Conquering the Home Office...Tape, anyone?

It is Day 2 of my "get organized project" in the home office. I sit amongst the detritus that is usually my favorite room in the house - perplexed as to what I should do next.

On the floor are notebooks - six of them at last count, 4 white and 2 blue and all empty. WHY does anyone need all those notebooks, you may ask? I don't know. They were stuffed into the cupboard I am hoping will hold all photographs that are in an elongated pile against the bookcase. There is also a smaller blue plastic notebook, with three rings and a look of newness about it.

There are photo albums, bags, boxes, and smaller bags - with photos that need organization. They've needed organization since 1982 so what is the hurry? I just have to get them into neat piles so they will FIT.

I have a brand new filing cabinet. It is metal, with two drawers. It took me a long time to pick it out over at Staples, only to find they didn't have the original one I chose - so this is the replacement, which cost $20 more. What makes it worth more money than the first one? I don't know.

But some guy named Joe with big black glasses begrudingly went in the back to get it for me. I venture to guess that, had I asked him, he wouldn't know why this one cost more money than the first one. Given his demeaner every time I go into Staples, I don't reckon that Joe thinks about anything too terribly much.

The top drawer of this $20-more filing cabinet is reserved for my doctorate stuff. It is there the paperwork trail of my program will be stored. Right now it is empty except for the application, which I faxed last Monday.

The bottom drawer is blessedly empty but there are odds and ends that need to be put there. But which ones? I don't know.

I have a few small and empty bookshelves amongst the set that Dan built into the wall for me a few months ago. It is my fervent hope that the completed albums might find refuge there. But hope springs eternal and I am haunted by the overfilled filing cabinet drawer that houses important paperwork that really MUST be sorted through... one of these days. This I know because every single time I go in there, mountains of overstuffed files rise up and attempt escape.

But upstairs on my nightstand are stacks of books. Books that were in various stages of being read and now they are ready for placement on the bookshelves. Which means less room for all the photo albums, not to mention the boxes and bags and more bags of pictures that seemed a good idea at the time.

In this organizational semi-frenzy, I have discovered half a dozen small spiral note pads. All of them have been used to some degree and I have no recollection of having purchased any of them. Why so many? I don't know.

And tape. You would think I had a depression-era type fear of running out of tape - that I needed to hoard it or something. But no. I just have a lot of tape. Two completely unopened 3-packs, several loose rolls wrapped in cellophane, and a few rolls that are obviously being used. I really don't need to tape a lot of things. I use tape at Christmas time and a bit throughout the year. Why so much tape? I don't know.

My love for office supplies is evident - all the drawers store various office supplies. Glue sticks, paper clips, binder clips, mechanical pencils, scissors, Sharpie markers, water color markers, calculators, index cards, sheet protectors, folders with 3-hole brads, folders without brads, colored third-cut folders, old folders bearing names of previous students. Peeling the labels off these old folders is like an archeological expedition. A student from 3 years ago and underneath that, another student, then another, going back to my very first classroom. "Tawon," is written right on the folder itself. Tawon who is a senior in high school by now. IF he made it that far. His ambition, as I recall, was to be a gangster.

And computer stuff. Stuff that went with the Dell that exploded and crashed about 5 years ago. Old floppy disks that store gosh-knows-what on them. CD Roms with names on them that look important but which ring no mental bells. Cords? Oh yes. A plethora of cords, all sizes. Should I keep them or toss them? I haven't needed them, obviously, in over 4 years so why keep them? But what if I NEED them and they are expensive and what a waste it would be to have to drive to Staples, endure the apathy of Joe again, just to buy a cord I stupidly through out one summer day when I was in a cleaning frenzy. Why? I don't know!

In a bag there is the collection of paperwork I needed for taxes. It needs to be stored. My storage boxes for old tax paperwork are in the garage. My rule of thumb is to remove one box each year and shred it. This way I can keep the pile of boxes at a minimum. This is on my "to do" list because the pile of boxes is beginning to lean precariously. Obviously, I haven't been following my own rule very well.

So here I sit. I play games of Free Cell in between bouts of productivity. I am determined to get this room in order so that when there is no time to do it in the near future, I can feel restfully assured that the mess isn't hopeless. I am cleaning and organizing using the time-honored "A.D.D." method of cleaning and organizing. Each discover and all errant pictures lead me off on a tangent.

One more game of free cell. One more attempt to organize paperwork and supplies.

I just hope I don't find any more tape. Or notebooks! No more notebooks.