I’ve heard a teacher say that a student’s disorganized desk reveals his disorganized mind. I’ve also heard that genius works in clutter. I don’t know which is right.
I only know that I feel most relaxed and comfortable when my computer is surrounded with a mug, pen, papers, and books, with music playing(unless I’m trying to think very hard). I’m not well organized, but I can always find what I’m looking for among the piles (unless someone moved it). There’s always a point in the day or week when the clutter has to go, which means that no one has to make a path through mounting piles of stuff.
Order. Clutter. Mess. Tidy. I like an environment that’s lived in, not like a museum where you can’t touch anything. It puts me at ease, not tense. I taught an English lesson this week about stress and what relieves it. There are probably as many different causes and solutions to stress as there are people.
A comfortably cluttered workplace helps take away my stress. Whether it’s conducive to creativity remains to be seen.
Tis a Gift to Receive 
I am a messy person.My studio at uni was shared with an even messer person.If something of mine went missing I nearly always found it under a pile of my studio companion’s books/drawings/painting clothes/sheets of paper.
We were discussing this yesterday in the study room at FB. We decided that the artistic people are the ones that function well with a messy desk. I would say the lazy ones also have messy desks. I am a secretary and there can be piles of stuff but they have to be stacked straight. Screaming seems to be a stress reliever that seems to help for the general public. 🙂
Hey Mom, look what i found! Yeah, I’ve tried to convince certain members of my family that comfortable messiness is artistic license.:) But admittedly, I’m probably a little lazy… As always, you say it well, Anita.
Right now I’m imagining the table in the teacher’s room at GTE. Talk about a ‘comfortably cluttered workplace’! It would be fun to sit there again to plan a lesson. I hope it’s going well for you today. May the ideas and creativity flow…