If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, what is the significance of a clean desk? ~Dr. Laurence J. Peter
A writer needs a little clutter going in her head. Got to pull those stories from somewhere. Certainly a swept clean mind is going to be no help at all.
I first wrote about this in 2013, but I read it over and decided you all might enjoy me revisiting the topic and sharing some of the quotes I included then. At the time I had cleaned off my desk. It looked like the picture above. Actually, I find it hard to believe that picture is actually MY desk. There has to be an over stuffed trash can somewhere close by. And look, I think there’s snow on the ground outside. Maybe I was snowbound and that’s why I had time to clean off my desk.
I’m embarrassed to show you a picture of how my desk looks right now. I can see the wooden surface here and there. And yes, there is dust or maybe Christmas cookie crumbs. LOL. But another deadline is calling my name as I work on a new book. The clutter on my desk is safe.
December is always an extra busy month for me with getting ready for Christmas. And this year I had final page edits due for In the Shadow of the River two days before my daughter and her husband were home for Christmas.
As you can imagine, cleaning off my desk was not at the top of my to do list. Even if that desk was more than a little cluttered since I didn’t have time to deal with some of the things I was dumping on it.
A place for everything and everything in its place. That’s great advice, but what happens for someone like me who keeps running out of those places for everything because maybe I’m not good at throwing things away? You know, things like the letter my former editor sent me a few books ago before she retired. Or scraps of paper where I’ve jotted down inspiring quotes. The Valentine card my husband gave me – three years ago. A budding actress granddaughter’s playbill. Various and sundry bulletins from church. Some receipts. Some bills to pay. I do try to keep those bills up on top to be paid in a timely manner.
Perhaps my problem is that housework is not my favorite thing. My husband once told me–while I was not too happily cleaning up the stove after breakfast–that a lot of women loved cleaning. Unfortunately for him, he’s not married to one of those “lot of women.”
I’m more in Erma Bombeck’s camp. My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.
Or I have to confess to being right there with Phyllis Diller about ironing. I’m eighteen years behind in my ironing. There’s no use doing it now, it doesn’t fit anybody I know.
My husband’s shirts have been known to sometimes get dusty waiting for me to iron them and then they had to be washed again and the whole cycle starts over. Like Phyllis said, the shirts probably don’t fit him anymore anyway.
And isn’t this the truth? Housekeeping is like being caught in a revolving door. —Marcelene Cox
But at times when I have actually cleaned off my desk, I have found this quote from A.A. Milne to be too true. One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
I don’t know about exciting, but I have been known to lose that note I know I made somewhere on my desk. If it is an important note, it generally hides out until I no longer need it.
But tonight I’m going to let Ruby Lou Barnhill have the last word. A bright person can always think of something better to do than housework.
You know like reading a new book or maybe writing one.
But go ahead, you “lot of women” and tell me how much you love cleaning and the household chores you like. LOL! Or maybe the ones you hate.
I hate dusting and obviously cleaning off my desk to do that dusting.
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I don’t actually hate housework. It’s just that it cuts into my reading and crocheting time. And my time in the garden and time with grandkids, etc. Thus reminds me of one of my favorite poems. Don’t know the author but it starts out, ” I meant to do my work today but all the leaves were calling me..” and ends with, “so what could I do but laugh and go.”
Author
I love the poem stanza you quoted, Lee. That’s me at times. Something else calls me away from what I should be doing. Or at least what I thought I should be doing. Maybe I ended up doing the exactly best thing.
Cleaning is low on my list of priorities.
My mom was an artist who could find a way to recycle all kinds of things into a piece of art. There was not a fruit pit that didn’t have to be sucked clean because she used them to make seed mosaics and won several first place ribbons at the county fair for those works of art. She made Christmas ornament angels out of egg cartons, a type of which no one can find anymore. She made decorative ” bird cages” with the little plastic trays that tomatoes once came in. She made lamps out of tiny pieces quarried shale scraps by arranging them into a covered well. She was always coming up with something and a reason to save whatever was needed to make it.
My grandmother was also a person who saved all kinds of things. She would read through a newspaper and cut out a comic that tickled her funny bone or might tickle some one else’s. My stepmother, another artist, was great at hiding away all her little collections of things to use, art components included.
All this is to say, I come by my need to save things naturally! I always seem to see a reason to save ” just in case some one might need——“. Egg cartons – I’ve got them and shared them with a friend who has a few chickens in her yard. Toilet paper rolls- shared to local school teacher and even once for a costume component. The list of things could be endless. And yes , there is a more than fair amount of clutter that comes with it all. For the most part, when some one needs whatever I can just about put my hands on it pretty shortly because my memory “sees” it where it last laid. The problem begins when some well meaning person decides to clean or “put away” something. Oh my, please don’t! You can be sure that whatever is lost for sure then!
My husband comes from an organized, throw it away to clean family and it definitely does create a fair amount of disagreements. After 47 years together though, he has learned that sooner or later that which he thought we didn’t need becomes just the thing he or some one else seems to need. Arguments are a lot less now. Too many times after he convinced me something should go, he shortly thereafter ended up needing just that thing!
My house is a lot less cluttered than my mom’s was, so far. As we get older ambition seems to slow down. As long as it’s not causing health issues, it will have to do. No matter how much or often you clean, somebody comes along and messes it up. I have better things to do: spend time with a loved one , read, create, cook !
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Sounds as though you have the keeping stuff just the way it needs to be in your world, Ci. And your mother did have great reasons to hang onto things to see if it activated some creative urges for her. I have a Sunday school kid who loves making things so I have some odd things saved now just in case I come up with an idea of some great craft project.
Also I think those in an earlier generation did save more clippings and wanted to share those with people. That was their way to share prior to internet when now we share everything on line to where we’re shopping to what we’re eating. Well, at least some people do.
Good that you can remember where everything is. I used to be better at that than I am now, but I do agree that if the place is changed, then it means a full fledged search will have to take place to maybe find it.
Thanks for sharing about your reasons for collections. I love the things you’d rather do than keep a perfectly neat house. I’m guessing those loved ones you like to spend time with are happy you like to cook. I love reading too and creating with words. At least they don’t clutter up anything but my head.
I remember my Grandma Sadie had a little plaque in her house that said, My house is clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy. That definitely fits my house. I only clean about once a week and sometimes I do a decent job and other times I just give it a lick and a promise. There’s way too many other things to fill my time with. Like reading a good book or working a thousand piece puzzle or getting outside and walking and enjoying God’s beauty. I preordered your new book and there’s no contest between reading it or cleaning. Lol!
Author
Well, at least I hope my house could fit the saying on your grandmother’s plaque, Linda. I have stopped obsessing over having it perfectly clean before I have company. I decided I was missing too many opportunities to enjoy my extended family by thinking everything had to pristine. Not that pristine has ever been in my listed abilities. But sort of clean isn’t bad.
Thank you so much for pre-ordering my book Those pre-orders are important to the success of a new book. And I hope you’ll enjoy being on that showboat with Jacci.
I don’t mind dusting when a table has one or two little objects on it, but I don’t think I have anything like that in my house. My excuse for not liking to dust is I have been married for 51 years and I have accumulated a lot of stuff. Some of it I have ran out of places to put, so now it is piled in places. Like your desk, all of that stuff should be moved to dust efficiently. I find myself skimming around the edges, saying I will do a better job next time, ha! Then before you know it that dust is right back. My husband says I don’t need to keep this, that, or the other, but when he comes in saying, do you have so and so, I can usually supply him with it in short order. Oh, I hate to throw away a nice box also.
Author
I’m terrible about boxes, Connie. I have a bunch of Christmas boxes in the basement that I need to either store away or put in the recycle bin. But so far that hasn’t gotten done.
And I have been known to dust around the edges too. Or grab a tissue out of my pocket and swipe at the dust. But like you I sometimes know where things are. Now if I move something to what I think is a better place, then it just might be lost forever. 🙂
I think your desk looks great.
I dont like clutter either, but sometimes it happens.
I like to make a list of things I want to get done, and check them off as I do them.
I am more likely to get the job done , and its a good feeling to be able to check it off the list.
Author
You’re right, Marlene. My desk does look fine when it’s cleaned off like that. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to keep it looking like that. Clutter does happen.
Making a list of things you need to do is a good motivator. I do that sometimes about writing chores and I have done it about big house chores. But I could put dusting on there every week and check it off but it would just need to be put on there again. It is good to mark things off your list though.
You’re helping me achieve my word game challenge — I smiled as I read! Thanks you
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Not sure what your word game challenge is, Amy, but glad to help. And smiles are always good.
Currently I try to keep the mess to a minimum in the areas of the livingroom, bathroom and kitchen. I used to worry about cleaning but as I have gotten older and my body has rebelled, I am okay with that.
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I once read when I was young, not married long with a baby and another on the way several things that could make it look like your house was not doing too badly, Pamela. You needed to keep your closets closed, your cabinet doors shut, and your drawers closed. You needed to empty your wastebaskets and clean your bathroom mirror. Not bad advice. And as a last resort, if you saw company coming, drag out the vacuum cleaner and sit it in the middle of the floor as if you were just ready to clean when you had to stop because you had company. 🙂
I hate dusting, and mopping.I don’t like clutter but it’s the deep cleaning that I put off.,and put off, and put off.
I am not the type of person that regularly washing baseboards and cleans light fixtures.
Today I am going to watch it rain, read a book that April got me for Christmas , by Jolina Petersheim,(we met her at Bowling Green when we saw you last year ) and maybe crochet some on a baby blanket for my nephews grandbaby,due in March.
No dusting or mopping for me today!
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Jolina Petersheim has some good stories out, Lisa. I’m guessing you’ll like whatever story you have of hers. A rainy day is a great time to do some crocheting and/or reading.
As I said, I don’t like dusting but I do like how it looks if it’s dusted. LOL. My daughter used to do the dusting when she was a girl. I’m always surprised by how dusty it gets here in my office. Paper dust, I suppose. As for those baseboards and light fixtures, I sometimes notice them and think about cleaning them then. Sometime I even do it. LOL.
I’m right up there with you Ann. I hate housework. But my mother thrived on cleaning. She had a housework schedule and stuck to it most of her life. I didn’t inherit that particular gene from her…I’m more likely to wait til the dust bunnies are joining ranks against me, before I take action. I love a clean house, but there always seems to be something better to do…like reading or especially sewing.
My sewing room demanded a little cleaning yesterday though. November and December are my busiest months, getting Christmas orders finished and gifts ready. So I spent yesterday afternoon re-sorting fabric and cleaning up all the scraps from my cutting table. I’m a fabric saver…even small scraps can be used for Barbie clothes. So my sewing room is usually organized chaos. It looks a sight, but I can usually find what I’m looking for. Usually. Yesterday was one of those unusual days, and I decided if I expected to find that lost pattern piece, I needed to do some cleaning.
Today is rainy and stormy…a perfect day for some sewing or maybe getting lost in a book if the lightning keeps me from sewing.
I’m eagerly awaiting your new book and reading about riverboat adventures.
Have a great day! 🙂
Author
I love a clean house too, Lavon. I just don’t like being the one that has to get it that way. My sister has a cleaning lady that comes twice a month. I’ve considered doing the same, but so far I’ve just let the dust bunnies accumulate. And I do have these two dogs that love going out and coming in and going out and coming in when it’s raining or muddy. LOL.
My mother had her routine too. I think that was more common in Mom’s generation. We did spring cleaning every year. But then after I married spring seemed to come around when I was always busiest and wanting to be outside with the kids.
While my desk right now looks nothing like the picture of the clean desk up top, it’s not yet to critical level and I’ve got a book to write. Priorities, right? Glad you got your sewing room cleaned up and organized.