My office is a mess

[pegkerr]

and it's driving me mad. I recently bought some furniture from my law firm. Since we were moving offices, they sold a lot of stuff, and I got a new office chair, new bookcases to replace the old ratty ones I have, and a new file cabinet, much bigger than my old one.

However, putting all the new stuff in and getting all the old stuff out is complicated.

My old bookcase held books, yes, but it also had a whole lot of computer stuff on it. I don't want to put all that junk on my new bookcases. "Why?" Rob wants to know, perplexed. "You had it stacked up on your old bookcase. It never bothered you before." He just doesn't get it, but it did bother me. Now that I have the chance to make a fresh start, I don't want to mess up my new lovely dark wood bookcase with messy computer debris. I just don't.

So where else should it go? Disks, software boxes, bits and pieces that Rob has pulled out of our computers over the years, zip files, manuals--lord, I don't know what to do with it. I have no idea, I just want it OUT OF MY OFFICE. But since I don't know where to put it, it sits in the middle of the floor in a heap. Along with the old file cabinet, which we haven't yet decided where to put. My office as a result is such a disaster that I don't even have space to exercise.

This is making me terribly cranky.

It'll be lovely when I figure this out and have everything put away. But I fear it will take me a very long time to get there, and there will be a lot of wear and tear on my relationship with Rob in the meantime, because he hates to get rid of ANYTHING, and since he's the computer expert and I'm not, I don't know if, in fact, we need these various bits of computer guts, software manuals, etc., or not. So: we resort to the untidy pile in middle of the floor. And squabbling about it.

Argh.

Comments

[slightlights.livejournal.com]

Lots and lots of sympathy from here; we've been known to get stalled at Casa Slightlights the same way. Suggestion: paper grocery sacks (and/or inexpensive/free cardboard boxes, poss. from the grocery store): they may not be pretty, but maybe they're prettier than a heap. Have an attic and/or basement? Of course, then there's the 'out of sight, out of mind, it just piles up and is never seen again' problem...

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

Get thee to an office-supply purveyor or Target. Inevitably, some vendor of that ilk will have a caster-wheeled 3-or-more-drawered little chest. And/or that little thingie that's a cross between a milk carton and a hanging-file frame. These little gadgets go on sale ALL the time.

Also, try reading Julie Morgenstern's _Organizing From the Inside Out_. (Note: It's a Bad Sign when, instead of organizing, one collects *books* about organizing. I think I could fill one whole shelf... if I could find them all, that is. Sadly, this has not been exaggerated for comic effect. Just ask sicklemoon... she's attempted to set me straight!)

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

Yes; I was going to recommend this same book. It's the best thing I've ever read on the subject of organizing and selecting your stuff in a way that's useful for you. It's inspired me to make some actual progress in organizing my own stuff.

- Laramie

Two cents, if you want them

[wintercreek]

As one who does office cleaning/organization for a vacation job, here's my advice (unsolicited, but oh well):

• if you can stand it, shelve the manuals on your bookshelf. Perhaps put them on the bottom shelf? To organize, sort into hardware and software piles, then alphabetize within the pile.


• do you have a CD burner? If so, take all the floppy and zip disks and empty them on to your harddrive, organize into folders (be as specific as you need to be; for example: /finance/JanJun2003/ or /TheWildSwans/chapter1/ ) and then see how many of the top tier categories will fit on to a CD. Burn everything to CDs, which will take up much less space and be visually neater to store. Label each CD; also, open the CD in My Computer and print out the screen (I'm sure Rob knows how). Fold up the printed-out screen and put it in the CD jewel case.


• go to K-mart, Walmart or whatever you have in your area and get a clear plastic storage tub. Be sure it's one with handles that fasten securely. Fill with computer parts and consign to garage/attic/whathaveyou. If you have computer cables lying around, coil them up and store in plastic bags before dumping in box.

And that's my completely unsolicited advice. I've been cleaning offices in my college breaks for about three years now, so it's almost a compulsion. *grin* As for Rob, tell him that floppies and zips are going to be obsolete soon and you want to preserve the files (I'm sure he knows this already, but it doesn't hurt to have justification). As for the other things, it's not good for computer parts to be sitting around getting dusty and it's not good for books not to be shelved properly.

Please tell me if I should mind my own business or offer more advice. I really just can't help myself when office clutter comes up.

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Something that has been known to help and hurt, so take with a grain of salt...

Do you have a friend who DOES know about computers, and appreciates your point of view, who could have a civil discussion with Rob about sorting out to keep the stuff that's actually /useful/?

[louisedunn.livejournal.com]

I have *so* been there. My partner is a pack rat and now that I'm working from home and setting my own deadlines, I can't function in a space full of distracting clutter. So we've had any number of tense conversations that end with me saying, "I don't care. I just don't ever want to see these things again." (they usually start with me saying, "throw it away!")

I second the recommendation for Organizing From the Inside Out -- I look at my decluttering tasks differently since I read it.

If you can spare the space, devoting the bottom shelf or so of the bookcase to pretty boxes holding the things he's not yet ready to get rid of might be a compromise, as long as they don't live there on your bookcase forever -- or if you don't care that they're there, once they're corralled in something opaque and non-ugly. I bought four shiny chrome boxes that stacked one on top of the other and were just as long as my bookcase shelves were deep. They held clutter until I could convince whoever owned it to get it the heck out of my space.

Space of one's very own is important. Virginia Woolf said it and so did my therapist. :) And it seems that women especially have trouble carving out that space. When I was working a 9-to-5 job I was either sharing an office with another engineer or I was in a cubicle. I share my bedroom with my partner and my worktable and darkroom with my ex-girlfriend and lately people have started encroaching on my desk because they like to use my computer. And with the exception of my partner, they all say things that imply I'm *selfish* when I don't want to share my space with them. But, again with the exception of my partner, all the people who are encroaching on the spaces I consider mine have their very own bedrooms that they don't share with anybody and some of them have their own offices at work, too.

Perhaps I shall ask them, next time they complain that I'm a control freak for not wanting them cluttering up my personal space, if they'll let me clutter up their bedrooms?

[papersky.livejournal.com]

One of those plastic containers with a lid, like a huge tupperware, they cost about $5 and you can get them in Argos and Canadian Tire and they have to sell them in the US. Put it all inside one of those, or more than one if you have to, they stack, and then you have one neat sealed thing which can either go in a corner under the desk or in the garage/attic or under your bed but anyway away.

Oh, and just do it. You're not throwing anything out, you're turning a pile of crap into a neat object, if he needs something, the pile is still there inside.

"If you're going to keep a pile of mess put it into something tidy and close it" is advice given to me by fellow-writer llygoden who got it from a book on decluttering, and it's served me very well.

[siriologist.livejournal.com]

I was thinking, put the old computer stuff in the old file cabinet and then take the whole thing to the basement, garage, attic, whatever...but the others have given you great advice. I love those tubs. I could buy a thousand of them and then maybe I'd be organized. Does the office have a closet? Maybe you could stash the old file cabinet in there? I hate having to organize, but always feel so much better once its done.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Peg, just throw the stuff away. Don't sort it. Don't ask permission. Just throw it away. It's your stuff. It's your office. It's garbage anyway.

Why isn't this simpler? (Yeah, yeah. I know.)

B