Learning. Life.

I have a clutter monster living under my desk. While I’m away he collects books, mail, coffee cups, notes, pens … I come home to find my lovely desk full of clutter. I understand they can live under almost any flat surface. Do you have a clutter monster too?

After getting inspired by Unclutterer’s ”Workspace of the Week” I decided to tackle it. It turns out, some of the problem was my fault:

• I’d come home from work and dump my stuff on my desk (it’s right off our entryway, so very handy).
• I’d put mail on my desk to deal with later.
• If I didn’t know where to put something, I’d put it on my desk to deal with later.
• If I had to do something, I’d put it on my desk to remind me (I’m a stacker).

So I set a weekend aside to deal with it. I got a big pad of paper, a pen, a recycling bin, rubbish bin, and 2 laundry baskets (I’ll explain why soon). 

At the top of the paper I wrote “To Do”. 

I moved the chair out the way so I could get at my desk.

I cleared every piece of paper, junk, stationary, etc, etc off my desk. As I picked something up:

• If it was rubbish, it was thrown into the rubbish or recycling bin.
• If it was a reminder or old to-do list, I copied it onto the To-Do list, then threw it in the recycling bin. I did not stop and do the things then and there – I’d never have finished.
• If it belonged elsewhere in the house, it went in one laundry basket to be re-homed later.
• If I wanted to keep it, and it had a home, I put it in its home. If I had to do something with it – e.g. bills to pay – I put that on the To-Do list before putting it away.
• If I wanted to keep it, but didn’t know where to put it, it went in the other laundry basket.

This took about half a day, but when I was done it felt great – I now had a list of everything that needed to be done, and didn’t have nameless worries nagging at me any more.

I could now see my desk top clearly – yuk! I took everything off it and cleaned it thoroughly! I then picked up one item at a time, assessed whether I really wanted it on my desk, and if so, cleaned it and put it back.

As I looked at my clean, usable desk, I noticed the cable clutter for the first time. So my husband drilled a hole in the back of my desk, and I fed the cables through that. No more cables – yay!

Lastly, I created a launchpad on top of the drawers beside my desk – a place to leave keys, wallet, etc when I get home and to collect things to go with me the next day.

I put away the rubbish and recycling, rehomed the things from other parts of the house, and finally found homes for the unhomed items in the last laundry basket.

Fairly soon after this, strange things started to happen. If I was looking for something to do, I’d find myself sitting at my desk, because it was a nice place to be. I got out the house quicker, because I knew exactly where my keys were, and I found that it was actually easy to put things away when I’d finished with them, because they had homes. The clutter monster’s still there, but I keep it tamed with 2 minute hotspot clears.

I wish you luck with your own monster – it’s well worth the effort.