What Your Stuff Says About You

I have been in hundreds of homes and offices in my capacity as a Professional Organizer, and over the years I have definitely learned how to size up people fairly well from their "stuff." Bookshelves in particular are a real window into a person's interests and beliefs, for example. And seeing a person's desk in its natural state tells me a lot about how their brain works. I know that this kind of insight has helped me tremendously in doing the best job I can for my clients.

So you can imagine how fun it was for me to stumble upon this book: SNOOP: What Your Stuff Says About You. (click here for the Kindle Edition) And even more fun was discovering that the author, Sam Gosling, is a professor at UT right here in Austin! I devoured his book, marked about 30 pages with sticky notes, and immediately asked him out for coffee.

Sam Gosling is like a modern Sherlock Holmes (or Encyclopedia Brown), with the ability to make many deductions and even predictions based on the evidence of stuff. The first chapter tells how he examined a Mystery Box containing a hairbrush, a CD of music, a photo of a sink, and a tube of skin cream… and correctly deduced that the owner was a gay Asian male.

Today the professor of Snoopology and I had a lot to discuss. Here are some highlights from our conversation and from the book:

• Sam analyzed Charlie Gibson's office for Good Morning America and found that his "aspired self" wanted to be organized, but he just couldn't seem to follow through with his intentions. We agreed there are three types of people who crave organization— those who implement it for their intrinsic need for order, those who organize because they are just extremely practical and can't stand to waste time (like me), and those like Charlie who truly understand the value of organizing and yet can't seem to get it done. (More on my previous post, "Form vs. Function: Which One Are You?")
• Some people are much more organized at work vs.at home (see my previous post, "Are You More Organized at Work Than at Home?"). Sam initially found this at odds with his behavioral psychology background, thinking a person just "is who they are" and demonstrates this personality at all times, but his research and experience bears out that people do really vary across contexts. We discussed how observation, accountability, and "payoff" are motivators for changing one's normal behavior.
• Can someone change what are innate personality traits? Fundamentally, no. Strong biological tendencies toward introversion, for example, mean that person will never be quite as comfortable at a party as an extrovert would. But that doesn't mean that someone can't apply strategies, coping mechanisms, and other support to create the behavior they truly desire. If someone is lower on what their research scale calls "Conscientiousness," they will have to put in more effort to be organized, but it absolutely can be done.
• There is an important distinction between a "TIDY" room and a "TIDIED" room! You really can't fake it to a true Snoopologist. Good organizing systems go deep, and five minutes of cleaning might look good on the surface, but it doesn't hold up upon further inspection.
• Sam's book says that inspirational posters in someone's office may betray that they are easily stressed and worry a lot. And notice whether someone's family photographs, awards, and other personal displays are pointing in the direction of their own viewpoint or the viewpoint of a visitor. What messages are this person trying to convey with the objects?
• What's the single biggest window into your soul? Perhaps your iPod "top 25 most played" list!

I hope this post does not decrease my chances of being invited over to anyone's house for dinner. People already are afraid I might see their closets. What useful things have you discovered in your own life about other people's stuff?  Share your stories in our comments!

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