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I work from two desks (doubling the insanity.) One is my home office just off our kitchen, the other is in our bedroom.
Both wind up piled high with bills, junk mail, seed packets, birthday cards, rebate offers, more seed packets, health insurance stuff, tax receipts, DD's "artwork" from school, DS's semester grades (they don't have to be signed and returned, but I *do* have to fax them to our insurance company for a good student discount); newspaper clippings, bits of paper with passwords or phone messages scribbled on them...
Well, you get the picture. It's beyond ugly.
In a cleaning fit this week, I cleared off one desk, sorted out the throw-away stuff (nearly filled a 13-gallon trash bag), sorted out the to-be-filed items versus the to-be-acted-upon items and the desk now looks almost normal.
I will do the same to the other desk today, Lord willing.
But how do I keep it from returning to this messy status quo? I know I should go through the daily mail and pitch the junk mail. But I don't. I know my seeds belong in my seedbox. But sometimes they wind up elsewhere. Sigh.
I am a fairly organized person in other aspects of my lfe: I know what's in my pantry, fridge and freezer at all times - rarely do we run out of milk, toilet paper, soap, lightbulbs or other household necessities. Bills get paid on time (usually!) DD gets to school and practices on time every day. All activities are posted on a family calendar, and I have (somewhat organized) files for seed catalogs and spaces for my reference books (since I refer to them very regularly.)
But my desk(s)...argh. They are my downfall. Anyone else have this frustration? (Or successful tips and hints to counteract the clutter that seems to gravitate towards these surfaces?)
"A neat desk isthe sign of a sick mind" or at least that's what I need to tell myself. At work and at home I tend to work in "layers" and seldom see my desktop.
Maybe a rolltop so you can just roll it shut and forget it!! Just be sure to tuck in all the stragglers so it looks neat!
mwhit, my other desk *IS* a rolltop (can you hear me wailing and laughing at the same time????) I cleaned it off first - it was piled so high, I couldn't have rolled down the top if someone had held a gun to my head and told me to get it closed. Argh!!!! At least now it's cleaned off - for now.
And I did go through the second desk as well - all the bills are scheduled for payment (thank goodness for online checking!), insurance EOBs and medical bills paired up and ready to file against our flex account, the only thing left is to send off a couple magazine subscriptions that are about to expire.
And I'm really going to try to make a concerted effort to only put stuff on either desk that belongs there (no junk mail, no extra envelopes, etc.) I'm afriad that as sure as the sun rises in the East, these two desks will soon be back to where they were ;o)
Terry I just saw this thread and had to chime in here a bit. I 'm thankful for my wife who does the same things you do . I would be in trouble without her standing up to the plate and taking care of these never ending chores for us. She does an amazing job remembering everything important in our lives especially important dates and times and all that goes on with our children. We both have" to do" lists but hers stays the course getting longer each day as she struggles to get things marked off little by little. My lists become, misplaced, restarted, outdated(never got done), or are lists that have nothing to do with survival in this world but instead have to do with bird I.D. lists, tree spray schedules, air filter change dates,Eagle Days, you know...that kind of" irrelevent"stuff.
Problems arise when we discuss the ongoing management of this collection of stuff I'll call clutter(junk). With all my forgetfulness and shortcomings trying to organize and get all those things done that she does at work, at home, and with the kids, I inadvertently screw up. Here's how. This is hard to talk about... but... I am a recovering neat freak( I hate a messy, dirty, needs to be cleaned house!) who likes a place for everything. I make the tragic mistake of cleaning, disinfecting, scrubbing, and lastly moving and straightening up everything.When I move and straighten up things then she can't find things that she had memorized exactly as being in a particuliar pile or cluttered spot! We have learned to give and take on this clutter problem over our years of marriage.
Here's what we(I) have learned. Lighten up a lot on your cleaning and straightening of the house and remember...Don't touch or move anything that appears cluttered!!!!!!!! Cuckoo and cluttered,
