The anatomy of messiness

Kristine Berey

John Evans and Rod Beattie as Oscar and Felix (photo: Scott Philip)

If one person’s junk is another person’s treasure, then perhaps one person’s disaster is another’s foolproof filing system. Conventional wisdom dictates that neat is better than messy, and certainly no one has ever been ashamed of being too neat — but not everyone agrees. Albert Einstein, whose desk was famous for its precariously balanced stacks of papers, once posed the question: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk?”

Neat Freaks and the Hopelessly Disorganized have always been divided in different camps, with those on the neat side stereotyped as needing control and the messy ones as being somewhat “out to lunch.”

In The Odd Couple, now playing at The Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre, playwright Neil Simon draws a hilarious portrait of two people on the opposite sides of the tidy/messy spectrum, living under one roof and attempting to endure each other.

“What drives ‘Francis’ crazy is not just a matter of Felix’s insistence on neatness, orderliness and timeliness but also that he’s being a control freak,” says actor Rod Beattie, who plays the pathetic Felix, thrown out by his long-suffering wife. In his personal life, Beattie says he is worlds away from Felix. “I have a vision of my home environment as being free of debris — but it never happens.”

He suggests that Felix and his nemesis Oscar may march to a different drum, that they have a different “time-set”. “There’s a scene where Oscar comes in for their double date an hour late and he’s not even aware of being late. But Felix has scheduled this date up to the minute, with cocktails at 8 o’clock. When the food is burned and dried out, Felix is furious.”

Beattie cites the great painter Tom Thompson as a real-life example of people being differently “tuned”. “Thompson’s external life was chaotic and disorderly but he had the gift of being able to stop time. At one point he tried to paint the process of spring in Algonquin park, but couldn’t keep up with it. In his case, ‘outer time’ was incompatible with his ‘inner time’.”

Being a slob is not much better, says actor John Evans, who plays Oscar Madison, who could be described as Martha Stewart’s antithesis. “Blanche left him, because he’s such an unmoveable slob who assumes everything revolves around him. He thinks he’s loveable, charming, terrific with the guys, but with his wife he’s like a teenager.”

But there is a darker side to slovenliness, Evans suggests. “With Oscar, it’s more of a case of ‘all right, you don’t care about me so I’m not gonna care about myself’.”

For over 20 years, J.F. Laforte of Creative Visual Concepts has helped design optimal environments, including stage sets, window displays, trade show kiosks, wedding halls, daycare classroom environments and residential spaces. He believes that environment can reveal a lot about the person who lives there. “People have particular styles that describe who they feel they are at that point in time,” Laforte says. Sam Gosling, psychology professor at the University of Texas and author of Snoop: The Secret Language of Stuff, also believes that bedrooms and offices reveal key aspects of your personality. He finds, among other things, that a diverse collection of books and magazines reveals openness and well-lit airy spaces indicate emotional stability.

Marijana Kuljik of Organized! says clutter is a byproduct of our consumer society: “Our houses have become bigger but our possessions take up much more space. We’ve become a society where we just collect so much stuff.”

By the time clients reach out to Kuljik, they are at the end of their rope, overwhelmed and unable to part with their mountain of possessions. “Sometimes there is emotional attachment to objects, memories they feel bad about letting go of. Also, sometimes people come from humble beginnings and are taught to hold on to things.”

She reaches her clients through teaching them systems to gain control of their stuff. “I can help you organize a filing system where you will find anything you’re looking for in 30 seconds or less,” she says.

Laforte says everyone has a little Oscar or Felix in them, that they are different sides of the same coin. He says the upside to mess is that it allows you to relax and be spontaneous while the upside to neat is that it allows you to live freely, averting that feeling of dread when an unexpected visitor shows up. “Comfort level is personal and your home is your sanctuary. But you’re also a social being and need to feel comfortable in your home when friends drop by. Oscar and Felix, we all have them — we just have to learn to manage them so that one doesn’t take over. But we need both.”