Introducing the New Messy Desk

If you are looking for library or nonprofit consulting, message me on LinkedIn. I haven't quit. It just doesn't fit on this site.

I'm excited to announce the new branding of messydeskconsulting.com and to let everyone know that I'm returning to writing about people's relationship with clutter. It's part of an evolution in my thinking and in my life. I've retired from my academic job, and I find myself called back to this topic.

When I first started Messy Desk Consulting back in 2019, it was a small experiment. I wanted to explore what retirement might look like, and organizing spaces and lives seemed like a natural extension of my librarian skills. Over time, this simple idea grew into something more meaningful, especially as I connected with adults managing ADHD.

The Philosophy

For a long time, I thought there were Tidy people and Messy people. Tidy people put everything away at the end of the day, in labeled folders and tidy drawers. Tidy people would consistently use a planner and it would be beautiful and color-coded. The rest of us kept buying new planners and using them for a couple of months but no longer than that. That's why I wrote The Messy Planner, to give the Messies in the world a planner that works for them.

I'm no longer convinced that the world is divided so neatly into those two categories. Nothing is that binary.

The more I watch people, the more I notice that we all seem to create order in different ways. Some people need everything put away. Others need everything visible. Some have an immaculate kitchen but a mountain of clothing in their bedroom. Some build elaborate systems and happily maintain them. Others work in bursts of inspiration and then spend an afternoon putting the world back together.

None of those approaches is inherently better. They're simply different. But most of the women I know--and some of the men--spend way too much energy on feeling guilty about what they aren't doing when it comes to household chores or their office desk. Social media just amplifies the guilt. It's as if untidiness is a moral failing.

But what if the goal isn't to find the perfect system that works for hypothetical Messies?

What if the goal is to understand the patterns that already exist and build a life around them.

That's the question I'm exploring here.

I'm calling those patterns an Organizing Fingerprint. Like a real fingerprint, it isn't good or bad, tidy or messy. It's simply yours. It reflects the way your attention, memory, energy, priorities, and environment naturally interact.

I'm still developing this idea. I'll probably change my mind about parts of it. I'll find exceptions. I'll discover better language. Readers will tell me where it fits and where it falls apart. This is just the beginning of a conversation.

Language is important to me. I want to make a distinction between "organization" and "tidiness." Many Messies are remarkably organized. Their systems simply aren't tidy.

That's where Messy Desk is different from professional organizers. They come from the outside in, making your spaces look as tidy as an interior decorating advertisement. I'm hoping to work from the inside out. What are you really comfortable with in your living space? What's the gap between your tidiness sweet spot and where you are right now? What's missing?

Join Me on This Journey

So if you're curious about exploring why some systems feel effortless while others feel exhausting, I hope you'll stay awhile.

We'll compare notes and keep asking questions. And together, perhaps, we'll discover that the happiest organizing system isn't the neatest one. It's the one that leaves us with enough space and enough energy to live the lives we actually want.