This must sound like an odd title for a blog, but I’m sure most of you know that feeling of wading through papers every time you want to find one thing. I’m talking about the papers that stay on your desk, initially in some sort of order, which probably only you can follow, but they have to stay there until you can get around to dealing with them. Once they’re filed, or put away somewhere that makes the desk appear tidy, you forget about them – at least I do – until a nasty bill appears, or you receive an email from family, a friend, the tradesman who gave you that great quote which you promised to follow up and meant it. I mean the kind of quote that will increase dramatically when you ring again, or the tradesman will be overseas for six months if he hasn’t gone out of business.
My worst accumulations generally relate to writing; an article torn out of a magazine or newspaper about a book or an author that I really want to read ‘when I’ve got spare time.’ And then there are all the partly written stories, poems, articles and assorted ideas for writing projects. Travel articles have their own compartment on my desk – the places I’ve been that help me to write my Travel Tales and the ones that are on my bucket list, along with brochures for river and ocean cruises, plus any other means of travel that might get me to that particular destination. New Zealand and St Petersburg are currently high on the list.
I used to be a very tidy, organised person, but the older I get, the worse I become and the fact that my poor old brain doesn’t remember as well as I’d like it to, exacerbates the problem; that is, if I put it away I tend to forget about it.
Last week I wanted to find an email address for someone who I hoped could provide important information for the novel I’m writing. I’m generally pretty good with that sort of thing, despite the fact that it was hand written on a piece of paper torn out of an exercise book. Finding it required taking everything off the desk one at a time, making piles of appropriately related papers, books, brochures etc on chairs, the floor and the small spaces available on my book shelves, until, about two hours later, I found it, stuck to the underside of a completely unrelated document.
In the process I also discovered an interesting article on cleaning the rain water tank. It was torn out of the Weekend West dated September 21-22, 2013; very handy for this time of year. Another scrap of paper provided me with the names and emails of friends I met on my travels in 2016. There were a couple of recipes which I thought I had lost and a stack of papers that should have gone in the bin at least a year ago.
When everything was filed or discarded, I gave an excited cry, ‘I’ve found my desk.’ You can see from 
the photos that it’s a beautiful desk, in fact a partner’s desk which should provide space for two people to work on. I gave it a polish and took a few photos as evidence, because, no matter how hard I try, the piles will grow again, the empty spaces will fill up and no doubt, within a month, a new load of clutter will cover all that lovely rich timber.
I love my desk, I really do. It’s home, the place where I spend more time than anywhere except in bed. (I love that too, but it’s another story and I don’t clutter it.) It’s where my muse comes to visit me (when she’s in the mood), it’s where I talk to my family and friends and it holds memories of previous houses, other lives I lived before this one in this location. It’s also where I pay the bills and argue with Telstra and other difficult businesses, but I concentrate on the view outside my window while doing those unpleasant tasks.
I hope I’m not the only person who can get excited about something that seems as mundane as a clear desk – allowing for the fact that this is a rare occurrence and one which I think should be celebrated. Please, all you other desk clutterers, send me your comments; tell me how you feel about your desks when cleared, polished and looking beautiful. Or you might love your desk even more when you can’t find that vital brochure, book, paper or maybe the calculator, phone, or your favourite pen.
Whatever your preference for the state of your desk, I’d love to read about it and, as this is an opportunity to tell us if you really operate best with clutter, (I think the more popular term is ‘organised chaos’) please do. Share your comments here and we should start an interesting conversation.