The Art of Chaos

Anyone who has ever seen the state of my room knows that I seem to be allergic to cleanliness and order. I cant keep my room clean for more than a few hours, and not because of lack of trying, it just seems to happen. Time and time again I hear from people like my mom that a "Cluttered room is a cluttered mind", or "A disorganized space is a disorganized mind". To this I always reply "An empty room is an empty mind". On the surface it seems that my aversion to having an orderly room stems from my rebellion toward my mom wanting me to keep it tidy. It could also be as simple as plain laziness. Both of these reasons are definitely true, however, can we be born messy? If I look a bit deeper it seems that what they say about your mind reflecting how you keep the environment around you might just be true. If I look at some aspects of my personality, it seems that my methods of thinking and my methods of living have some correlation. 

For example, my creative process is anything but orderly or organized. When I am coming up with ideas for new pieces of art most of my ideas come as fleeting thoughts. I see one or two details in my head but then my mind switches to a new idea within seconds. If I come to an idea that I really connect with I will start to consider more of how it will look in detail. Most of the time these ideas come when I am unable to write the down, for example, in the car or during the last few minutes before I fall asleep. So often I get home or wake up and the idea has mostly left my head. 

The way I treat my thoughts reflects on my level of organization. I tend to drop things where I take them off, as fleeting gestures that tend to catch up with me. I tend to move from these actions so quickly that I never consider taking the extra 2 seconds to put things where they belong. The consequence is that I end up with piles of things later that take hours to put away. I've never thought of myself as a procrastinator, but the symptoms are all there. The only difference is that I never stop to think about it long enough to realize what it is. 

In conclusion, whether it is my born condition to be a bit of a slob, or it is a conscious choice to be lazy, it works for me. I barely ever get frustrated with the state of my room unless it is someone getting on my case, or I actually cause myself bodily harm. I know where everything is, and I clean it when I need something, (like underwear or space to draw or exercise). Just like organization works for someone, so can messiness (organized chaos is how I see it).