As a rule, I am messily organised. This photo shows my repository of day to day stuff. This is where I deposit my wallet, car keys, phone, camera, glasses and other things that I access several times per day. It's a mess, but there is no rubbish in this pile. I also know exactly where everything is. It might look like a disorganised pile of rubble, but I put this stuff back in this exact spot every time I am finished with it. So it is a messy pile of perfectly organised stuff.
I would class a true mess as someone that leaves their stuff all over the place in an unsystematic fashion. For instance, the type of person that is always losing their car keys because they can never remember where they put them down last. The random dumping of stuff wherever it takes your fancy is more than mess - it's psycho mess.
I worked with a bloke like that. My desk had a lot of paper on it, but it was all stacked into piles and I knew where every bit of stuff was and what its status was. He on the other hand had even larger piles, but everything was put down randomly and never culled. He simply let it build up and build up and never sifted through it to weed out that which was no longer required.
As a result, he was a disaster area. He never got anything done, as he was always losing his notes that would tell him what to do. Everyone was frustrated with him, and eventually grew to hate him. Not because he was a bad person, but because he was unable to deliver thanks to his complete absence of organisation and order. Things do not have to be neat to be organised. I think people confuse mess with disorder. I am an organised mess. I have met people who are frantically neat, but totally disorganised.
I feel little need to be neat, since it does nothing for me. Being organised is more important than being neat, and I won't sacrifice organisation on the alter of neatness.
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