Your Words

WE’RE HERE TO TALK about mess, and the absence of mess, and its impact on your self-esteem.

There is a running joke in my family that my sister Valerie should be the editor of Real Simple instead of me. Which used to make feel a little…insecure. (More on that in a minute.) But Valerie is indeed neater and more organized. She was a math major in college, and she tackles problems in a methodical fashion. She’s now a chief operating officer who is very comfortable with things that have clear answers that fit neatly into labeled columns.

I, on the other hand, was an English major who half the time can’t remember where I put down my coffee cup. I need a calculator to do simple arithmetic, and while I do label things from time to time,

I’m focused less on the act of organizing and more on whether my labels should be typed or handwritten in, say, gold glitter pen.

After years of working at Real Simple, I know that, compared with much of America, I am actually fairly organized. (I’ve seen pictures, people, and they’re not pretty.) I would say I’m about a 6.5 on an organization scale of 1 to 10. Valerie is an 11. Oh, how I have always wanted to be an 11! I just can’t pull it off. I get too distracted by the glitter, and the missing coffee cup, and—wait! What kind of bird just flew by? Is there something called a house wren, or did

I make that up? Where is the helpful little bird book we used to have in the kitchen.…

And off I go. Being a 6.5 used to be very damaging to my self-esteem. Especially when I was at my sister’s house. But then two things happened this month.

First I read “A Month of Mini Organizing Moves” (page 69), and it made me feel better about myself and my abilities, or lack thereof. Am I capable of following

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each of the story’s daily organizing tips to the letter, on schedule, and to completion? Uh, no. (Valerie is.) However, I realized that I could find an idea—even two!*—that I could use without having to get a complete personality transplant. They say “close” doesn’t count except in horseshoes and hand grenades. I say close counts when you’re trying to organize. Every little step makes a difference.

And then—imagine the clouds parting—came this little nugget, which you’ll find on page 98, in “The Well Workplace”: A 2013 study showed that people who worked in messy offices generated ideas that were rated as significantly more creative than the ideas conceived in neat offices. In other words, even if I do muster the energy to label things from time to time, I need a little mess in my life. So give me back that glitter pen!

HAVE YOU LISTENED TO REAL SIMPLE’S FREE PODCASTS? We have four of them— on everything from negotiating household conflicts (The Labor of Love) to navigating the confusion of your 20s (Adulthood Made Easy), handling irritating personalities (I Want to Like You), and boiling down kitchen basics (Things Cooks Know). There are new episodes every week. Go to realsimple. com/podcasts and listen for free.

*THE PAPERKARMA AND CARDSTAR APPS, IF YOU MUST KNOW.