Peace of Mind Organizing

August tiny projects challenge: Day 4

20 August 2020

Today, I turned my attention to a tiny challenge that has a big impact: the area of my desk that I look at constantly. I probably view this area of my desk more minutes a day than anything else in my home, except probably my computer monitor.

I cleared my desktop as part of the tiny projects challenge at the beginning of the pandemic. But it needed more help. Here’s the before picture, taken moments before I got to working on it:

You can see some stuff just needed to be put away (my teal glasses and my mug, for example). But there were also items that really didn’t need to be on my desk: three water bottles (I just need one), an iPad Mini I don’t use much (it’s got a picture of Bix as a puppy as its cover), a big dish for paperclips and binder clips. I also have too many pairs of glasses on my desk. I need one—my computer glasses—within arm’s reach. The others (spare distance glasses, single-vision reading glasses, and spare computer glasses in case I leave the current pair upstairs) I moved to my office-supply closet.

Here’s the after picture:

And here’s a wider shot so you can see how that area fits into the landscape of my desk. (I know I always like to see that.)

The thing that takes up the most space on my desk is my abundant collection of pens. In my defense, I do hand lettering and I like to have the appropriate pen for the job at hand. I did pare the pens down further—I was able to get rid of one jar of pens. Believe it or not all those pens you see in the after picture are ones I feel I need close at hand.

I moved the extra water bottles into the kitchen and replaced the dish of paperclips with a small yogurt jar (the binder clips joined their friends in the office-supply closet). I also took the face shields that were in that cardboard box on the scanner stand just beyond my desk and put them in a container in the office supply closet so I could recycle the box. That made a big difference!

This project took me 20 minutes, including decorating a couple of yogurt jars with washi tape. I now have more visual peace and everything feels more expansive. Another project that puts a smile on my face!

I’m absolutely digging the high value these small projects bring. Tomorrow will be the last one of this batch, then we’ll get back to normal programming.

Tagged with: 15 minutes, clean desk, closets, organizing, tiny projects

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