Great vlog as always @missjenny. To answer your query, I think there are different modes of creativity that can be expressed through one's work/space organization, or lack thereof as the case may be. Leaving apart the obsessive-compulsive hyper organized and the hopelessly chaotic - both of whom represent special cases of either extreme genius or paralyzing inefficiency - I would guess that most people exist somewhere on a continuum between 2 spectral endpoints: logically structured to freeform entropy. One’s position on this scale is usually dictated by their personal creative process whereby those with a more methodical approach prefer a structured environment and those who undertake creativity from a serendipitous, inspiration driven mindset operate comfortably in less orderly surroundings. Creativity takes many forms as does the tidiness of people's desks. I don't believe that messiness in and of itself is an indicator of creative prowess. As for kitsch, while it is hard to beat your Hello Kitty toaster note pad dispenser, people of all creative stripes have their share of amusing objects, but those tend to define personality in general as opposed to creativity exclusively. And for the record, I am marginally structured with a preference for beer-related paraphernalia, none of which shoots paper unfortunately.

I do see a connection between the state of a person's desk and a person's mind. Creativity requires focus, and I could not imagine being able to focus if I lived and worked in a mess. Cleaning up can be mundane, but if you let it go too far, you have real problems. If anyone is interested, I just wrote a couple of article examining this topic in detail: cleverlikeafox.com/.../ and cleverlikeafox.com/.../

I disagree that creativty requires focus.It's really quite the opposite. In order to discover new posibilties and advance in knowledge you need to be able to look at a subject under a differing mind set and relate it to other seemingly unrelated subject matter (this is creativity). by simply focusing on a single subject you can only increase you knowledge of that one subject. but by viewing the subject under a less precise light you my be able to establish connections between other subjects that are seemingly unrelated under intense focus and thus learn more about the nature of that subject.

Jenny, I enjoyed your thought-provoking question. I too am a creative messy desk person, and have pondered this question for at least 10 minutes over the years. I did not see anyone actually address another possible explanation for this phenomenon- what about the possibility that maintaining a messy workspace actually fosters creative thinking??!! A chicken or the egg question now, eh? What if people who are very neat and organized but rigid thinkers could free up their creative side by allowing things to pile up and accumulate? Maybe the challenge of dealing with the mess forces a use of creative problem-solving that in turn leads to a state of genius? What do you think?