I've been really enjoying "Unfuck Your Habitat," which offers advice and community for messy people who struggle to stay organized and tidy. I especially like the before and after shots of messy rooms that have been successfully put to rights. I'm a super-tidy neat-freak, and compulsive enough about it that I annoy my family with it — but for most of my early life, I was a total slob. Basically, I got into a somewhat rigid habit of cleaning up continuously and it became a kind of low-grade mania for me.
At least once a day, someone asks: “Why should I make my bed? Isn’t it kind of pointless?”
Well, there are a few reasons, as far as I’m concerned:
* It’s a habit that’s relatively easy to form, and helps to make way to form other habits that are beneficial. If you spend 30 seconds making your bed every morning, 20 minutes doing housework in the evening isn’t such a difficult thing to conquer.
* A messy bed tends to give a room an overall sense of chaos, whereas a made bed can make even a messy room seem more put together.
* It’s a small but tangible form of control over one’s environment. So many people let their homes get and stay in states of disarray, messiness, and chaos because it seems like the mess has more power than we do. If you can’t do everything, you can’t do anything, right? Wrong. You can make your bed.
* Because I said so.
(via Beth Pratt)
