Shambles means a state of total disorder or chaos. When your bedroom is such a mess that you can't find anything and there's barely room to walk, it's a shambles. When a school play falls apart because actors forget their lines, props go missing, and the curtain won't close, the performance becomes a shambles.

The word suggests more than ordinary messiness: it describes situations where things have completely fallen apart. A slightly disorganized desk isn't a shambles, but a classroom after an art project explosion, with paint spilled, papers scattered everywhere, and supplies dumped across every surface, definitely qualifies. When someone says their plans are in shambles, they mean everything went wrong and nothing turned out as intended.

Today we use it broadly: a shambles is any situation where disorder reigns and organization has broken down.