In Ben’s Project for Moral Perfection, he listed the third principle, “Order” as possibly the hardest of men’s shortcomings to overcome or be perfect in. He defined it as “Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”

He worked on this character trait judiciously for all his life, but once compared it to shining an ax to be brilliant while turning it on a grinding wheel. This gave him more trouble than most of his other character traits in his program to achieve perfection.

The Collyer brothers had even more trouble with this attribute than even Ben. They came from a well-to-do Manhattan family and spent most of their lives in the family 3 story mansion. They became more hermitlike as they grew older.

The brothers died in 1947. And in order for the authorities to even find their dead bodies, they had to remove more than 100 tons of junk from the home. This junk included old newspapers, broken furniture, old phone books (what’s a phone book?), medical equipment, toys, and much, much more.

Did they have a place for everything, and everything it its place? Ben didn’t have that much of a problem—not even close. He was actually very orderly and organized.