You build a pile of rocks, and it collapses because it was a bit unbalanced. The way the rocks end up on the ground may appear to be random. But a mathematician would tell you there’s an underlying natural order at work here – something that can be replicated, and explained, by "chaos theory."

Chaos theory is an attempt by scientists to understand why it’s difficult to predict the way dynamical systems (systems that change over time) will turn out. And why, when you try to impose a particular organization upon a dynamical system that is inconsistent with its underlying nature, it just doesn’t work.

Chaos theory has been applied to everything from the weather to music to psychology to the stock market. Today, I’m going to show you how to take advantage of it to efficiently organize the things you use every day.

Let’s start with your closet. Logic suggests that you should hang like things together. All shirts together. All slacks together. All jackets together… and so on. So that’s what you do. And what happens? Slowly but surely, order turns to chaos.

But wait. When you look closely, you see that the jumble that has evolved in your closet is not random. In fact, it makes sense in a very practical way. The clothes you wear most often have gravitated to the front. Tops and bottoms that you like to wear together are hanging next to or near each other. And the rest of your wardrobe has mysteriously disappeared into dark corners.

Now, on to the kitchen. Your spices are carefully arranged in a cabinet, maybe even alphabetically. Your oils and vinegars are grouped together in the pantry. Condiments – mustards, ketchup, mayonnaise, barbecue sauce, etc. – occupy the same shelf in the refrigerator. Pots and pans, dishes, utensils – all neatly organized. How long does that last? Not very. But again, your favorites – the ones you use most – wind up in the most convenient spots.

Same thing happens with your reference books, your CDs, and your medicine cabinet. And that’s a good thing.

The idea is to allow the way things get used to dictate where they go.

I’ve been told that when a college campus or medical complex is being laid out these days, the designers wait until it’s been built before deciding where to put the sidewalks. Then they follow the pathways made by people walking between buildings. When they did it the other way around – putting the sidewalks where they thought they would function (and look) best – people made pathways in the grass anyway.

The trick is not to get hung up on aesthetics. Your closets, kitchen cabinets, bookcases, etc. may look like a mess, but who cares? How many people besides you ever see them?

So fight the urge to tidy things up and put them where they "belong," and you’ll end up with the most efficient way to organize your stuff. As a bonus, when the time comes to have a yard sale or put together a bundle to donate, everything you know you really should get rid of will be right there – neatly collected in the back of your closets and the deep recesses of your cabinets and shelves.

I recently watched a disturbingly warm and fuzzy Oprah show. One of Oprah’s cohorts, Nate Berkus, had been directed to take a schlocky tract house in Seattle and turn it into a "dream home" for an admittedly lovely family. Were they deserving of such largess? I don’t know. I’m guessing Habitat for Humanity chooses the recipients of their good works without so much concern about how camera-friendly they might be.

Nate worked his magic with a lot of help from Pottery Barn and funding by several corporate sponsors. (Can you say "product placement"?) And it was magical.

Ooh, Ahh. No question. The results were spectacular! The modest 1,400-square-foot house had been gutted and pretty much rebuilt from the ground up. A second floor – a snazzy master suite – was added, doubling the living space. And the kids got their very own playhouse in the backyard. Brand-new furniture. Brand-new, top-of-the line appliances. Nate even had a buddy fly in from Australia to completely re-do the landscaping.

And Nate did it all in 15 days. (With no mention made of how many people were on his building and design "team." You can imagine.)

The family was dazzled. And I’m sure most of Oprah’s viewers were as well. But I was appalled.

Is this a home?

In these pages, Michael Masterson has said, "I have lived in a mud hut in Africa and a 5,000-square-foot mansion – and I can tell you this: The quality of a home has very little to do with how much it costs or how big it is. Think about the houses you most admire. They are probably NOT huge and flashy."

Michael went on to say, "One of my favorites is a modest three-bedroom in Cleveland which has been transformed by the lady who owns it into a luxurious museum of her love of travel, dance, and learning. Every room is a gem. I am completely comfortable and endlessly amused in this rich and interesting home."

Isn’t that what you want your home to be? A sanctuary made up of things you put together yourself. Choose. Collect. Oprah/Nate’s presentation was beautiful – but so impersonal.

You don’t want to feel like a guest in your home, you want to feel like it’s yours.

How are you making that happen? How are you building your dream house?

Tell us in the Comments section on the ETR website.

Airport security wasn’t always as tight as it is today – and that extended to the airlines’ VIP lounges. When I was a senior in high school, a small group of us discovered Delta’s Crown Room at O’Hare Airport. And every now and then, we would smile our way in to enjoy a free night out. Comfy chairs. Snacks and drinks. A big-screen (for the time) TV. And excellent people-watching opportunities.

It felt a little like being a guest at a rich uncle’s private club.

There are plenty of well-publicized ways to have a good time without spending any money. Strolling through street fairs. Browsing in bookstores and libraries. Listening to free concerts. But it’s the stuff you stumble across almost by accident that gives the most pleasure. The 99-cent breakfast special I took advantage of all summer long at a Florida beachfront cafe. (Okay. So it was served on a paper plate with a plastic fork. Who cares?) Hanging over the fence to watch polo ponies being exercised. Free preview performances by a semi-professional neighborhood drama club.

The fact that things like this cost nothing – or almost nothing – only adds to the enjoyment. But the real thrill is that most people don’t know about them, making you feel like a member of an elite “in” crowd.

I’ll bet you’ve had some “cheap thrills” of your own. Things you’ve found by word of mouth… or by checking out bulletin boards at local coffee shops… or just by being in the right place at the right time. And maybe you’d like to share one of your inside secrets with your fellow ETR readers – give them an idea to help them save money while doing something that most people would never even think of.

Great! Do it! Share with all of us in the comments section on our website. And when you do, you might want to stick around for a few extra minutes to see if you can pick up some new ideas yourself.

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Being totally self-reliant, able to fend for yourself – it’s an appealing idea, one that’s been romanticized in literature and the movies.

Think Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe’s adventure about a man shipwrecked on a desert island for 28 years. And Walden  - Henry David Thoreau’s account of his two-year “experiment” in simple living. And Cast Away – with Tom Hanks as a too-busy executive suddenly marooned for four years after his plane goes down during a business trip.

I’m not the build-a-cabin-with-your-bare-hands, grow-your-own-food, cook-over-a-wood-stove type. Still, I’d like to think I could make do without modern conveniences.

No, wait. I don’t have to think I could do it, I know I can do it.

In 2004, two hurricanes (Frances and Jeanne) scored a direct hit on my hometown. For more than a week after each one, my neighborhood had no electricity, no hot water, and sometimes no water at all. But I was fine.

With the help of a couple of ice chests and a manual can opener, I fed myself and my dog. Cold showers – unpleasant, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. A plug-in phone and a portable radio connected me to the outside world. And a neighbor ran an extension cord between his generator and my computer so I could get my work done.

It was a challenge for people who had young children that needed to be kept busy all day long. I had a different challenge… because there were an awful lot of unexpected hours I had to fill by myself.

Gas stations weren’t pumping gas, and there was debris all over the streets, which made driving anywhere a risky proposition. So I was pretty much stuck in the house. Much to my surprise, I didn’t mind at all.

What would you do if you were stuck in the house for days on end with no electricity? I’m guessing you’d do what I did – things you love to do but never seem to have enough time for.

While it was still light out, I went for walks and visited with neighbors. I sketched. I painted. When it got dark, I read by the light of a Coleman lantern. I did a little writing. And when the electricity finally came back on, it was like coming home after a good vacation. I felt rested and rejuvenated.

Maybe more important, I was inspired to find the time to do more of the things that had been giving me so much pleasure – things that we all know are necessary for leading a well-balanced life… and making life a little richer.

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I picked up the phone and Miss Blake, the school nurse, was on the line. “Mrs. Strauss,” she said, “I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but your daughter fell on the playground and hit her head.”

“Where is she? Is she in your office? Should I come and get her?”

“Oh, no. Oh, no. I’m sorry… she’s gone.”

It was a heart-stopping moment. And though it happened decades ago, I’ll never forget the way I felt. Did I hear what I thought I heard?

“Gone?” I repeated.

“Yes, she’s gone. She’s fine. She went back to class.”

She’s fine! Well, why didn’t Miss Blake say that up front?

What can we learn from this?

Being able to speak well is a basic communication skill. Along with being able to write well, as Michael Masterson has said many times, it’s necessary for success in business.

Choosing your words carefully is especially important if you’re giving information over the phone. In person, you can judge the effect your words are having. And if, for example, you see a look of panic in the other person’s eyes when you say something like “She’s gone,” you can quickly adjust and explain what you meant. But you can’t do that if you’re not face to face.

So think before you pick up the phone. And even if you’re shunted onto voice mail, you can be sure your intended message will come across.

[Ed. Note: One of the best ways to improve your speaking is by understanding more about the words you choose. The bigger your vocabulary, the easier it is to choose the most appropriate word for any situation. With ETR's Words to the Wise CD Library, you can add 120 new words to your personal lexicon. Learn more here.]

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"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and… speak a few reasonable words." If you’re a longtime reader of ETR, you know that Michael Masterson has referred to this quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe several times.

It’s a reminder that there’s more to life than money. That, to be an interesting, well-rounded person, you have to spend time building the "personal you" as well as your bank account.

"Okay," you might be saying, "I can listen to a little good music every day. I can make it a point to look at something that’s visually appealing (though maybe not a painting). And I can at least try to have a challenging or entertaining conversation. But when it comes to reading poetry… I’d rather skip that one."

Let me try to change your mind by showing you how easy it is to read – and enjoy – a good poem. And by "good," I mean a poem that (like a good book) you get more out of every time you read it.

• Get yourself a collection of poetry – maybe something with "Best" in the title. Flip through and find a short poem to start with. Like this one by Langston Hughes:

A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore -

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over -

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

• Read it out loud, without trying to figure out what it means. And don’t stop at the end of a line. Let the punctuation show you where to pause.
• Read it again… looking for patterns. Then read it again, feeling the rhythm. And read it again, focusing on how the strong images are reflected in the sound of the words used to describe them. And read it again, this time thinking about what it means.

By now, I’ll bet you’ve got this poem memorized. (It’s easy to memorize good poetry.) And I’ll bet you won’t forget it either.

That wasn’t hard, was it? And don’t you feel just a little bit wiser?

A poem a day. Try it.

[Ed. Note: Improving your personal self should be one of your primary goals every year. And it can be as simple as reading a poem a day. Learn how to accomplish all your goals - personal, social, business, and financial - with ETR's Total Success Achievement program. Get the details here.]