Tidying the Desk

We cleaned the apartment last weekend, trying to drive a stake through the heart of the debris that had accumulated through the rolling hell that was the month of March. I took this snapshot of my desk prior to tidying it up, capturing the accumulated mass of bags, stacked notebooks, and paperwork that hadn’t been processed.

I have a process for cleaning my desk these days–drawn, unsurprisingly, from a quick YouTube bit Marie Kondo put together for a UK magazine back when her book came out. It runs through a five step process:

1. Take a moment to refocus on what the space is used for, and how I’d like it to be used.
2. Pull everything off and group them into Notebooks, Papers, Misc Stationary, and Sentimental Things (Anything that doesn’t fit into those four categories probably doesn’t belong on my desk)
3. Keep the things that help me ‘spark joy,’ which in this context means ‘do my job better’ as much as ‘makes me happy.’ Although I feel free reign to be specific about pens in this context.
4. Discard the stuff that no longer has a place.
5. Put things in an order and store vertically where possible–all my laptops/tablets now get stored in an old magazine file, while all my notebooks sit upright in a decorated box that makes them easily accessible.

I have this process written down in my bullet journal, tucked away on page 60. When this journal is done, they’ll be transferred to a notecard and tucked into a desk draw, so they’re always really accessible.

Because the biggest point in hesitation after shit, I should tidy my desk is figuring out what the first step is. And having a documented process means I can start without having to answer that question–the first step is checking the process list and doing the first thing on it.

For things like a desk, where cleaning often means making dozens of small decisions about what to do with paperwork or things that have not yet found a permanent home, cutting down on the basic decisions makes it way easier to get started.