Cluttered or clean: Which is yours?

While going through the updates in Facebook like every other morning, I happened to notice an interesting post which led to me another post. It talked about preferring which type of work desk: cluttered or clean?

The reference:

According to study conducted at University of Minnesota, a person who works in a messy environment develops a creative and innovative attitude and are willing to take risks in their lives. It can further enhance your problem solving abilities. In the same time a study shows cleanliness promotes good behaviour among the workers and it discourages them in committing crime and help them to display generosity.

The reality:

If you ask me and take cue from the image posted above (also taken from the website), I have always been a supporter of cluttered desk. Right from the school days, I had proudly boasted a cluttered desk. While my parents would try to find a decent corner in our room to accommodate all my books and that I keep them clean, I would always end leaving the desk messed up with books, writing copies, pens, pencils, etc. An occasional threatening from my mom that she would throw away the books and I would be punished at school, prompted that once in a while cleaning spree but other times, it would be my style.

When we moved to our own little flat, I was allotted a room of my own which, by law and rights, was also to be shared with my elder sister. Since she’s the elder one and had no relation with studies and academic books that time, I filled almost two-third of the room with my books. I demanded new books and my mom obliged, every damn time. She realised that the room needs special furniture to keep my ever growing stuff (yes, books) and got me racks made of bamboo sticks. Even the trolley that was made to keep food was a den for my books. And yes, the dinner table wasn’t spared. All these spaces have been my cluttered desks for years.

I became the sole owner of the room after my sister got married and made it the cluttered room which also became a reason for my mom and sister to scold me about occasionally. While they are strong supporters of clean desk and doesn’t support studying in a messy way, I am the exact opposite. I studied and kept my things in a fashion so that they are in easy reach. When I cleaned the room and kept things in their original places, I failed to remember the simplest things like where else on earth will I keep my pen other than inside the book I was studying last? Yes, I did find it later. It was kept in the pen stand near the computer.

Not that clean desk is bad, it is simply empty. Empty is like loneliness.

Not that cluttered desk is good, it is simply filled up. Like you have company. In my case, lots of company. My fascination for books, magazines and papers still rules my brain and my office desk gets cluttered in no time in this age of digitisation as well.

I really can’t keep myself away from paper and habit of collecting these printed stuff. And therefore, I can’t help but have a cluttered desk and thus a creative and innovative attitude also, may be.