Piling up Post-It notes

I'm not what you might call a (how do you say?) "neat freak." \nI think a better way to describe myself is whatever the opposite of a "neat freak" is. I hate to use the words "total slob" when referring to myself, but someone who doesn't know me might have trouble thinking of anything else to say after seeing my room. Then again, if people who don't know me are seeing my room, that probably means I need to install new locks on my doors. But, yes, I admit it. When it comes to my living conditions, I tend to employ a philosophy of laissez faire. I'm know I'm not alone in this. Everyone, at some point in their lives, has used the "smell test" to see if an item of clothing is suitable for wear.\nThere is, however, a method to the madness. I use the "pile system." Books, papers, clothes and just about anything capable of being stacked is organized, mostly by date and not type, into a pile. When a pile starts to teeter perilously, a new one is started. Thanks to that system, I can retrieve just about any piece of paper within a couple minutes and usually without having to dig through the trash can. Usually. Need to find that syllabus for a history class? Look under that issue of Time! Where's that insurance bill I'm supposed to pay? I think I saw it next to that blue Old Navy t-shirt! The pile system, as you might suspect, has its drawbacks, evidenced by the fact that I have four staplers, three flashlights and no fewer than five pads of Post-It Notes. Almost every time I go to Target, I walk by the school supply aisle and say, "Hey, Post-It Notes! Those would be a great thing to have in my room!" After that, I can't really say what happens to them.\nAfter maybe a month or two of letting the piles accumulate so high I can't walk from my door to my bed without pulling a hammie, I'll clean house. Doing this almost invariably explains certain offensive odors and reminds me why I should not eat in my room. Not only that, it reminds me that I really shouldn't eat such perishable foods in there. Most cleaning sessions end up unearthing foods that have more culture than a United Nations potluck dinner. After a thorough cleaning, I'll make an effort to keep my room tidy for five to seven days until the piles, like the swallows of Capistrano, return.\nI'm not really a sloppy person. In 22 years I've never had a cavity. I don't dog-ear the pages of my books because it just irks me. Not that I use it, but I have dental floss in my medicine cabinet. I guess I've just been lucky with the cavity thing. For the life of me, though, I can't keep my bedroom clean. I think the problem is that I tend to not throw things away. Unfortunately it's not because I'm a packrat or overly sentimental. I just took a quick scan of my room and I see a wrapper from an Andes mint, two grocery receipts (just in case I have buyer's remorse with those Wheat Thins?) and some AA batteries that I'm pretty sure are dead. I just don't throw stuff away. Lazy? You bet. Sometimes I wish things were different and that I made more of an effort to keep my room clean, but then I realize that would take away from my time playing video games, and, frankly, I'd rather live with the mess.