#Tidiness vs creativity serial#

This part of Marie Kondo’s tidying method is tough, but ultimately fair. As Kondo says, ‘Pick them as if you were identifying items you loved from a display in your favourite shop.’ 6. I found this approach particularly useful for the two non-essential sets of possessions I also happen to love – clothes and books. In her tidying method, Marie Kondo always says that if the item ‘brings you joy’, you’ll feel it straight away. Don’t throw away randomly, instead try holding each item in your hand and think about its meaning to you. If you want to achieve true tidiness, you need to really think about the things you are throwing away. Anything else probably isn’t that important to you. Tell yourself the same thing, and you’ll find anything that’s of value. Marie Kondo says when she’s working with clients she warns them that anything they don’t bring to her at this stage is going in the bin. If you’re sorting and tidying clothes first, find every bit of clothing in every part of your home.

Find every item within a category before you start decluttering kitchen equipment) and, lastly, items of sentimental value. Next, move on to books, then papers, miscellaneous items (e.g. Marie Kondo explains that unless you’re a style maven and clothes are your ultimate passion, a top tidying tip is to need to begin the decluttering process with your wardrobe. These are the hardest things to throw away. Start with the easy stuff when declutteringĭon’t begin by going through old photo albums or love letters. It's time to rediscover the benefits of a little mess.3. This, then, is a book about the benefits of being messy: messy in our private lives messy in the office, with piles of paper on the desk and unread spreadsheets messy in the recording studio, the laboratory or in preparing for an important presentation and messy in our approach to business, politics and economics, leaving things vague, diverse and uncomfortably made-up-on-the-spot. In Messy, Tim Harford reveals how qualities we value more than ever - responsiveness, resilience and creativity - simply cannot be disentangled from the messy soil that produces them. The trouble with tidiness is that, in excess, it becomes rigid, fragile and sterile. Order is imposed when chaos would be more productive. It's even spilling into our personal lives, as we corral our children into sanitised play areas or entrust our quest for love to the soulless algorithms of dating websites.

#Tidiness vs creativity serial#

Now that they are armed with computers and serial numbers, there is little to hold this tidy-mindedness in check. Corporate middle managers and government bureaucrats have long tended to insist that everything must have a label, a number and a logical place in a logical system. But the forces of tidiness have marched too far. Scientific collaboration needs measurement units. Global trade needs the shipping container. A large library needs a reference system.

We all benefit from tidy organisation - up to a point. We find comfort in having a script to rely on, a system to follow, in being able to categorise and file away.

Many of us feel threatened by anything that is vague, unplanned, scattered around or hard to describe. The urge to tidiness seems to be rooted deep in the human psyche. Messy is a deeply researched, endlessly eye-opening adventure in the life-changing magic of not tidying up' Oliver Burkeman His liberating message: you'll be more successful if you stop struggling so hard to plan or control your success. 'Ranging expertly across business, politics and the arts, Tim Harford makes a compelling case for the creative benefits of disorganization, improvisation and confusion. The new book from the author of The Undercover Economist shows us how we can lead messier lives - and why we should.