Well, even though we may not know each other, let’s get personal—I really hate small talk anyway.

I’m speaking to those of you who may be looking right now at a full sink of dishes, markers strewn about the table, a pile of shoes on the rug, a complete “floordrobe,” etc., and scratching your head, wondering HOW DID THIS HAPPEN and more importantly, WHY?

I don’t know precisely, but I have some hunches.

One, it could be from components of your temperament—your nature, the multifaceted wiring with which you came to this plane of existence.

You may be someone who is less overwhelmed by sensory input—you don’t experience sensory overload by “visual information” (AKA, an abundance of things all around you that your brain is processing).
You may be someone who is naturally less active—your precious energy gets prioritized/expended elsewhere.
You may be someone who is very adaptable—instead of making the environment adapt to you, you adapt to it without even noticing.
You may be someone who is easily distractible—one project can lead to more spinoffs than the TV show Happy Days, all within the span of an hour.

(Temperament endlessly fascinates me…)

Two, you may have chosen to not make the tidying a priority for energy expenditure. Look, I say a lot that there is no system so good it’ll do itself. You have to participate if you want it to actually work. I know this is a tragic fact for some of you and I apologize for this hard truth. Cast your mind back to the 3rd grade—or whenever you learned it—to the ecological web. You got your wolves, your grass, your sunshine, etc. If the wolves collectively go, “Nah, I don’t feel like finding food today,” guess what’s gonna happen? Ted Nugent is going to have a field day, that’s what is going to happen. By which I mean, the wolves are going to die off and the ecosystem is going to be out of balance. If, over time, you stop picking up your underwear from the floor, your floor will be covered with underwear.

Three, another potentially hard truth, is that your inner world may also be chaotic—you know, like, “as within, so without.” If the bulk of your energy is consciously or unconsciously being devoted to inner coping, that can go a long way toward explaining the “why” of your outer sitch. Productivity expert Gretchen Rubin has a book titled “Outer Order, Inner Calm” (highly recommend, BTdubs) which I always accidentally invert in my brain to “Inner Order, Outer Calm”—maybe for a reason. It might go the other way around for some of us.

I offer these ideas for your self-reflection/evaluation/and most importantly NON-JUDGMENT. It’s all just information in the event you feel moved to make it different.

If you DO feel moved to make it different, I have some ideas that may be of assistance:

If you’re looking for temperament hacks, check out the advice in my temperament quiz.
If you’re looking to make or break some habits, I love Gretchen Rubin’s book, “Better Than Before”—SOOOO many good productivity hacks and ways to get yourself to do things you might otherwise put off until the end of time. Her book “The Four Tendencies” is also super helpful to identify your motivation archetype.
If you’re looking to do some inner work, I have found a lot of solace and practical reflection tools in medical intuitive Julie Burns Walker’s Oneness Model workbook, “From Self-awareness to Transformation.” (I use these tools on the daily, for reals!) Also check out my friend Kathryn Lucatelli’s super cool muscle testing work, which has been a total life-changer for me!

As ever, I’m here to help point you in any direction I know of that I think could be of use. Hearts.

Why does your home look like it does?