A Vindication of a Messy Desk

by Janis Susan May/Janis Patterson

I have been vindicated! In the Rodale Organic Life magazine, on 21 January, 2016, Chris Michel writes about The Surprising Health Benefits of Clutter, then goes on to say Before You Start Purging, Find Out Whether That Messy Desk Is Good For You.

Well, as one who has a desk piled so high it’s sometimes hard to see over, I had to read the article. Basically, it says that clutter is not automatically bad, that clutter can – but not always – act as a starting point for creativity. Michel’s theory uses the example of a plethora of post-it notes, many of which will not work in the current project. If they are thrown away, he postulates, the idea is gone. If they are left, though, it is possible that something there will jump out and enrich your current work-in-progress.

Michel also says that being excessively neat becomes a time-sink and contra-indicative to creative thought, which in itself is somewhat chaotic. He says that “…environmental disorder actually stimulates creativity.”

If you want to read the entire article, you should be able to find it here.

http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/home/the-surprising-health-benefits-of-clutter?cid=soc_Rodale%27s+Organic+Life+-+RodalesOrganicLife_FBPAGE_Rodale%27s+Organic+Life__

I think it comes down to time. Do you want to spend time cleaning and tidying and de-cluttering, or do you want to spend as much time as you can writing? I plump for writing – though perhaps too much. Our house is a disaster and perhaps needs excavating more than cleaning. In our defense, though, we are in the process of cleaning out our last storage room and getting rid of stuff, which in its own way actually creates more clutter for a while. See? I can justify anything, but that doesn’t affect my desk, however; I think the dog might be hiding somewhere in those piles of books, papers, notes and I’m-not-sure-what-that-is.

As an additional gift, Michel also says that a cluttered house can be the sign of a well-lived life.

Well, if all that’s true, I’m destined to be a mega-best-seller and the happiest creature on earth!

By the way, if you’re in the Bonham, Texas area on this coming Saturday, 6 February, thirteen wonderful romance authors and I will be featured at the Eighth Biennial “Romance in Bonham” panel discussion/reader event. It will be held from 11am to 1 pm at the Bonham Public Library, 305 E. 5^th Street. Please come by if you can – it’s free, of course.

KILLING CLUTTER by Kay Finch

I don't know about you, but clutter makes me crazy. Not only do I have trouble concentrating if I'm surrounded by clutter, I really enjoy straightening up clutter. A fellow Pennsylvania native recently commented when I used the term "straightening up" and said it was good to hear since everyone here in Texas where we both now live says "picking up." I had never noticed this until she pointed it out. But I digress.

Scan a magazine rack on any given day, and you'll notice many articles on organizational topics. Genius Organizing, De-Clutter Your Life, Clutter Diet, Meaning Behind the Mess – a few titles chosen from my current magazines. I trust magazine editors have a handle on popular topics to pull in readers, so I guess the public – at least those who read magazines – is obsessed with getting organized and killing their clutter.

My obsession with clutter began at a very young age. I didn't have nearly as much stuff (a technical term in the organizing world) back then, but you can bet that everything in my small bedroom was regularly purged, straightened, stacked, and alphabetized. In my adult life, people often comment that I am so organized. Which means I'm more organized than they are – not nearly as organized as I would love to be. As I sit here writing this blog I'm thinking about how the dresser drawers sure could use cleaning out and the bathroom cabinet absolutely must be reorganized this weekend.

When a friend mentioned her professional organizer years ago in casual conversation, I began thinking about becoming one myself. I attended a couple of local professional organizer meetings and soon realized that my day job as a family law paralegal paid a lot better and had better benefits than those of a self-employed organizer. Not to mention I wasn't all that crazy about tackling someone else's mess. Take one look at the TV show Hoarders, and you'll see what I mean.

Then the brainstorm hit – don't become a professional organizer, write a cozy mystery novel about one. And she can uncover a dead body under a mess in the bathroom or in the walk-in closet. Wait – this book is going to be set where I live. It's way too hot in the Houston area to hide a body for any length of time in a house. Okay – make it February, and the body's in the garage. That'll work. And so my character – professional organizer Poppy Cartwright – and her business, Klutter Killer, came into being.

How about you? Are you blind to clutter, do you hire someone to take care of your clutter, or are you obsessed like me?

Cozy mystery author Kay Finch is currently writing her new Bad Luck Cat Mystery series set in the Texas Hill Country to be published by Berkley beginning in 2015. Kay lives in a Houston, Texas suburb with her husband, two rescue dogs and a cat. Visit her web site at www.kayfinch.com.