It wasn’t great when I left to visit family, and then the mail and other detritus crawled on top and died right there. It was an avalanche waiting to happen, and I’m pretty sure if it fell it would take us 3 days to dig out.

So I cleared it off. Everything. Yes, everything. No, seriously. It filled up a big reusable Ikea bag. Have you seen how huge those things are? Yeah. To the brim. Now, admittedly I did also clear out a shelf that hangs over my desk, and I left a few small items. But I just wanted to see my desk top again.

And I do! Yay!

Here comes the hard part. What do I do with all of that stuff?

I’m tempted to leave it in the bag for a week and see what I really need out of it. Things that I need will get dug out and placed back on the desk. And after a week, the other stuff gets stored or tossed.

I already went through the bag once, throwing out any junk, old flyers, expired coupons, unnecessary receipts. But there’s still a lot in there.

I’ve decided that I’ll only keep a couple of current projects handy. An art journal, a couple of books I’m planning to read and review. Everything else can go… elsewhere. I don’t need 10 books on my desk when I’m only currently looking at two of them. It just adds clutter.

I still have some receipts and paperwork to file. Others to shred.

It feels so nice. I’m really going to see if I can get by like this. I look around at it and go “Ahhhhhh.” It’s so much more serene. I highly recommend this. Take everything you possibly can off of your desk and only put back the essentials. Not what’s convenient — just essentials. See if it can work for you.

I bet you won’t even miss most of it. I probably won’t either. I’ll let you know what I discovered that I needed most.

image credit: morgueFile

Think about it. You walk into an office (or office space) with a neat, clean desk. How do you feel – ready to tackle your day? Consider the alternative. You walk in and your desk is a maelstrom of chaos. Do you feel defeated before you even get started?

I know I do. I just cleared off part of my desk recently (and managed to unpack part of my bags from the trip just before) and I already notice a difference in my outlook. While I still have more to do, I feel a little less overwhelmed than I did before. It’s not a lot, but it’s a good start.

Remember how we’ve talked about doing things in chunks? It really does help.

So go ahead and try this. Clear your desk, neaten it up every day before you go to bed, or relax in front of the TV, or finish up those pesky household chores (whether you have a home office or just a corner of a room). Then take a moment the next morning. Do you notice a difference? Do you feel ready to tackle the day when you have a tidy work area?

Let me know how it works after a week or two. Is it worth the effort for you? If not, what would make it more worth the effort?

Image: morgueFile