I am going to make one physical space in my life beautiful, neat and ordered… it is against my nature, but I am going to do it. I look around my office space and its not too bad, a few loose piles of paper and some books that aren’t mine, tangled cables behind my computer and a nail hole in the wall where a picture once hung, it’s a bit dusty too. I will do it all in a couple of hours. These small gains are important in a time of chaos, uncertain times and grief which might all play heavily on our day to day functioning and the chaos outside our rooms (and inside our heads sometimes). Chaos needs some counterbalance. I can’t control covid, the weather, accidents, or closed borders, so maybe I can control a couple of easier things in my life: Like make one room an oasis of calm (I’ll forget the rest of the house for now) tidy those cables and papers and hang a new picture on the wall, dust and mop and make it all good, just one room, that’s all I’m doing right now. Then I’ll shut the door and enjoy it when I go in there to work.
This may work well with your bedroom or your study area or even just by making your bed (see Admiral McRaven's famous speach) but whatever you decide to, in some way, straighten, fix or tidy don’t underestimate the effects of creating order when elsewhere your life is in chaos, we benefit from creating order. Even if you live in a dingy hole of a place, you can create some order and even beauty. Looking into a another’s messy room might lead us to ask, is this just their room or does it reflect the inside of their head? and the answer is probably both.
References
Admiral William H. McRaven’s: Make Your Bed Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmbQfFVyxhU
Jordan Petersen: why tidying your room is the same as tidying your mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp9599kwnhM