There are two types of people in this world: neat freaks and slobs. You quickly find out which one you are when you enter college – where your mom can’t yell at you to clean your room.

In college, after being crammed in a small space with another person, you’d hope you would have everything in its place and be the perfect roommate. But suddenly, your perfect room is a disaster area of garbage and face-plants. Is it better to have everything in a certain place all the time and be completely paranoid about your room being clean?

For the neat freaks, it is nice to have everything in its spot, and actually be able to find things. It’s also easier to have guests over and not feel embarrassed that your room is messy. It could also be stressful – feeling your room must always be clean and make you that person who says, “Sorry about the mess,” when there isn’t actually a mess.

My fellow slobs on the other hand – ours isn’t the best system. Messes happen. As long as you can find whatever you’re looking for in your mess, it shouldn’t be a problem. It only becomes a problem when there’s week-old garbage lying around, but there’s nothing wrong with having every single binder on the floor because of some fierce Sunday night studying.

The world can function with these two in perfect harmony, until you place them into a college dorm together. Most of the time the neat roommate becomes the ‘mom’ of the dorm – trying to keep things clean while the slob just lets the mess be. Both people can learn from one another. The slob can learn to be a little more considerate of the shared space and limit their messes. The neat freak can learn that it’s okay to be a little messy sometimes, and not everything needs a spot 100 percent of the time.

You can probably take a guess on what my room looks like, and you’d be right. My room is a disaster 90 percent of the time. You learn a lot about yourself when you don’t have anyone there to yell at you to do things. I’ve learned that I’m a complete slob and I’m okay with that. Maybe one day I’ll get my act together and actually be clean for more than a day, but for now I’ll just try to keep my mess on my side.