![]() ![]() “You will lock out bad things - you’re less likely to be late, things are less likely to spill or break - but you’re also locking out luck.” That messy desk or kitchen is more conducive to making the random connection that could lead to a scientific breakthrough or a new recipe. “If you make your environment very neat, you’re making everything predictable,” he says. Freedman, co-author of the book, “A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder ,” argues that extreme neatness does have some drawbacks. Rogers factor,” did research that found neat people are no more likely to be kind or sympathetic than their messier counterparts.ĭavid H. ![]() ![]() Gosling, who dubs this misperception the “Mr. These are the people you want in the air traffic control tower,” explains Sam Gosling, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Texas in Austin and author of the upcoming book “Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You.”īut while most of us tend to think well of someone who is tidy, assuming that they are more considerate than their peers, that’s not necessarily the case. “Neat people are generally conscientious - they pay attention to order, think before they act. Our attitude toward neatness is likely shaped during childhood, from parents who frown on messy rooms to picture books like “The Cat in the Hat,” with its implicit message against trashing the house. “I don’t think anyone who knew me would be surprised to know what I do for a living.” While many cases of OCD are related to cleanliness or neatness, the disorder is more complex than someone who washes their hands a lot. “It’s who I am,” says Perri Kersh, owner of Neat Freak Professional Organizing in Chapel Hill, N.C., who was dubbed “neatest” by her high school classmates and, at age 4, carried around an imaginary device for organizing ties. Experts say the desire for neatness runs along a spectrum, from finicky Felix Unger-types with a need for control to those with a truly life-hampering disorder, such as TV’s Adrian Monk, the obsessive-compulsive detective. I think that’s why I do it.”Ĭall them neat freaks or clutter-phobes - the types who lament their house is a total mess if one coffee table book is slightly out of place. But when I come in and everything is clean, I feel calmer. “I do drive myself crazy,” confides Donna Sullivan, a mother of two and a part-time accountant in Scituate, Mass. ![]()
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