Messy Desk

Periodically I clean off some of the surface area of my desk - which is really a table rather than a classical desk with drawers for folders. I try to keep ‘files’ electronically rather than in paper these days but there seems to always be little pieces of paper around and ay cleared area gets covered over relatively quickly. Sometimes I feel guilty that the desk is always messy. More often I tell myself that I, deep down, must like it just this way - not loaded down with tall piles of stuff but covered with items that make it mine. It is very much like making a house into a home.

I have a low bookcase whose top surface is filled with a tissue box, hand lotion, and ceramic mugs filled with pencils, letter openers, emery boards and scissors. These days the scissors and emery boards are the most popular items. The surface never gets cleaned off. There are stacks of papers with directions to volunteer activities that I printed out. I printed the pages to take with me to the car…to get the address into the navigation system…and then they become a record of the activity. I’m not sure why I don’t just carry them around on the Kindle rather than printing the papers. It would clear off that corner of the table. I also have a lot of small pads of paper. I make quick notes while I work at my computer and I’ve noticed that the small papers dominate the recycle bag from my office (and it takes a long time to fill a small bag to take down to recycle bin).

On the other side of my laptop - the side I cleared off most recently - is my new project: the microscope. There is some unrelated flotsam already around it - a coupon cut out to be taken down to the pile for the next grocery shopping, a washcloth that was used for a napkin and a blank book that needs to go someplace else.

Closer to the laptop is a tea tin used for cables when I travel, a collection of green paperclips, and a stack of coasters. I’ve recently added a ball that I used for grip exercises while I read news feeds.

Yes - this messy desk is uniquely mine!