The New File Cabinet & The Mess

Here's my spiffy new file cabinet rescued from a tree belt* after a tag sale** down the street about two weeks ago.

 See how neat and clean and organized it looks?  At the bottom of the photo are two bags: a paper bag for burning (I'll likely have another of my burning rituals when the weather is cool enough to signify an end to this wave of clutter.) and a reusable bag that now houses the three-ring binders that used to house the paperwork that now resides in the spiffy file cabinet.

I can haz organization?! :)

There are still a few things that need to be filed that are on my desk, and they are getting in the way of my focusing, so I must attend to them shortly.  It's not the worst it's been, though.

Now, to the right of my desk is the rest of The Mess.

That is a three-shelf high book shelf.  Note the Pile O Stuff reaches nearly to the top of the second bookshelf, preventing me from actually getting to the books on that shelf and the one below it. It's kinda scary.  There may even be intelligent life evolving between the papers and books and Stuff in that pile.  If you do not see a blog post, Facebook update, or an email from me in over a week, I may have been consumed by the Stuff and the hypothetical intelligent life that lives in that environment.

When you have this kind of upheaval, it's really hard to get actual work done.  So, I need to give into the Cleaning Fairy and get this sh*t taken care of or she will beat me upside the head with her wand.  Been there, done that… not a pretty sight.  If I can do a certain amount each day, Cleaning Fairy will let me get bits of other work done… which is also what I need to do with deadlines and such.

Wish me luck… especially in negotiations with whatever Evolving Life Forms might be losing their Clutter-based Natural Environment.

* It's been brought to my attention that "tree belt" is a regional slang that may only exist in the 413 area code of Massachusetts.  Specifically, it's that swath of grass between your sidewalk and the road, which has a dubious belongingness to both you and the city.  For areas without sidewalks, it's the edge of your lawn separated from the road by the "curb." (Not called "curbing," which is supposedly the proper term is for that concrete separation, thank you Ms. Gilhooley, the faculty advisor for my high school newspaper.)

** "Tag sale" is the 413-ism for what everyone else in the nation (according to the H-of-A) calls "Yard Sale."  Personally, I like "tag sale" better because nearly all of these sales use tags to denote the price, while the actual sale may take place anywhere from a driveway to a parking lot to a hall to a basement… not just someone's yard.