "beating my head against it" was really only effective up to a point. I mean, if the task was clear cut and all I really needed to do was write the code, then the focused approach worked well.

      On the other hand, if the puzzle was more complicated and I had to think up some creative way to solve a problem, I generally found that I had better luck if I let the problem roll around in the back of my head without directly focusing on it. Some of my best solutions came in "a-ha moments" while I was washing the dishes, taking a bath, or even in dreams while I was sleeping.

      So maybe the distraction can aid creativity by taking us out of "nose to the grindstone" mode and allowing some other part of our brain to cogitate on the problem? I dunno, but it's an interesting thought.

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    2. I can't argue with that - I always have great ideas when I'm on a walk with nothing to write on! ;) My brain works in mysterious ways, so maybe a little mess would help me even though it makes me feel uncomfortable and slightly distracted. And I welcome any excuse to skip cleaning, so it's worth a try!

      Thanks again for the post and response - yours always make me think :)

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    3. Of course, there might be more, um... productive ways to induce a bit of distraction! :-)

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  8. Minimalism is not meant to make one feel guilty. Granted yes, some of the more aesthetic centred blogs look quite sterile but it's definitely not all like that.

    I would consider myself a minimalist - and quite an extreme one at that - but my home is full of colour and I'm definitely not precise about how far apart my clothes hangers should be spaced! Having a lack of possessions allows me to focus on my passions, because before, I would get distracted easily. This keeps me accountable. It really works for me but it's different for everyone.

    Having said that I completely agree with the study, as in I don't have a creative bone in my body!

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    1. Well thank god you're not measuring the space between your hangers. I think I'd really have to start worrying about you if that was the case! :-)

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  9. I still err in the direction of more mess than I want. I can tolerate a lot of clutter and a lot of things-in-stacks where I still know where things are. And I am a huge fan of not having to put things away mid-project. But I love all the parts of my life where I have a (good) place for everything and I can (almost) always find what I'm looking for.

    Fascinating study. It reminded me of my last long-term job. For the first nine years, I was fairly tidy. Then as the duties got piled on, I had more and more projects I had to stop in the middle of to deal with new projects and my piles got out of control. At the same time (and for the same reason), I went outside the box a lot more. High turnover meant people in other areas who I relied on were newer and less reliable--I started training them in what I knew and helping them fix every error I found. When an expert in area A was moved to area B, and then the staff in area A were told not to bother the expert, so they bothered me, I blatantly went and bothered the expert myself on their behalf when I didn't know the answer. I could no longer do the right thing going through the expected channels, so I did it in other ways.

    So I wonder if being in a messy environment simulates actually being in a higher-stress situation where all the ordinary ways of doing things are obviously not working. (And you don't have time time and energy to do the charitable or healthy thing because other things are more pressing.) And so that creativity helps us deal with things like having a new pile of medications with no place to go yet.

    At first I thought my reaction sounded different than yours, but now I think they may go together. When your house is getting messy, you do have other priorities (poor kitties!), and you should not worry about controlling your mess, but about dealing with the other issues, for which you will be needing some creativity.

    Still, it's good if the messiness is cyclical, rather than constant. If, after a while, you get a new groove, things can literally get back into place again. This one time when I was sick, I decided that because I needed to rest, I wouldn't worry at all about putting things away. It took me an amazingly long time to clean up after that even though, at the time, I was living in only half a dorm room.

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    1. Hmmmm, now that's an interesting take on it - the idea that clutter induces stress, and the stress itself can stimulate out of the box thinking. For some reason I keep thinking about the radio announcer who did the very famous live broadcast of the Hindenburg landing. I read once that he would drink several quarts of water before he went on air so that he'd have to pee while he was doing his broadcast... he felt that it gave his voice a "sense of urgency" which made for more exciting newscasts. Not sure how that relates to creativity, but oh, the humanity! :-)

      Anyhow, I do agree that cyclical clutter is much preferable to the permanent variety. Once it gets beyond the point where it can easily be cleaned up in an hour or two, I start to go nuts!

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    2. I once drank a lot of water before donating blood in case they weighed me. (I know a gallon of water weighs 8 pounds. Also I accidentally donated when I was 7 pounds underweight and didn't feel any worse. So I asked a zoology prof who taught human anatomy and physiology (I was working in a zoology department) and he said that of course they are very conservative about their limits.

      Anyway--big mistake. I do not like that feeling. At the end, the person was calmly and carefully beginning the speech about "please sit up slowly and, when you feel ready..." and I was racing to the bathroom. I don't know how that guy did that. Fascinating information.

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    3. OMG that's hilarious! Well, at least your blood volume was up! I've never actually donated blood. They won't let me because I had a heart murmur as a child. Oh well.

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    4. I wonder if that still disqualifies you. Glad you tried!

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  10. This is a great way to start a Monday. I'm constantly reminded of all the things I don't have control over, and am better off trying to accept them. If I have to focus on something, it might as well be the things I can change (though, I guess my messiness is kind of in that realm...maybe).

    Thanks for the inspiring post to start the week!

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    1. Well, I think one can control messiness, but only to a point. I mean life is an inherently messy proposition, and there will always be more dishes to wash, more bills to pay and more housework to do... so the concept of "done" is really only an illusion at best! :-)

      Anyhow, I'm glad you enjoyed my ramblings.

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  11. I'm a super neat and tidy person but I also consider myself to be pretty creative. I think for me I can't let my chi flow (lol) without things being orderly. It's like it frees up my mental space, otherwise I just want to get up and start cleaning. I feel like my energy is blocked. I think everyone just operates differently. :)

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    1. Well, blocked chi is never a good thing! :-)

      Perhaps you could gift me some of this desire to get up and start cleaning. I'm not sure I've ever experienced it!

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  12. I function much better in a neat environment, but I must admit that most of the time my place is a mess :) I'm slowly learning to let the mess go and just be happy with doing my best, since I'd much rather cook than clean.

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    1. I've spent much of my life beating myself up for not being neater. At this point I think I'm aiming for "controlled mess." :-)

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  13. I'm in between - I am better at neatness than cleanliness (don't look in my oven!) But I have a LOT of stuff and sometimes it's a losing battle to keep it all organized. I always have a few projects or tasks that I keep visible until I do them - which can be months!

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    1. Ha! I finally did clean out my oven after owning it for nearly 8 years. You know, if you ignore it long enough the stuff just turns to cinder and you can pretty much just sweep it out with a paper towel.

      Somehow, I can't imagine ANYTHING in your life being disorganized, but I'll take your word for it! :-)

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  14. I've been out of town, so please forgive my "late to the party comments"! I loved your pictures and their comments with this, especially the Einstein one and the "you're doing it wrong" one. Hilarious.

    I don't like clutter, but I find that the more people that get added to a household, the more clutter that just ... happens. It seems like I keep most areas relatively picked up but I have a few overflow areas (the end of the table--that's where my kids make their creations ... the desk ... the chair next to my bed ... ). I have read all sorts of "make your life organized now!" articles, and their advice sounds good, but so often items appear that can't really be categorized and need to be stored ... someplace ... I mean, what to do about the 4th grade diorama? Or the 4H projects? My home is my home. I'm not staging it for a magazine shoot. Life happens here and if I'm so caught up in how tidy things are, I stand a good chance of missing the joy that comes along with the messiness.

    I also agree, from my unscientific observations, that neat and tidy people (again, this is unscientific!) seem to be less creative overall--mostly because the creative process invites messiness ... think about it ... musicians collect music and instruments ... artists have supplies ... and the act of creating, by its nature, is "untidy" ... if you are in the middle of making something, do you really want to clean it up "before bedtime" every time????

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    1. See... I'm not a slob, I'm a creative genius! :-)

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  15. Interesting post. The last graphic was hilarious, but actually something I think about.

    I'm good at ridding clutter and must admit to having panic attacks about unfiled paperwork (bills, etc.) I suppose we all have our irritants.

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    1. Well, I certainly have experienced the "OMG - what's lingering in that pile?!?" panic, and I definitely have my slovenliness tolerance threshold. I'm just trying to stop beating myself up for my failure to maintain the tidiness level that I always think "normal" people have.

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