As my official Project of the Month, I’m getting my side of the office spruced up and decked out.
You may recall that David is pretty compulsive about keeping his desk clear…
… while my desk has historically looked like this:
I sold that big desk on Craigslist a few weeks back and have a more reasonable-sized desk-and-hutch combo now, but the look was basically the same: a landing strip for piles with no open space to get anything accomplished.
I started by clearing every last little thing out of there and piling it neatly in the hallway upstairs. I was shocked – shocked! – by how many little things had wandered in and taken up residence on the flat surfaces of that very small room. Boxes and tubs of electrical cords and accessories. More boxes and tubs of office supplies. Even MORE boxes and tubs of random small things that had no homes. A quill and an ink bottle. An ocarina. Bookmarks from several foreign countries. A stockpile of Hudson Taylor CDs. Every Girl Scout badge and pin and doodad I have.
The hallway and upstairs landing are currently a disaster (and I thank David for his endless patience with my methods). But the office is looking amazing, and – even better – things are not coming in unless they have a place to go. No room? No home? No entry.
The goal is to make the office bright and attractive so that I actually want to work there. Having a computer on my desk (and space to use it) and my files all around me, I should be able to increase my productivity 1000%. That won’t be hard; I haven’t been very productive in the paperwork realm since we came back from Europe. I got out of my lifelong OCD habits while we were gone and truly could not seem to get back in the groove.
Until now. (Dum dum duuuuuummmm…) I’m hoping that by this time next week, I’ll be off and running. Organized papers, organized office, organized life – here I come.
