clutter

sitting at my desk i can't help but be slightly overwhelmed by the disorganization and messiness. There seems to be no order. Beer cans, water bottles, deodorant, toothbrush and two tubes of toothpaste. there's gum and there's candy. notebooks and notecards. philosophy theses and research papers. i even have an underarmour shirt on top of a pile of who-knows-what. This is how i live..i don't even want to guess at what's going on under the desk. - definitely plenty of laundry and trash.

so this is clutter.

the word brings to mind (1) an old saying, (2)a famous Einstein quote, and (3) a response my brother once said after hearing the quote.

1. a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind
2. if a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what are we to think of an empty desk?
3. what about an organized desk?

My brother keeps his desk (and entire room) pretty neat and tidy. I, on the other hand, am king of clutter. So what does this tell us about the differences between my brother and i? is his mind organized and mine cluttered? possibly..but what on earth does that mean..?

we each have things that we need and use. it's a matter of how much effort we want to put into retrieving these things versus how much effort we want to put into creating order in the arrangement of these things. My room is small and there are only so many things that I need to have easy access to..and for these things, i'd say that i have a pretty efficient method of organization. Mostly, these things are applications on my phone or computer. Other things would be my hygiene-maintenance tools which have their respective areas in my desk-vicinity and papers, books, and notebooks which too have their respective homes on the bookshelf or in my backpack..or temporarily on the desk. The rest of the stuff just comes and goes. When i sum up enough energy, I rid my desk of the excess stuff by disposing of it or moving it to a new home depending on its use to me. This is the order behind my clutter.

Organized people, including my lil bro, put the time into keeping their objects arranged orderly. This guarantees easy access to anything needed any time..that is as long as the organizer remembers where he keeps the needed item.

Order keeps things simple. It guarantees predictability. We all order the world uniquely to our own tastes and tasks. One man's clutter is another's organization. no need to judge.