Mess, clutter, untidiness, disarray, muddle, jumble – whatever you call it, some people live well in this environment and some people don’t. If you’re like me, you can tolerate a bit of untidiness at home, and more so if it’s your own, but if it is someone else’s that you live with, it’s much harder. I do prefer things neat and tidy, but I am also someone with a full life, so it’s not always easy to put things away immediately – especially if I know I’ll soon need them again, or if I want to be reminded to take the item somewhere with me.
Different things work for different people on how to manage this, but once upon a time I lived with someone who was very tidy and didn’t like ANY clutter. Compromise and communication are the key to a functioning relationship and we agreed that I could have a ‘put me away’ basket. If he found something of mine in a place it shouldn’t be, he could put it in the basket. That way, I would know that if it wasn’t where I left it, it would be in the basket. It worked because anything in the basket was deemed as ‘tidy’, and I wasn’t hunting for things that had disappeared from where I left them.
This could definitely work for teenagers too, and perhaps help many arguments. It probably won’t help with the ‘where’s my phone’ or ‘I’ve lost my keys’ exclamations though!