I cleaned my desk tonight. That seems like an innocuous little phrase, but if you’d seen it before I started, you would know what kind of feat I faced tonight. You see, I’m a stacker. And even to say it like that doesn’t give credit for how my desk normally looks because I’m the queen of the sliding stack. No flat surface is safe around me. My 8-year-old has inherited this disease and I got frustrated with her this morning for the way her desk looked, as if it were so much worse than my own. Once I remembered the state of my own desk, I was forced to apologize, though I should have apologized anyway, but I digress.
Tonight I took everything off of it and everything out of each drawer. It all got dumped on the kitchen table. My desk looked great and everyone said so as they walked by it – then they turned around and offered a moment of silence before the kitchen table which held the office equivalent of Mt. Everest.
To shorten my long boring story, both my desk and the kitchen table are presentable right now. My goal for the evening was to get my desk put back together and to have the table breakfastable before I went to bed. Mission accomplished.
So now that I’m actually able to sit here with my laptop plugged in and sitting level on the wood and not at a slant (I’m not kidding – I’m usually typing here on a serious slant), I’m looking around and thinking, “Now what?” It seems so anticlimactic to just go to bed when I have this freshly cleaned off desk (and table) just waiting for something. A stack, perhaps?
Craig said I should have taken a picture before I started and I said, “No worries. I can always take one next week when it returns to business as usual.” It’s not that I want it to, nor that I’ve got one ounce of pride in my problem. It just happens and I can’t help it. The stack elves think I like it that way and they seem to surprise me overnight.
So for now, for this one moment in time, I just want to sit here with my uncluttered desk and enjoy it. For come tomorrow…
Half-Pint House 
i need to do that exact same thing. didn’t do the desk today but i did do my walk in closet. i felt very proud of myself.
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I struggle with stacks too – the kitchen counter and our dining room table. It seems that every time I get them tidy and cleaned off, it is just a clean surface screaming and begging for me to start a new stack on it! Aaack! Why can’t I keep it cleaned off and just put things away? Until I figure that out, I will be perpetually cleaning it off…
Great job on clearing yours!
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i have that problem as well. this summer i got the help of an organizer and the office is where we started! my desk is still clean…amazingly. the “solution” seems to be a in-box where all the clutter goes and i am to clean it out and put stuff away from there. it seems to be working. i have been stunned that such a simple solution would work. i had tried more boxes…in, out, etc. but this seems to work best. i have my in box and one for my husband with bills in a separate place. but for me it all works off the one box. who knew? m
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A sliding stack gathers no dust! See? It saves you time … less dusting.
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i need to do that exact same thing. didn’t do the desk today but i did do my walk in closet. i felt very proud of myself.
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I struggle with stacks too – the kitchen counter and our dining room table. It seems that every time I get them tidy and cleaned off, it is just a clean surface screaming and begging for me to start a new stack on it! Aaack! Why can’t I keep it cleaned off and just put things away? Until I figure that out, I will be perpetually cleaning it off…
Great job on clearing yours!
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i have that problem as well. this summer i got the help of an organizer and the office is where we started! my desk is still clean…amazingly. the “solution” seems to be a in-box where all the clutter goes and i am to clean it out and put stuff away from there. it seems to be working. i have been stunned that such a simple solution would work. i had tried more boxes…in, out, etc. but this seems to work best. i have my in box and one for my husband with bills in a separate place. but for me it all works off the one box. who knew? m
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A sliding stack gathers no dust! See? It saves you time … less dusting.
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