When I’m not up late at night plotting, crafting characters and creating towns that I’d love to live in, I’m busy with a fairly demanding day life.  Over the past six months I orchestrated two office moves for my day job.  While I was able to utilize the creative side of my brain to a certain extent when it came to paint, fabric selections and designs, I also found myself dealing with a lot of clutter.   In general, I discovered that it is much easier to remove someone else’s clutter than your own.  We filled dumpster after dumpster with items that had us scratching our heads.   Why would anyone hold on to these things?  When it came to streamlining my own work area, hitting the dumpsters was a bit harder, but it had to be done. 

All the organizing for work has me turning a focused eye on my home work area.  I tend to clean out my home office once a year.   It is not in a horrible state at the moment.  That is to say, it is not past the point of no return.  Last year (or was it two years ago?) I cleaned out 6 bags of trash and really organized my things.  I created this binder with treasured workshop notes from speakers whom I greatly admire.  The tabs are labeled with items like POV, emotion, dialogue, setting, plotting, and so on.  It is a great referencing tool, but if certain piles on and around my desk are any indication, I haven’t kept the binder up this year.  It is time to get re-organized and rejuvenated for the New Year.  I feel good about my current writing projects and I’d like my workspace to reflect that. 

To be fair, the desk is not entirely a writing desk.  It is also a Mom desk, a Housewife desk and sometimes on those days when I need to stay home with a sick child or if I’m sick myself, it becomes a work-from-home desk.  There are folders on my desk labeled Girl Scouts, CCD, Second Grade, Holiday/Birthday 2010 and Bathroom Renovation Project.  In a sense, the desk is a reflection of the various pieces of me. 

Upon further reflection, I don’t feel bad about the state that it is in.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s getting cleaned, but In the midst of the clutter on the upper shelf…tissues, hand lotion, candles, pens kept in a container decorated from my little one’s pre-school days, there are two pictures on either corner.  They are two of the most beautiful faces I’ll ever know.  My little Angel Baby from when she was 7 months old in a photo that will always be one of my favorites, and my husband, holding a fish on a sunny day after what looks like a fun and productive time at the Jersey Shore.  Clearly they are my anchors in this sea of clutter, and the reason why, regardless of the demands of work or life, I sit down at this computer night after night with the hope of creating something that will make them proud.