when it's time to de-clutter

Ever had the feeling that the office furniture is out to get you? I'm sure my desk has been swallowing up paperwork already. Before I know it, I'll be Rober De Niro in Brazil, struggling against a storm of paper, and finally being wiped away by the papery wind. Except, instead of paper, it'll be phones, desk legs and chair backs sticking to me as I try to wade through the sea of debris that is our office.

We had to move all the stuff out of the unutilised spare room so that we could use it for a shoot. Where did all that stuff go? Out into the reception area, the smaller, more cramped store room, which is actually supposed to be a functional machine room, but ended up storing stuff, into the conference room (as of this moment hubby boo and Panini are having a cramped conference with our LOL Board of Directors, surrounded by costumes, magazines, 3 unused computer monitors, detritus from our last meeting and of course, props and trolleys).

I am feeling the bad energy and poor balance of energies in our office keenly. Panini almost popped a vein trying to find plain paper the other day in her cramped office. Every time I sit down to do work that needs quiet and focus, the doorbell rings, or someone asks an inane question or the phone rings or I have to find something for someone. Then I get to sit back down and I'm a little more tired than when I started. Then I want to go home and veg in front of the telly.

Not having a unified colour theme really gets me down. I can't see the white walls and the pine wood floor because of the brown boxes, green paper supply boxes, pink drinking water boxes, neon accoutrements and general rubbish. My desk is a map of beech coloured ground, printer factory, holepunch tractor, penholder telecoms towers and paper skyscrapers, all crowded around the superhighway that is my laptop.

Aiya! I am spending so much time avoiding cleaning up. Also, the tiny environmentalist in me won't let me dispose of my paper without attempting to recycle in the office first. So I have a stack of used paper that I can print or write on the back of, steadily growing behind my laptop. I should slice them into cubes, bind with glue and sell for 50 sen each. Then people will have guilt-free memo pads on which to write phone messages and important account numbers on. These would be placed safely into handbags and wallets, and found three years later, after money lost and cute dates missed.

I once tried to adopt a minimalist attitude towards possessions. In one fell swoop, I cleared out my teenage room one day, getting rid of almost half my stuff, including a pebble collection, stamps, letters from all kinds of people, clothes, old school stuff and more. I felt so totally free, and didn't miss any of the things I thought I would (particularly the letters). Even now, my clothes are half the amount of hubby boo's and I tend to wear favourites constantly. I guess the only things I have which would be hard to get rid of are my books. Looking at them in the house now, I think they're a huge mess and need to be given away. Though I have some old favourites which will probably stay with me til they wither to dust - The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Gormenghast books, my Stephen Donaldson collection of the Thomas Covenant chronicles and the mirror of dreams series. Then there's my fashion books, like the What Not to Wear series, Kevin Aucoin's and Bobbi Brown's make up books, and all my english lit books like shakespeare and greek classics.

Ahh... rambling has such a focusing quality - you start to realise how much time you're wasting and itch to get on with your work. So, I'll be leaving you till next time (perhaps after we have bombed the place and cleared out the mess)

Lovey, C