It’s no secret that my desk is neither neat nor tidy. Apparently the second Monday in January (today) is “National Clean Off Your Desk Day”, so I decided to clean off my desk. Here are some items I encountered:
- Three paper crowns (one from Christmas dinner, one from dinner of New Year’s Eve, and I’m not sure about the third–perhaps Christmas 2016)
- Screws for the upstairs tub faucet (now reinstalled)
- Two tape measures (not counting the one on the shelf across from the desk)
- Tickets for the Lantern Tour of Jewel Cave from 21 June 2016
- The case for my Leatherman multitool (on the opposite end of the desk from the actual tool)
- The case for my HP 48G calculator (on the opposite end of the desk from the actual calculator)
- Eight tins originally containing Altoids, Trader Joe’s Gingermints, etc. (now mostly empty, but one containing ear buds and two contained dryer lint and matches)
- Two pair sunglasses (I never wear sunglasses)
- Three D20
- Random dusty picture of me and my wife (taken by an elephant statue in Dallas, Texas in 2000)
- Container of BB’s (last used in early 2016 to add mass to a Pinewood Derby car)
- Battery cover for a remote (no sign of the remote)
- Several batteries of unknown charge (mostly size AA and AAA )
- Dozen CDs and DVDs (including Ubuntu 15.10, DBAN, and “A Sesame Street Celebration”)
- Numerous checks that have been deposited via smart phone
Basically I removed pretty much everything from the desk that wasn’t connected by wires (and some things that were). Cleaned and sanitized the keyboards and mice and phones. I decided the second phone doesn’t need a spot since I only use it every three months or so. I replaced items that I frequently use (such as glasses, calculator, box cutter) into the usual locations. The improvement is significant.
Now I’ll wait for “National Clean Up the Rest of Your Office Where You Dumped All the Stuff When Cleaning Off Your Desk Day”.
