Is outer order important to your happiness, or not?

At 62, I have spent a lifetime achieving some sense of order. As a college student, I routinely leapth over a heap of clothes and books to make it to my unmade bed. As a single mom, I would bravely face a world of kid clutter and a horrid kitchen every couple of weeks, when the boys were at their dad's house. Those Saturday evenings spent contemplating the order I had worked all day to create were oases of serenity, but I couldn't keep them going. Still, I kept trying. Today, I have more room, my children are grown, and I have more inner serenity to use towards order. I can still go through the house on a Thursday and find five pairs of shoes scattered around, and paper to pick up, and clothes to put away, but I don't live in a mess. The inside of my head isn't a mess either. I think that our outer surroundings do mirror our inward condition--I don't know that you can MAKE your insides serene by creating order outside, but you can contribute to your serenity by doing that. To me, this is about being IN THE PRESENT and not so distracted by an inner drama that you can't notice the real world in which you are living. I picked up a trick from 'flylady' i.e. www.flylady.net -- yes she is an insufferably chipper internet guide to making your life more orderly, but she has some good advice. I use a regular kitchen timer, set it for a half hour, and go around the house doing something that needs doing. The next half hour is devoted to something I WANT to do (quilt, read, write, rest). You would be totallly amazed at the amount of order you can create around you in 30 minutes. It's awesome. It's beautiful.

Absolutely outer calm contributes to inner calm. Having everything neat, tidy and organized means less time thinking, planning and finding the stuff to live life with. This translates into more time doing that which is meaningful and adds value and happiness.

If you can't find it, you often must re-buy it which means you must re-earn the money to re-buy which means, again, more time repeating that which does not necessarily add happiness and less time doing those things which do add happiness. Plus I don't know about you but, having to buy something I already KNOW I own and just can't find does not make me happy, rather the reverse. So before I even commit to rebuy it I'm already making a deduction to my happiness account. A futher deduction comes in that I now have 2 of something and must make the decision to organize or tidy that which I now have more of so I've just multiplied my unhappiness rather than created any lasting addition to it. ARGH!

Plus the actual doing of the cleaning and organizing can be in itself a source of happiness. Work, even if it's only achieving order can be a form of meditation, reflection, or prayer, if you like. There is honor, happiness and joy to be found in the humble, homely, virtues; the shine of a sink, the crisp and orderly arrangement of clean linen on a shelf, the spices arranged in some logical order that works for you (me I'm a savory versus sweet organizer but, I've gone the alphabetical route too.)

Also, If nothing else is finished in my day at work, I have comfort and happiness in knowing that my inbox is tidy, orderly, and that anything I need to find I can locate without effort. So if anyone else actaully manages to make progress on projects I can be back on track without a pause. Or I can set up a bed for the impromptu houseguest where the sheets are and that they are clean, or I can improvise with dinner wild abandon knowing that virtually any spice or herb I want is there and relatively fresh. There's comfort and happiness in that.

It's almost like a reverse of chaos theory: rather than finding order in chaos, I have order so that I can give myself over with wild abandon and delight to the chaotic; never fearing that it will overwhelm me.

Right angles. Clear surfaces. Things being where I expect them to be. Serenity. The only place where lack of order makes me happy is in the garden. And there I suppose nature is providing the deep order. I don't mind relinquishing control to nature.

I think the stress of having to clean everything up and keep it clutter free outweighs whatever benefit of calm that I would get from it being clean.

The answer is yes and no. Rather than order itself, I think, it is the acting of restoring order that contributes to inner calm ( and in turn, towards happiness?). Order initself, while sometimes necessary, may not be sufficient to achieve either calmness or happiness.

I happily live with clutter when I am at peace. When my world/soul/heart is in chaos, then strict order in my household is the only I can tolerate the pain.

It's not that I'm naturally very neat, nor even that what I consider "order" would even be recognizable by another person. But the more scattered I am inside, the more scattered I am outside. I am living in a tiny, tiny single dorm room this year and the effect is multiplied a thousandfold. Putting things in order is the simplest way for me to address my stress (agh, that sounds like a terrible self-help title).

I think order contributes to calm because there is so much visual and auditory input from everywhere else -- TV, radio, computer, kids having too many activities, too many things to do, or accomplish or achieve, advertisements everywhere-- that we need a serene visual environment to surround us and tune some of that static out.

I spent years trying to get organized--and was once--for a good 20 minutes. Now, I would not DARE to navigate my living room in the dark, and my office floor is a small mountain range. I know I could start clearing away the clutter, but these days laziness is about the only luxury I can afford. Order seems to be relative to my happiness in that I can now avoid it so effortlessly. Though I am moderately happy and very content, I do not recommend my lifestyle for everyone. Being authentically lazy is not as easy as it looks. Complete mastery means postponing many milestones--including death.

Oh yes, order contributes to my happiness. I've finally found some "systems" that are helping -- 20 minute timer, morning routines such as making the bed, cleaning the bathrooms, clean kitchen sink (all thanks to flylady). Interestingly, as I've brought some order to my house I find myself more welcoming and present with people who come into my life and house.

As much as order giving me a sense of calm, having a routine does too. When things around me are going awry, keeping to my routine make me feel more in control.

Good orderly direction is a necessisty in my spiritual and mental life, but not a requirement in my physical space. I live in a very small space so clutter can certainly crop up quickly even though I try to keep it ordered. Being with friends, persuing my best-loved hobbies, experiencing good health, and sharing my life with a precious, loving husband contributes to my happiness more than any management of material things. Each day gives me an opportunity to enjoy the present by living it the best way I can -- with gusto.

No and yes. When my desk is deep in clutter and I'm super busy and stuff keeps piling up, literally and metaphorically, then the pleasure I take is one of anticipation. I know I will see my desktop when I'm done with this project. Seeing my desktop is part of the reward of being done. Hooray for me.

Sometimes, this idea seems a bit thin, especially when work gets a little -- or a lot -- out of hand, like right now. I still have a pile of Christmas cards to reply to! They're down there somewhere in the pile, I swear. My anticipatory pleasure in sending out Christmas in June letters is getting quite high.

Definitely! I try hard to have order at work and home so that each day is not compiled upon the next. I agree with another responder - there are so many other outer stimuli around us that the added stress of "where'd i put x,y,z" or "before I can do this, I have to put that away, etc." Our worlds are layered and complicated these days and in order to accomplish and achieve - one must have the ability catagorize and prioritize. What that means to me is if I want order and organization in my life (i.e. innner calm... )I need to be ahead of the curve we call life!

I am an interior designer so I know first hand the extraordinary power one's environment has on their life. Wether people believe it influences their daily happiness or not, it most certainly does. Our environment effects not only ourselves but our family's and guests. This is such a big subject that I could go on and on... GREAT question!

Outer order definitely affects my inner peace. I get grouchy and irritated more easily when things are a mess. When there's clutter, it usually means there's more dust and dirt around. I've told my husband and two young daughters that just because we live in a small house doesn't mean we have to live in a trashy house. If we don't have enough space to hold all our stuff, then we shouldn't add to it and we shouldn't keep things that have not been used or looked at in over 6 months. I've started to declutter. At first I got very overwhelmed and anxious about the size of the task at hand. Then I calmed down and decided that taking it one small step at a time will also get the job done. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So each night, I do a little here and a little there. So far I've cleaned out the hall closet, cleaned out the dvd/cd cabinet, organized and downsized the kitchen items, organized my recipe binders and food pantry, downsized our "library" and donated a bunch of books. I've still got a ways to go, but when I look at how much I've accomplished in a couple of months, I feel very good. I feel like my house is finally starting to feel like a home and not some trash heap.

I am just in the process of moving house and my house is a mess. I am normally a pretty organised clutter free person but I am finding the task of packing and cleaning overwhelming and I just want to scream. I find that if I have the area where I am working clear and organised that I tend to have that inner calm and the process runs a lot more smoothly. A friend said to me the other day to have an enjoyable move. Now that's an oxymoron if I ever heard one!

I'm a four-bedroom girl shoved into a two-bedroom unit, so unfortunately I have to contend with clutter all the time. I don't like it at all. When funds permit, I'll move and I'll purchase better storage (bookcases, cupboards et al.). In the meantime, I get a lot of vicarious tidiness by reading the On simplicity blog at http://www.onsimplicity.net/, which is about both inner and outer tidiness. When I was first diagnosed with leukaemia, six years ago, the first word my brain fired up to my consciousness was "simplify", and it's been repeating it ever since. I've mostly done so, but my physical environment remains the battleground.

Most certainly. When my home, office, car, garden, etc are in order, I experience a sense of peace and serenity that can't be bought. I love an organized and stress free environment.

Cleanliness IS Godliness!

Thanks to all of you who have responded. Many of you talked about your own personal issues with disorganization but did not mention the effects of others who share space. My brain is very cluttered. I'm sure I was ADD before there was a word for it. I get very anxious when excessive clutter takes over. I am married to a wonderful husband whose only disagreeable trait is being obsessed with keeping every journal, magazine, sports equipment (rarely used) and leaving dirty clothes where ever they land. It's as though he needs tangible evidence to remember life's experience or to be able to research information that he's put away for a rainy day. I've explained several times my need for a certain amount order to uncluter my brain, and although he means well, he just makes no progress in that endeavor. Like others, I want to simplify, but even if I gave away all of my own excessive stuff, there would still be a mountain of his things to step over or around. I am too embarressed to invite anyone over. Is there anyone out there who deals with this dilemma? What do you do to experience peace and clarity. I have cleared out the guest room to have a bit of a retreat, but I feel bad when I leave my sweetheart alone downstairs when I need a break. Help!

Outer order gives me a sense of being in control of my destiny, on top of things.

It is also sends me back to childhood memories, of being praised for taking proper care of my things, of receiving mother's approval.