The Review

Issue date: 4/10/07 Section: Mosaic

Media Credit: Courtesy of Amazon.com [Click to enlarge]

It's lurking under the bed. It's bulging from the dark confines of the closet. It's creeping from the depths of the freezer. It's claiming every inch of desk and dresser space.

It's disorganization - the dreaded disease that regularly consumes countless businesses, homes and residence halls across the globe and, according to new research, its reputation may be in for a turn-around.

In "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder," co-authors Eric Abrahamson and David Freedman argue that a reasonable amount of disorganization makes people more effective, efficient and, in many situations, creative.

"Usually people who are organized put a lot more into it than they usually get out of it," Freedman says.

The benefits of being messy, on the other hand, are too good to pass up, he says, which is precisely what he and Abrahamson hope to convey in the book that he fittingly describes as "a sprawling, messy collection of anecdotes."

For starters, Freedman says many people can spend hours each day organizing, tidying up and planning out their days, which is a waste of time. People who don't worry about these things have more time to enjoy life.

Also, messes aren't always as messy as they appear, and he says messy people can often locate their belongings more easily than can neat people.

Sophomore Michelle Edmond identifies with this idea.

"Sometimes my organized mess is better," Edmond says. "When I clean up, every single time, I lose something and I think that I threw it away. There's no where else it could be. When everything's messy it's easier to find stuff. I know where it is in the mess."

Freedman says disorder also spurs creative thought.

"Messiness, at least a certain amount of messiness, can be stimulating," he says. "It can go hand-in-hand with creativity."

Freedman says in messy surroundings, people will rediscover forgotten items or make uncommon connections that wouldn't be possible in a neat environment.

Sophomore Brittany Yourinson isn't so easily convinced.

"I think when you're creative, your thoughts kind of fly in all these different directions," Yourinson says. "But I think the thoughts in your mind are possibly different than the clothes on your floor."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools