Here I sit, in my office, covered with its standard New Year’s winter coat of papers, files, boxes, and other general office junk strewn around. I literally had to climb into the room and tiptoe into my chair while skillfully avoiding the paper cutter and various other items just to make it to the desktop and this computer without breaking something or impaling myself.
Why, you ask, is this such a mess?
Well, it’s a new year. Time to clean out the old, right? Bring in the new? I find that every year, right after New Year’s, I begin cleaning out everything with zeal… and if I don’t get it all done before going back to work, I tend to leave what I started until I can… find… some… time…. to… get… it… done. Right.
For example, last weekend, I decided that after living in this house for almost 12 years, that while we were putting away the holiday decorations, we needed to move the furniture in the livingroom around. Desperately. Because come on, let’s face it — how many people do YOU know who have had their furniture in the same formation for 12 years? Good grief! How many people even live in a house for 12 years anymore besides my alien family and me?? Anyway, that task alone — because I’d set my mind to it — took AN ENTIRE DAY. One room (OK, I’ll give you the holiday decorations all around the house). We’re not talking mansion-sized here, folks, just a plain ol’ 17′x17′ room. But when we were done, the dogs didn’t feel comfortable walking in there for awhile, because they were scared. That was actually a very funny thing to watch… if only they could talk! One of my dogs went to every singular item in the room and stared at it in a startled manner, as if to say, “What the heck is THAT doing THERE?”
The effort, of course, bled into the dining room and kitchen areas. And overly ambitious, I started on my office after that.
I own and operate two very different businesses, I manage the household finances, and my two children often find it necessary to dump their weekly work in here in front of me to review, so paper abounds in my sacred office space. Eventually I start feeling claustrophobic, because even for the two weeks a year (usually the 2nd and 3rd week) that I keep up on my filing, it’s just too much to get it all put away!
This year’s been a doozy. It seems like somehow, the papers in here reproduced on their own. Can that happen, in today’s digital world? It must, because I can’t seem to get to the bottom of it.
But I will.
It will probably take me into next week, but I’m determined to get to it and REALLY get it done. Because it’s a new year… and I don’t know about you, but from my perspective, last year really needs to be filed away and/or thrown out! I could really use that vial of fairy dust I haven’t been able to find for the past couple of years. And my rose-colored glasses. Because once I do, I will don both and never look back over my shoulder.
It’s time for a good year. Really, a SPARKLING one!! Change it all around! Look at everything in a fresh way! Make it work for you! THAT’S my resolution.
Now that being said, it’s been awhile since I’ve moved anything around in the office, too….
