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Messy Living

Interesting way to describe what a messy room is all about from the perspective of a twenty something male.

Mr. Isaacson’s apartment tour included a large amount of clothes spread across the floor; a dresser filled with gray wigs (for his sketch comedy, he says); and a desk that was given to him by his grandmother.

“I think of the clutter as, like, if you’re crossing a creek,” said Mr. Isaacson, who has since cleaned his apartment in response to some of the comments. “There are sort of steppingstones that you use to avoid the water. And I think in a good messy boy’s room, there are steppingstones of floor.”

Stepping stones or not, there is always a price to pay for clutter. If this is the space a person is returning to after a day of living their interesting, busy and varied life, the space will fail to destress them. It would be hard to come there and feel calm and centered. It would be navigating said stepping stones to avoid water, floor or other calamity residing beneath the piles of things laying around. There is purpose a tidy living space serves in a person's life - does not matter who you are, what you do and how old you are. The state of the space is also a testament to the person's state of mind and unless some action is taken, it would likely contribute to feeling poorly. This is a hard message to communicate to a young person - they would easily claim that the mess does not bother them - infact they don't even notice it. 

For the longest time, I have had the opposite problem - I like my spaces very tidy and organized. To the point that anyone else coming into my space could feel unwelcome there - there mere presence triggering chaos and disorder. This not ideal either. Just like the person who lives in a mess and finds it quite acceptable, a person like me would also have a way to explain away how they live

Living in constant disorder isn’t productive, but striving for perfectionism in cleanliness can also be counterproductive. Perfectionism itself is associated with feeling overwhelmed, anxiety and poor mental health.

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