The Upside of Untidiness: Why Mess can be Good for your Home and your Mind

The brilliant polymath ~ fashion designer, writer and photographer ~ Karl Lagerfeld drawing at his Paris home with his cat Choupette amid a wonderful pile of untidy papers and books. Photograph (above) by Annie Leibovitz in 2018. Cover picture of Paris streetstyle SS27 by Brittany Scott for DAM.

By Jamal Abarashi

If we’re to follow the philosophy of organiser extraordinaire Marie Kondo, a tidy home is a better home. Albert Einstein, however, might have contested that point. “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind,” goes a quote widely attributed to the famed physicist, “of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?”

My newly published research, which studied 22 New Zealand households, also challenges the conventional wisdom that mess is a problem which must be fixed.

Far from being a symptom of poor organisation, mess can help families function and make life run more smoothly.

When mess makes life easier

Consider the spaces in our homes that serve more than one purpose, and where things tend to pile up. A living room that doubles as a play area, or a bedroom that also serves as a study.

One couple told me how their dining table becomes a “drop zone” for belongings such as bags and drink bottles, before it’s cleared each evening. Another person described how leaving something on his kitchen island made him less likely to forget it when leaving the house.

Disorderly as each of those spaces might have appeared, they served daily routines which might have been disrupted for the sake of a tidier-looking home. We might think of clutter as stuff that simply gets in our way. But often, a messy space is just one that is being useful to us.

For one mum, her kitchen counter served as a dining table and a workspace for her and her daughter. Pens, toys and other items might accumulate, but “as long as there’s still space to eat, then I kind of just let it be”.

Look familiar? Often messy spaces, such as dinner tables and kitchen counters, can also just be useful spaces. Getty Images

Mess can also tell us much about family relationships. One dad would leave his daughter’s jumper hanging on the back of a chair rather than pack it away. She had previously left it on the floor, and he wanted to acknowledge her progress. “So I regard that as a win,” he said.

Another person told me she put up with some of her partner’s mess because “he also lives here”. For her, a shared home should not be organised only around one person’s idea of tidiness. Leaving some things alone was a way of recognising that the space belonged to both of them.

These might be modest examples, but they show us that the seemingly simple act of tidying can run up against the encouragement we offer our children or the respect we show our partners.

When we’re making room for other people’s ways of living, putting everything in its “proper” place sometimes isn’t the most considerate thing to do.

Knowing when to tidy up

So, should we just stop tidying and embrace chaos? Not quite.

Previous research has linked household clutter to stress, embarrassment and conflict between family members. Mess can make things harder to find, prevent us from using a space or create more work for someone else.

Our study doesn’t dispute these problems. Rather, it suggests we need to look beyond how messy a space appears to understand whether that mess is actually causing difficulties.

We found households used three main approaches to managing disorder: clearing things away, tolerating them or simply hiding them from view.

One woman described pushing her partner’s golf balls and other belongings beneath a cabinet, where they were less visible. Another kept her daily supplements on the kitchen counter rather than in the pantry, because putting them away might mean she forgot to take them.

Organising consultant Marie Kondo is famous for creating the KonMari Method, a decluttering and organising philosophy centered on keeping only items that ‘spark joy’. Michael Buckner/Getty Images

These decisions reflect something earlier research has tended to overlook: keeping a home tidy involves balancing different needs, routines and expectations. What one person regards as clutter might be important to someone else’s daily life.

Our findings also suggest tidiness is rarely a permanent state. Spaces become messy as people use them, are cleared when needed, then become messy again. Trying to maintain constant order can mean repeatedly undoing arrangements that serve a useful purpose.

This doesn’t mean all mess should be tolerated. But a home that looks perfectly organised isn’t necessarily one that works best for the people living in it. Perhaps the better measure of a well-organised home isn’t how tidy it looks, but how well it works for the people who live there.

Jamal Abarashi, Lecturer, Marketing and International Business Department, Auckland University of Technology

The Shape of Things to Come: How Paris Street Style is Setting the Trends for the Year Ahead

Australian actor Aubri Ibrag in Paris wearing a draped, deep-blue Zimmerman short dress outside their SS27 show. Photograph (above) and streetstyle cover picture by Brittany Scott for DAM.

What will we be wearing in the year ahead? Earlier this month, before the French capital became a battleground, Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 offered some compelling clues, from sculptural jackets and elegantly draped jersey to sharply tailored denim, exposed lingerie and bold colour combinations. Isabella Lancellotti examines the looks setting the agenda for the season ahead. Photography by Brittany Scott 

Portuguese model Kika Gomes wearing a

draped, ruched  and asymmetric jersey 

Balmain mini dress in Green Anis.

She attended the show in Paris.

LOOKING beyond the spectacle in Paris' crowded avenues and alleys during fashion week, we decode the street-style trends poised to shape the coming year and the individuals already making them their own. 

At runway shows by Balmain, Balenciaga, Lanvin, Zimmermann, Vivienne Westwood and Loewe, the streetstyle outside exhibited the emerging directions on an international cast of fashionistas: from Uma Thurman and Jessica Alba to Heart Evangelista and Jeanne Damas. 

Although Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 is over, its most engaging ideas are already moving beyond the runway as the fashion crowd treat the streets as a laboratory for what comes next. 

The message was clear: dressing is becoming more individual, silhouettes more deliberate and the boundaries between daywear, eveningwear and underwear increasingly fluid.

Draping brought movement back into focus. Soft jersey fabric and fluid layers created a counterpoint to architectural shoulders and sculptural outerwear. The appeal is in the tension: clothes that follow the body but retain movement, with the textiles doing as much of the work as the cut. 

The jacket is the new centrepiece. Structured shoulders, cropped proportions, defined waists and sharply tailored shapes signalled a shift away from the oversized blazer. Worn with denim, skirts or unexpected combinations of textures, the fitted jacket offered a polished framework without making an outfit predictable. For the coming season, tailoring looks set to be less about conventional suiting and more about the power of a single, precisely cut piece.

Draping brought movement back with soft jersey and fluid layers creating a counterpoint to architectural shoulders and sculptural outerwear

English Singer Maisie Peters in Paris 

wearing a denim, cape top in Onyx Blue 

and a ruffled, high-waisted mini skirt, 

both by Zimmerman for SS27 in Paris.

Denim, meanwhile, is moving into more sophisticated territory. Sartorial denim combines the familiarity of jeans with the precision of tailoring, while straighter, slimmer cuts challenge the dominance of exaggerated volume. 

The forecast is not the disappearance of relaxed denim, but a broader choice of proportions, with the styling and construction determining whether a look feels casual, polished or deliberately subversive.

Colour and accessories provide another clue to the season ahead. Vivid reds, pinks, oranges, blues and greens bring energy to the Paris pavement, while animal prints, tactile surfaces, statement belts and distinctive jewellery give outfits a strong visual identity. 

Unexpected accessories and experimental styling also suggest that the most influential looks will be those that resist easy categorisation. The street-style wardrobe is becoming less uniform and more personal.

The people moving between the shows were equally diverse. Among those seen across the Paris fashion circuit and pictured in our gallery, were Hande Erçel, Karen Wazen, Jordan Rand, Emilia Silberg, Tan Suan and Georgina Mazzeo. Their presence reflected the global reach of Paris Fashion Week, where established fashion personalities, actors, models and digital tastemakers contribute to the visual culture surrounding the collections.

The jacket is the new centrepiece: structured shoulders, cropped proportions, defined waists and sharply tailored shapes 

American singer song-writer Charlotte

Lawrence wearing a lingerie-inspired,

Zimmerman sheer, black lace corset dress.

Lingerie-inspired dressing was another key trend worn by celebrities and stylists alike. Exposed bras, delicate camisoles and underwear worn as outerwear turn intimacy into a styling statement, suggesting that transparency and carefully considered exposure will remain central to the fashion conversation.

High profile names brought further attention to the week, including Zoey Deutch, Naomi Ackie, Eve Hewson and Manon Bresch. Other familiar faces included Katie Holmes, Naomi Watts, Poppy Delevingne, Paris Hilton and Jihoon, alongside Somrutai Rattanawaraha and Chloe Lecareux (all pictured below).

The strongest prediction for the season ahead is not one isolated trend but a new approach to combining them. Tailoring meets fluidity; denim becomes more precise; lingerie becomes visible; colour and accessories become more expressive. 

This season, street-style demonstrated, once more, that the future of fashion belongs not to those who follow a trend, but to those who know how to make it their own.

See more highlights from the Paris Spring/Summer 2027 Streetstyle: