Where Does All This Stuff Come From?

Every now and again I start a thread called “What’s on Your Desk?” And I’m always reassured that I’m not the only writer in the world with stacks of paper, weird stuffed animals and various other mysterious items like a small wooden board or two small boxes with printer ink.

Well today, for reasons that are not clear, I decided to clean off at least part of my desk. I shortly found myself muttering:

• What is all this stuff?
• Where does it come from?
• And if I’m not throwing it away, where the heck to I so I might be able to find it again?

Sure, papers can go in file folders, but where do I put the two extra return address labels I printed? Maybe on envelopes? That’s an idea… I usually know where my envelops are. And now that I’m almost out of business cards I can store the business cards I collect in the almost empty box. Of course, then I’ll have two boxes to keep track of.

Sometimes I think my problem is the tiny space I live and work in. There probably is some truth in that, but I also know that when I’ve lived in larger spaces, I had roughly the same problem.

I’ve talked with a couple of professional organizers, but I’ve noticed their spaces are far from pristine. Maybe the real problem is the photos in magazines… they rarely show offices as they really are – at least not one-person offices.

Sigh. There’s probably no permanent answer is there? I guess I just have to hope for small progress.

Write well and often,

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