Rearranging My Office

It wouldn’t have occurred to me to blog about rearranging my office if my friend Mark, who has longed to be in my blog for months, hadn’t I said I would. So this is for you, Mark. Can’t say I never did anything for you now, can you?

Today I rearranged my office.

Short post, wasn’t it?

There’s a bit more to the story, so I might as well continue. Long ago, when we first moved into this house, I set up my desk so I could look out the window, assuming I could see through my monitor. I can’t see through my monitor, but I could still see a goodly portion of outside. There’s not a spectacular view since my office is at the front of the house and I therefore face the house across the street, but occasionally there’s something interesting going on out there, like the time the fire trucks came to put out the car fire across the street. I look to have a good view just in case.

It wasn’t long before I realized that by placing my desk in this position I made it nearly impossible to open and close the window. I love opening and closing windows. I like to open them when I’m hot and then, five minutes later, close them again because I’m cold. So I was always calling out to charming husband, “Charming husband, can you come help with my window?”

Way to be an independent person in my own right.

I tend to attract clutter. Some women attract men, some attract wealth and fame and fortune. I attract clutter. Assisting in this process are loyal clients who send me home with boxes of paperwork they’re not sure what to do with (but they’re quite certain I’ll know, as if I have some secret knowledge). So these accumulate. During tax season, the accumulation grew and grew and grew . . . Occasionally I start sticking things in the shredder so I can clean off my desk.

Unfortunately, it’s not an industrial shredder and before I know it, I’m emptying it, which means there are pieces of shredded paper everywhere. Theoretically I should be vacuuming quite frequently, but given the way boxes and files and, most importantly, plastic organizational products, accumulate around here, I wait until I have enough clear floor space to actually vacuum.

This never happens.

Speaking of plastic organizational thingies, I like to collect those too. No one ever mentions that just possessing such things does not mean I’ll be organized, but I keep falling for it anyway. I also use quite a few wire baskets. The problem with these is things get dusty.

I attract clutter AND dust.

I am singularly blessed.

I’ve been meaning to rearrange my office for quite some time. I had this great idea: instead of having my desk in front of the window, I’d put it in the corner, so it’s partially in front of the window. What a concept. It seemed to me I’d have more space this way too. As it is, my printer stand stands forsaken in the corner because I can’t reach it easily. So it gets dusty and the things on it are forgotten. The printer itself was sitting on the credenza next to the printer stand. Don’t ask me why.

Every time I say the word credenza to charming husband he says, “What’s that?” I keep thinking it’ll sink in someday. Then again, I’m not sure who’s playing for the Mariners this year, so we’re even.

This idea has sat in my brain for quite some time – in two months we’ll have been here two years, and I’m always thinking, “I’m going to clean this place up and rearrange it.”

Right. As if that’s going to happen. Then again, can you change a space if it doesn’t want to be changed?

So today I forgot about cleaning it up and just started moving things. I had to unplug my monitors, my printer, all those things that connect. There were cords and cables and wires that went to places and came back again, and I was fairly certain that I didn’t have that much technology when I started. After moving the desk, which is really just a table that I inherited a couple of years ago but is perfect desk height for me, I sat underneath the desk and plugged in my surge protectors, my computer, my monitors, my printer, my shredder, my speakers, my lights, and whatever else seemed to need to be plugged in. There were a couple of random cables left. How could there be random cables? Do they multiply down there when I’m not looking? Is this the inverse of the missing sock question?

Then I remember that I once had a cable modem on this computer. And a couple of other things.

I’m looking out the window now, while I sit at my computer. It’s just off to my right. I can open and close it without calling for reinforcements. My entire printer stand is right where it always was, but it’s now all usable space. I have more room. It’s as if I created space out of . . . air. Wait. Space is air, right? Never mind.

The dogs are happy. They like to sleep on my feet while I work, and now they have more room to congregate down there. They’re fairly certain I did it just for them, so please don’t tell them any different.

Fall can show up now. I’m ready. Well, this half of the room. The other half, where I put everything while I was rearranging, is still a mess. Maybe tomorrow.

And say hi to Mark when you see him.