The venerable New York Times published an article today called Saying Yes To Mess and aside from a spooky coincidence---at the EXACT moment that I was serendipitously reading the article, an old roommate from decades ago emailed asking me if I had read the article--- it's kind of a fun read. Not that I agree with it, but it does make you think...
In the article, the author Penelope Green offers:
Mess is complete, in that it embraces all sorts of random elements. Mess tells a story: you can learn a lot about people from their detritus, whereas neat — well, neat is a closed book. Neat has no narrative and no personality (as any cover of Real Simple magazine will demonstrate). Mess is also natural, as Mr. Freedman and Mr. Abrahamson point out, and a real time-saver. “It takes extra effort to neaten up a system,” they write. “Things don’t generally neaten themselves.”
ok, slow down a minute, Ms. Green! Neat is a closed book? I don't think so. Ask any of my clients and they will tell you, I have never been an advocate of Martha Stewart-style organizing. I don't believe in lining all the cans in the pantry in the same direction and all the pencils in the drawer the same length. What I do advocate is a good hard look inside yourself and see if your life is working for you. If not, maybe it's the clutter--- like pain when we cut ourselves--- that is letting us know that there is something wrong inside. And sometimes, getting down to the underlying order in the chaos is what begins the deep-level change people are yearning for. That sounds more like opening a book to me.
'Neat', according to the Encarta Dictionary is "orderly in appearance: orderly and in a clean condition", but to me, as long as your surroundings feel good all the way through, that is neat. In my experience, neat is more about harmony than about perfect order, it's a fluid and dynamic state, rather than a stagnant one. And yes, I agree, the covers of Real Simple and Dwell have set the bar way too high for most people.
I once had a client who was an artist and she loved her collection of colorful figurines set down around her in riotous fashion. Her home looked wonderful and told a marvelous and playful story. There was a pleasing aesthetic in the randomness and no one but the fussiest prig would have deemed her space messy. It was neat.
It's true that mess also tells a story, I have often walked into a home and have been able to accurately predicted the dweller's chaotic emotional scenario, but it is not a satisfying story, it is one that causes others to run, to escape, to turn their backs, to resent and to feel disrespected. Repairing those relationships, searching madly for unpaid bills, passport, theater tickets, $100 bills and the like, now that takes time.
In fact, according to the article, the authors of the soon-to-be-published book “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder" conducted a small survey and found that one in twelve of the respondants divorced because of their mess. I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of story I want to star in!
Hey, listen, right this very minute I am sitting at my desk that is covered with papers, which is the way I work: I am a piler and I need the things I am working on to be around me visually. I don't mind that, it's my workspace, my canvas. But the rest of the room 
(for the most part) is neat and orderly, and I would not be embarrassed if someone walked in. Now that's a story I can live with!
Here's what I found in the comments section (comment #18 from Sue):
There is a difference in a stagnate mess and an active mess. A desk with papers and notes changing daily shows activity. Mess that accumulates and stagnates is a sign of incompletion and unwillingness to go back over something, like cleaning up desk at the end of the day. I have found that things need to get moved around but also need a place to be so a person can find them when needed. That is a time saver, not a time waster. Not being able to find a tool to fix the light switch or hang a coat rack only adds to problem. Then you end up looking for your coat in dark when you’re in a hurry.
That's what I'm talking about! Neat is fluid and dynamic, not prissy and stuck. I think Ms. Green and her friends missed the point.
The article continues on to say that the reason people are getting fussier these days is because they are emotionally overloaded:
Right now, [Marian Salzman, chief marketing officer of J. Walter Thompson and co-author, with Ira Matathia, of “Next Now: Trends for the Future,” ] said, “we are emotionally overloaded, and so what this is about is that we are getting better and better at living superficially.”
“Superficial is the new intimate,” Ms. Salzman said, gaining steam, “and these boxes, these organizing supplies, are the containers for all our superficial selves. ‘I will be a neater mom, a hipper mom, a mom that gets more done.’ Do I sound cynical?”
No, Marian, you don't sound cynical to me, you sound like someone who is using circular logic to prove her point! As a professional organizer, every day I have the honor of watching courageous people battle their emotional resistance, their fears, their deepest shame, their negative self-talk, their ancestral messages, to conquer their clutter and mess. What I am saying is that uncovering your inner neat-freak is the exact opposite of superficial, as Ms. Salzman suggests, in fact, it's impactful and important to your spiritual growth. I resent this smug conversation that gets airplay in the New York Times, that diminishes the power of the journey towards freedom that I have witnessed countless times. Like watching a baby being born, I can't imagine ever tiring of witnessing people come back to life, out from under their stuff.
So, 'messy apologists', say what you will, but for me, neat is about life and remembering who you are and freedom and messy is about giving up and making excuses for it. Both are choices. Which do you choose?
¸.·´ .·´¨¨))
((¸¸.·´ ..·´ Jessica -:¦:-
