My office was getting disorganized. I had been working, working working, and with each new project, I did not have time to organize before starting the next. To make matters worse, my hutch that hovered over my desk, offering much needed storage, was bowing down; I had no choice but to remove the stored items from the hutch and throw away the warped MDF hutch.

With my clients happy with some deliverables for a moment, I took the second to straighten up my office. I typically like it organized, as I sometimes shoot webcam videos or do webcam meetings, so I consider the space a theatrical stage. (I also consider business clothes, as any clothes, to be a costume.)

Having my space a bit more cleared up feels better. I feel more in control, but the place is not completely as good as it has been. I am going to have to get rid of some things now that my hutch is gone. There simply is not enough room in my small house.

For instance, I am dogged by one Brother printer that I have lots of back up ink for, but only prints things right 1 of 10 times. I was set to throw it away until my everyday HP printer was out of ink, and the refill cartridges were going to take a week to ship in. It’s difficult to tell if I should throw away the printer, when I -could- need it again in a pinch. I mean… the scanning function still works too? My small office space is now gifted with 3 printers: the iffy Brother, the everyday HP, and my presentation/fine art Epson printer. Oddly enough, I often debate with myself if I need to fork out more money for a professional laser printer too.

Other things that burden me are for example, a lot of paper. It tends to be cheaper to buy paper in bulk, but then the “savings” is questionable when I can’t comfortably store it.  I also have small caches of exotic designer paper and paper samples for client presentations. 

I did kind of luck out and was relived of some decision making this summer when I discovered my diffuser that produces fog, had made fogs that was puddling in a corner of my shelf. The things in that shelf grew mold, so I had to through those things away.

It’s funny because when I go to someone else’s house, it is clear to see what is clutter and what is useful. It must be my emotional attachment that stops me.

If throwing away the obvious trash felt good, I hope sorting through and removing the less obvious unneeded items might help too.