Author(s): Claudia Brandt , Monica Angleton , Dr. Meredith Minear

Presentation: oral

While there are a number of books and articles touting the benefits of getting organized or staying disorganized, there is very little actual research on the bases or benefits of normal variations in individual preferences for a tidy or messy living space. Searching the literature, we could find no established measure of tidiness, therefore, we developed and tested our own measure of personal preferences for tidy living and workspaces. We defined tidiness as a reasonably concerted effort to keep an individual’s environment neat and orderly. In order to measure this construct, we developed the Tidiness Scale consisting of 32 items in which participants rated their personal levels of tidiness including their general rating of their own tidiness, their endorsement of specific behaviors, and how frequently they engage in these behaviors. We assessed the predictive validity of our measure by administering the survey to 27 college participants and then photographing their living spaces. The correlation between the photograph ratings and self-reported scores was r = .53. We then examined the relationship of our measure with other personality traits. We found tidiness positively correlated with conscientiousness, happiness, creativity, and life satisfaction. We found a negative correlation between tidiness and impulsivity.

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