My husband missed the memo that January is "Get Organized Month." He probably "filed" it in one of his piles, which can be found in nearly every room in our house. You see, my husband is a serial stacker.
He can't help it, really. He, and every member of his family, have the "piling gene." That means he is genetically compelled to put all his mail, newspapers, magazines, books, business cards, important office papers and the like into piles in various parts of our house.
For instance - our dining room table plays to host to his mail (which often goes unopened). Seated on a nearby dining room chair are his magazines (which often go unread). Newspapers go in stacks located either on another dining room chair or in our TV room. Business cards exchanged during important meetings are stacked on his dresser along with several Post-It Note piles. I'm not exactly sure what the seven stacks in his office contain -- because it's impossible to even maneuver in there. And our garage is the resting place for boxes filled with my husband's bank statements and canceled checks dating back to the 80's. Yikes!
I first became aware that there might be a method within his mess several years ago, after I read this wonderful article in The New Yorker called "The Social Life of Paper." It pointed out that several studies of piling behavior, including one conducted at Apple Computer, "found that even the most disorderly piles usually make perfect sense to the piler, and that office workers could hold forth in great detail about the precise history and meaning of their piles."
Increasingly, however, my husband is not among the "method within the mess" group (although he is a stickler for keeping his computer desktop organized).
I'm not a neat freak. In fact, I have my own pile of magazines and newspapers next to my bed which I have every intention of reading. But my stacks end there. Since I am in charge of the household finances, I take great pains to file all our our personal paperwork in its clearly labeled spot so that I don't become suicidal at tax time. My "to file" pile is cleared out on a regular basis.
But my husband has reason to gloat these days. A new book on store shelves now encourages readers to embrace their clutter. Or, as Time Magazine's Jeremy Caplan puts it this week, "messy is the new neat."
A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder--How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place was written by organizational behaviorist and Columbia professor Eric Abrahamson. Mr. Abrahamson, I'm guessing, is himself a piler - because that title seems to be just a whole bunch of words stacked on top of each other.
Anyhow, Abrahamson told Time that "moderately messy systems outperform extremely orderly systems" because "those with messy desks often stumble upon serendipitous connections between disparate documents." It sounds to me like Abrahamson has found a scholarly way to justify his piling behavior - much to the chagrin no doubt, of whomever has to work around his stacks.
The co-author of A Perfect Mess, David H. Freedman, wrote recently in Inc.com that "virtually all advice from get-organized gurus falls apart on close inspection, but we're so desperate to add order to our lives that we eat it up without questioning." Freedman and Abrahamson believe the world is biased toward neatness, therefore overlooking the benefits of a messy desk.
Am I biased toward neatness? Maybe so. Maybe what I really need to do is buy A Perfect Mess and educate myself on how I can spend less time organizing and, as Time's Caplan writes, "devote that time instead to your family or creative endeavors or anything more enjoyable than getting on your knees with a Dustbuster."
Just what I need - another book for my "to be read" pile.
There was a time when I had nothing to explain
Oh, this mess I have made
But then things got complicated
My innocence has all but faded
Oh, this mess I have made
Are you a serial stacker? Is there a method to your piling behavior - or are you just a mess? Join in the conversation by clicking below on "Comments."
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