Who Was Organizing My Cupboard?

Prof. Ramya Ranganathan’s take on the psychology of why we discount the work we never see

When I was in grade twelve, something very strange started happening in my room, and I genuinely could not explain it.

My cupboards, which had always been neat and organized for as long as I could remember, started getting messy, and my stuff was all over the place, and my bags were tumbling out, and my clothes (which had always sat perfectly in their racks) were slipping and falling and bunching up in ways that felt almost eerie to me. I remember going to my mother with the most innocent bewilderment and saying, “Something very weird is happening in my room, things are just falling out of place, everything is getting out of control, what is going on?” And I say this without exaggeration: it almost felt paranormal to me, like some invisible force had shifted in my home.