January 11th, 2021

What a mess!  My desk should be declared a disaster area.  I'm not sure what happened.  It used to be so tidy and now...well...it's completely out of control. Which means I have a big project ahead of me!  It took me awhile to figure out how to fix this.  But this is what I came up with.  

​First let's take a closer look at the players involved:

 This is my desk.  Well as you can clearly see it's also the back of the kitchen peninsula.  Which means it's right there where I'm cooking, baking, where we eat but also where I blog and work on my photo sites and compose emails etc.  It's probably where I spend the biggest part of my day.  And since it's open to the living room it's also where we might sit and talk, or read, or do puzzles or all sorts of other things.  So it behooves me to keep my area tidy.  I like tidy.  And right now it's really really REALLY not. And that is a problem.

The reason there are stacks of books on my "desk" is because I was fortunate enough to be gifted a good many books this past Christmas.  And these are the ones I haven't yet read.  I keep them separate from the ones I've already read just for my own convenience.  But there are also magazines I'm part way through, my camera because I never know when I might have an immediate need for one, countless notebooks for various reasons (grocery lists, blog post ideas, notes to self etc.) my calendar because everything I need to know about upcoming birthdays/anniversaries/appointments/etc is on there, and a paperweight because I like open windows which means breezes.  

Most of it can be dealt with easily but those books.  I absolutely must come up with a better system yes?  Well some of my new books are cookbooks (squeeeee!)  And I have an official place for cookbooks.  It's this little two shelf bookcase right there in the photo above.  As you can see, it's pretty full.  No change that to Very full.  My new cookbooks will not fit.  Dang.

And then there is this issue:

\This huge microsoft bag that sits on the floor next to the bookshelf, right in the way of my feet is filled with the stuff that normally would do in desk drawers.  Pens, pencils, paperclips, tape, note pads and staplers.  All of the stuff a regular office would need, I still need but have no place to put it.  So there is sits looking lumpy and dumpy and definitely in my way!  But there really is no other place for it.  Dang.

So as I was thinking this through it occurred to me that cookbooks are books after all.  Maybe I can just dedicate a shelf to them in one of our other book cases.  Yeah, no.  That's not going to happen.  While it's true that we do have two other books cases (and good sized ones too.  They go from the floor to near the ceiling)  they are full. Completely totally and entirely full.  Ratz.  Well the obvious solution there is to cull out the books.  Go through and decide, seriously decide, which books do I absolutely HAVE to keep.  Which ones will I read again.  Which books need to stay and which books can go.

So I prepared myself to be merciless.  I ruthlessly pulled books from the shelf and filled an entire large rubbermaid container that I will never in a million years be able to lift (so what was I thinking?) And this is what I was left with:

An entire rubbermaid box is now filled with books and it barely looks as if I've touched the bookshelves.  Sigh.  Clearly I have a lot more work to do.

Here is my plan.  I will get tougher, meaner, crueler and get rid of a LOT more books, donate them to Good Will most likely.  Then I can move the cookbooks to one (or more) of the the big shelves.  Which will leave the little two shelf bookcase by my desk empty (a wonderful thing!).  I will get little bins that fit on the shelves and put all of the "desk" contents on those bins.  And perhaps I will even have room leftover for things like notebooks and other desk top "stuff".

It's an ambitious plan people.  And Ii fully expect that tears will be shed as I do the sorting. 

I can get rid of clothes with no problem.  I can give away furniture without a glimmer of remorse.  Almost everything we own, while I like it very much, if it disappeared I would shrug and move on.  But my books?  That's a completely different story.  (no pun intended)  My books are like my friends, like family members.  When one of those is gone from your life, it leaves a hole.  boohoo ;(

BUT still my tidy genes demand satisfaction!  This Will Happen.  But it will take awhile.  Stay tuned.  When the project is complete, I will share new photos.  

​Wish me Luck!