week 35 - "declutter your house - Part 2"

Bill makes full use of space on his old newspaper desk.

     Cheryl has been in a cleaning and clearing out mode since Heather's family moved out. Work in the dining room, new landscaping out front, tear out the carpet in the spare bedroom and refurbish the old hardwood floors there and in the computer room!! Thank goodness, she still has to go into the office a couple days a week!
     Today, she was doing some cleaning in the computer room -- also the room where my old newspaper office desk is located. It's a sturdy old oak desk, probably from the early 20th century. It was the editor's desk for, probably, close to 100 years. I was fortunate to get to bring it home when we closed our old Charleston office several years ago.
     But, this afternoon, Cheryl was cleaning and said she got to everything but "the clutter" on my desk. It just suddenly hit both of us that we had seen this before. Didn't Dad's desktop in Ottawa look something like this? All that's missing are model airplanes hanging from string over the desk.
     Like father like son, or "The acorn doesn't fall far from the tree," or something like that. This is a big desk. It is 66 inches wide and 36 inches deep. Each desk drawer actually is 36 inches deep. It holds gobs of "important" stuff that I just need to hang on to.
     I can explain everything. The box at the front left corner is Rotary Youth Exchange stuff and my daily calendar. The shelf at rear left also is Rotary Youth Exchange material. You also can see my Crosley turntable/album-to-CD machine that is covered by some of my materials used for writing my "Glancing Back" history column at the newspaper. There are also record albums (for making CDs) and the CD container, an old Ottawa Pirate coffee mug, things made by the kids and grandkids, lamps, globe, photos, plaques, running certificates, books, United Way folders, etc., etc., etc. How can I NOT keep that stuff?
     I still don't think it's as messy as Dad's desk. I think his desk was wider than this one. It seemed to take up the entire north wall of his den. Maybe if Cheryl gets some other parts of the house "decluttered," I can move some of this important stuff off my desk and into those newly cleared out areas.
     Boy, Cheryl really needs to get busy on her decluttering work so I can clean off my desk.
     I guess I must confess to adopting this cluttered desk trait of Dad's. Realistically, Melissa and Jessamyn, I think this is what you have to look forward to with David's and Patrick's desks sometime down the road.