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5 Ways to Use Disorder and Disorganization to Keep Your Home Running Smoothly

I read—actually, I listened to—a great book a few weeks ago called A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder—How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place. I started to wonder where I used disorder to keep my home-life running smoothly and I actually came up with lots of examples.

I decide when to clean my refrigerator by noticing how much stuff I have to shuffle around when I’m putting away new leftovers (instead of on a scheduled date). I avoid filing papers that represent something I want to think about or work on because it would take more time to file them and create to-do items for them than it takes me to glance over them when I’m looking for something else.

The thing is, at some point, we all have to decide when we’re striving for too much organization. Organization takes time and effort, and sometimes we overpay in time, effort, and money, for what we get back on our investment in organizing our lives.

There are many other ways you can use disorder to make your life easier. Below, I’ve listed 5 easy ways to let disorder and disorganization into your life.

5 ways you can use disorder and disorganization around the house to make your life a little easier

1. Go simple with the filing systems. If you can find what you need, when you need it, your filing system already works for you—even if you don’t use folders. Why spend money on filing supplies when you don’t need to? Why spend time overhauling a system that already works?
2. Plant a flower garden, the easy way. Mix all your seeds together in a jar, shake them up, and pour them (somewhat) evenly over your flower beds. You’ll end up with a profusion of flowers overflowing your beds, drowning out the weeds, and bursting with color.
3. Let your mail pile up and sort it once a week. You’ll only have to get out the envelope opener once, run the shredder once, and pay the bills once that week.
4. Leave on your kitchen counter an appliance you would love to use more often but don’t because it’s difficult to get out and put away. If it’s useful to you and you want to use it, then why not make it easy for you to do so? See? A little disorder can make your life better.
5. The next time you plan to “clear out the clutter” ask yourself why you’re doing it. Is it because of what you think others might think of you if they saw your mess? Why does it matter? If you’re not clearing out the clutter because you want to make your things easier to find, use, or put away, then you’re probably not clearing out for the right reasons.

As for the book, A Perfect Mess, if you’re looking for someone to remind you why clutter isn’t always bad to have around—and why having clutter doesn’t make you a bad person—you’ll want to read this book. I listened to the abridged audio edition, so I can’t say with certainty that every word in the book is a gem, but what I heard was excellent. This was front porch listening, although you could listen at any time. There was something very relaxing about the voice of the reader, and the subject matter is something most of us could stand to hear.

The point of the book isn’t to encourage you to be disordered, cluttered, or dirty. In fact, some order and organization is essential to a happy, productive life. However, as the author discusses the subject of disorder, it becomes clear that some disorder can actually improve your life, give you more time, save you money, and spark your creativity.

Those are the reasons I suggest you read—or listen to—this book.

Ever since Einstein’s study of Brownian Motion, scientists have understood that a little disorder can actually make systems more effective. Yet, most people still shun disorder or suffer guilt over the mess they can’t avoid. With a spectacular array of true stories and case studies of the hidden benefits of mess, A PERFECT MESS overturns the accepted wisdom that tight schedules, organization, neatness, and consistency are the keys to success. Drawing on examples from business, parenting, cooking, the war on terrorism, retail, and even the career of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abrahmson and Freedman demonstrate that moderately messy systems use resources more efficiently, yield better solutions, and are harder to break than neat ones. Applying this idea on scales both large (government, society) and small (desktops, garages), A PERFECT MESS uncovers the ways messiness can trump neatness, and will help you assess the right amount of disorder for any system.

Topic: Managing Your House, Managing Your Time

Tags: 5 Ways, A Perfect Mess, Clutter, David H. Freedman, Disorder, Disorganization, Eric Abrahamson, Organizing, Philosophy, Save Time

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