New York Times article on the trend of embracing entropy:

Mess is complete, in that it embraces all sorts of random elements. Mess tells a story: you can learn a lot about people from their detritus, whereas neat — well, neat is a closed book. Neat has no narrative and no personality (as any cover of Real Simple magazine will demonstrate).

Yes, I have to agree about Real Simple having no personality, along with most home-dec magazine in general. Anyway, I think the thing to keep in mind here is that being neat is just a means to an end; order is a preference. Let’s not be too dogmatic about either choice. And the neatness they’re talking about is really just appearance. Having things straightened up doesn’t necessarily mean I know where anything is. I think part of the trouble that people have in being organized is that it can be hard to be systematic about it. That is, it’s hard to develop a reliable, trusted system for all your crap and then stay diligent in sticking with it. If you don’t have a good infrastructure, then you will tend not to use it.