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Some people seem naturally tidy. Their keys are always in the same place, clothes make it into the wardrobe, and their kitchen bench remains mysteriously visible.

Others can clean the house on Sunday and wonder by Wednesday how everything became messy again.

It’s tempting to explain this as personality: “I’m just a messy person.” And there is some truth to that. But personality isn’t destiny. Our surroundings and the small things we repeatedly do within them matter too.

In fact, changing those patterns may eventually change something about the kind of person we are.

Are some people just naturally tidier?

Psychologists describe personality in terms of relatively enduring patterns in how people tend to think, feel and behave.

One of the “Big Five” personality traits is conscientiousness. It includes tendencies towards being industrious, self–controlled and orderly. So, someone higher in conscientiousness – particularly its orderliness aspects – may find keeping things organised easier.

But “relatively enduring” doesn’t mean personality is fixed.

Large studies following people over time show personality is both stable and changeable. For example, people tend to become more conscientious during different stages of adulthood, such as when they have children or new responsibilities.

So, saying “I’m a messy person” may describe a tendency. It doesn’t condemn you to a lifetime of losing your keys.

Messiness is something you repeatedly do

A messy room isn’t usually created by one great act of mess–making. It results from hundreds of tiny behaviours: leaving the cup on the desk, putting clothes on the chair, dropping the keys wherever is convenient, or deciding you’ll deal with the mail later.

Repeat those actions and they begin to look like a characteristic of the person doing them.

They can also become habits.

Habits develop when we repeatedly perform a behaviour in a recurring context. With repetition, features of that context can begin to prompt the behaviour automatically.

This helps explain why simply deciding to “be tidier” can fail. You return home with the same intentions, but also to the same environment that prompts the same old behaviours.

Change the environment, not just your intentions

Suppose you routinely arrive home and drop your keys on the nearest surface. You could keep reminding yourself to be more organised.

Or you could put a small bowl beside the door.

The bowl doesn’t just store your keys. It can prompt the behaviour you want. Repeatedly putting the keys there when you arrive home helps strengthen the association between the situation and that response.

The same principle applies elsewhere. Put the laundry basket where clothes actually come off. Give frequently used objects an obvious home. Put things you want to remember where you’ll encounter them at the moment you need to act.

In other words, don’t rely solely on motivation or memory. Arrange the environment to prompt the behaviour you want and make it easy to perform.

So if you act like a tidy person, do you become one?

This raises a more interesting question. What do we actually mean when we say someone is a tidy or messy person?

We usually imagine personality causes behaviour: a conscientious person behaves conscientiously.

But the relationship may also run in the other direction. Researchers have proposed that changing the behaviours through which a personality trait is expressed may, over time, contribute to changing the trait itself.

This doesn’t mean you can decide on Monday to have a different personality by Friday. Personality change is generally gradual. But it challenges the idea that we must first become an organised person before we can behave like one.

Perhaps consistently behaving in a more organised way is part of how we become more organised.

So, how do you become tidier?

Start by observing rather than judging. “I’m messy” doesn’t tell you what to change. Notice a recurring problem and the behaviour that produces it.

Then decide what you want to do instead. Make it specific: “When I take off my clothes, I’ll put them in the basket.”

Next, arrange your surroundings to prompt the new behaviour and make it easy. Put the basket where you actually get changed, or the key bowl beside the door.

It can also help to link the new behaviour to an existing routine: “When I make my morning coffee, I’ll deal with yesterday’s mail” or “When I turn on the television after dinner, I’ll spend five minutes putting things away before I sit down”.

Try the new routine, then review it. If it isn’t working, don’t conclude “I’m just a messy person”. Ask what got in the way and adjust the plan.

With repetition, the new behaviour may require less conscious effort and become part of your routine.

But do you actually need to become tidier?

Tidiness isn’t a measure of character, and perfection doesn’t need to be the goal. The more useful question is whether your environment is helping or hindering the life you want to lead.

If you routinely can’t find important things, miss bills, argue with people you live with, can’t use parts of your home, or find the clutter stressful, changing some habits may make life easier.

And if difficulties with organisation are causing significant distress or interfering with everyday life, it may be worth seeking professional help.

If clutter becomes so severe that rooms can’t be used for their intended purpose, or getting rid of possessions causes intense distress, that’s different from ordinary messiness. Hoarding disorder is a recognised mental health condition, and professional help is available.

Otherwise, you don’t need a personality transplant.

You may always be less naturally orderly than someone else. But arrange your environment to prompt the behaviours you want, establish routines that support them, and repeat them often enough, and those behaviours can become habits.

Trevor Mazzucchelli is a registered psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia, with endorsement in clinical psychology, and is a member of the Australian Psychological Society and a Fellow of the APS College of Clinical Psychologists. He has received research funding from the Australian Research Council and the National Health and Medical Research Council. He does not endorse any specific program, product, or organisation in this article.