How can people be so messy

What does a messy room say about you and your personality? Sometimes, however, this is not the case. Is a messy house a sign of mental illness, you might ask. Psychology says that messiness can indeed be a sign that a person is having trouble. Just like someone who is suffering from OCD and has to control everything, being a messy person might show that they are dealing with depression or some other mental illness.

The people who are depressed have a hard time getting out of bed, let alone cleaning their room. Messiness and hoarding might be their coping mechanisms, to the point that it will psychologically disturb them to try to remove anything. When a person realizes they have a problem, the next step would be to do something about it.

The crucial thing is to do something about the problem you might have. You have two crucial things to do — to clean your room and to clean your mind. I've always looked at the Monica Gellers of this world with a mixture of bafflement and jealousy — to me, it seemed like a pig pen type of character like me can never learn how to be neat if they're messy. I have so many questions when I notice a Type A personality — how does one have the self-control not to step out of jeans and just leave them crumpled on the floor?

Or not throw their keys by the front door and pick them up only when they need them? Sure, you might live in squalor and chaos, but it seems so much easier than tidying all day and night. Or so I thought, that is until I reformed. I used to be like the Tasmanian Devil with my clutter — I would blow into a room and it would automatically fold in on itself, leaving an impressive mess behind. But I've since learned habits and tricks that have turned me into a budding neat freak, and I'm here to pass on my new found wisdom to any other slobs out there that want to reform.

While it might seem like you need a Windex bottle strapped to your belt at all times, it's actually not that hard. Below are 11 tips on how to become neat if you're messy. If you're a messy person, chances are you just drop things where you're standing and walk away from them until you need them again. Sweaters are stored on the arms of couches, sunglasses are left on top of fridges and forgotten on kitchen tables, and keys are dropped by the door. But if you give everything a home — whether it's a bin, container, or drawer — then you'll force yourself to walk the item to that spot.

Rather than falling to your knees and screaming over how much tidying you have to do, take your transformation into a neat-freak slowly.

Let yourself get used to the change. One great way to do that is to set yourself three cleaning goals per day. Lifestyle writer Asli Omur from Lifehack offered, "Make a point to sit down every day with your calendar or notepad and write a list of three things that you would like to attend to. Here's a great rule to get you on that neat path: Always tidy at least one thing in a room you step into.

It might sound like a lot of hassle, but it's really easy. I never leave a room without making it better than I found it. If the counter is dirty wipe it down, or if a blanket is messed fold it. Some people simply do not place a high priority on having everything clean, organized, and in its place.

In this case, messiness is simply a normal state of affairs. So what makes tidy and messy people different? Are some people just born with personalities that prefer order while others thrive on chaos?

While some might suggest that a cluttered room is a sign of a cluttered mind, those who prefer this type of environment are not necessarily disorganized. In some cases, a person's desk might look like a jumbled mess, strewn with papers, envelopes, and files.

Yet they always seem to know exactly where each and every item is when they need it. Some of the most creative and productive people seem to thrive in this type of environment. I know exactly where everything is.

If having a perfectly neat and tidy room is what inspires you and helps you feel productive and creative, it might mean that you have what is known as a Type A personality. People with this personality type tend to be perfectionists. Having everything in its place helps fulfill their need for order and control. But if you tend to be more laid back in your approach to housework and tidying up, it might mean that you have more of a Type B personality type.

People with this personality type are more relaxed than their Type A counterparts. Rather than focusing on achieving perfection, they are more attracted to ideas, experiences, and creativity. And there is research that supports the idea that messiness also has an upside.

Kathleen Vohs, Ph. They found that while working in an orderly room encouraged behaviors such as generosity and healthy eating, working in a messy environment actually led to greater creativity. So while orderliness might be an aspirational quality, research has also shown that there are some advantages to being messy. If you tend to have a messy room, here are some possible advantages backed by psychology research.

The researchers believed that doing work in a clean and tidy space activates social norms encouraging people to do what is expected of them.

Working in a messy space, on the other hand, relaxes that need and allows people to break free of social norms and expectations. In the study, participants were placed in either clean or messy rooms and then asked to complete a task which involved finding new uses for ping-pong balls. The participants in the messy room condition were rated by impartial judges as coming up with more creative and innovative ideas than those who were in the clean-room condition. Such findings may have implications when designing workspaces, particularly for professions that require a great deal of innovation and creativity.

Employers might be encouraged to allow their workers to design and create workspaces that are more highly personalized, even if that means they might be less tidy. Some people tend to work better in highly organized spaces, while others work better in less organized environments. Personality and preferences are things that come into play in such situations. Forcing a person who prefers a tidy space to work in a disorderly environment, for example, might actually result in less creativity and lower productivity.

And jobs that are focused on efficiency and fast decision-making might be better geared toward tidy workspaces, while those that hinge on creativity might be better suited to less tidy spaces.

According to Vohs, one study found that subjects in a messy room were capable of solving brain teasers more quickly than those seated in an organized room. The scientist Albert Einstein, famous for his genius and creative thinking, was known for having a messy desk.

In another experiment by Vohs and her colleagues, participants were randomly assigned to either a messy or tidy room. They were then given a smoothie menu and told they were taking part in a consumer-choice study. They were told to select one of three smoothie options: a health, wellness, or vitamin boost. Half of the menus referenced the health boost option as "classic. The results suggest that people in neat and tidy environments are more likely to stick with the conventional, while people in messier environments are more likely to prefer novelty.

While minimalism might be trendy, it might also be crushing your creativity. If keeping a tidy desk or room is causing you more stress than the mess itself, try relaxing for a while, live with the mess a little, and see if it helps open up your creative abilities. Of course, habitual messiness also has its downsides. A messy room can make it harder to find things when they are needed, and in professional settings, it might result in missed deadlines or losing important documents.

But there are other possible downsides. In another one of Vohs' experiments, participants were asked to fill out questionnaires in a room. For some of the participants, the room was very clean and organized. For other subjects, they completed the questionnaire in a very messy, disorganized space.