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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Beth Knights

I’ve always been a messy person. The situation was grim – but could I really change?

Illustration of a woman sitting in a messy bedroom looking sad.
‘Good thing I can take a wee nap and postpone the life-changing spring clean for another day’ … Beth Knights on being a messy person. Photograph: Anna Kondratenko/Getty Images/iStockphoto

One star-crossed night some years back, a dashing young man found an excuse to visit my home. As I am the messiest person I know, impromptu visitors are almost always unwelcome. Generally, I manage my dirty little secret by attempting to confine my chaos to one area: my bedroom. Being single for much of my life helped. (Or did the state of my bedroom help keep me single?)

Just back from a festival, said interloper popped past to borrow some such thing. By the time I realised my good fortune, it was too late to “pretend tidy” by stuffing the wardrobes with the contents of my floor. I refused us entry to my room so many times, he became suspicious I was hiding a body in there.

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