The Messy Desk

The mess has creeped back into my house.

Just before Christmas, we entertained Gary's office group here, at our house, with snacks and drinks. And I have to say, this place looked pretty good. All things considered, anyway - we are living with extra furniture everywhere, a hideously ugly and small kitchen, construction debris, and general chaos and confusion.

Yet I pulled it together (I say "I" because, let's face it, our girls contribute as little as is humanly possible in the way of housework and basic tidying, and Gary has another full-time vocation). I had this place looking pretty good.

Even my desk here in our downstairs office looked good - no clutter, no mess, no accumulation of mail and school notes and papers and random bits of miscellany.

Fast-forward, and my desk has lapsed, yet again, into an unspeakable state. It looks horrific. I would take a photo and post it, but I hate for anyone to see how, well, horrific it looks. As it is truly horrifying.

I like to think of myself as a tidy person. But considering what my bedroom, kitchen, and office look like at this moment, I'm not sure I can legitimately make that claim anymore. (Though my bathroom is very orderly.) I like to blame it on all the work we have going on; I think I'll be milking that excuse for the next year. Maybe two.

I swear it will all be different when the remodeling is done. Whenever that is.

In any event, I should, right now, be tidying the afore-mentioned untidy desk. But I'm not. This morning I had my usual morning stuff to do, then later Gary and I made a trip to the hardware store, where we picked up light fixtures (two for outside our new backdoor and one for the third floor computer area - previous owners took that light with them and we hadn't bothered to replace it until now). We looked at floor tile and back splash tile and kitchen light fixtures and, as I anticipated, we agreed on everything - we are compatible in that way, in that we have similar taste. Similar good taste - well, good taste is relative and somewhat subjective, but it certainly does cut out the conflict when we tend to gravitate toward the same colors, textures, and styles.

And now? When I should be desk cleaning? Well, I made a phone call to check in on a friend, I answered some much-delayed e-mail questions, and I am now going to go throw a load of clothes in the wash. I need to make sure Daughter No. 2 is ready to go to swim practice. And I need to go finish rearranging the sweaters I took down from the shelf in my closet, in an attempt to make additional room for Gary to stash some of his stuff away. (Apparently, I am hogging too much of the closet space. Which is silly - we have five closets in our bedroom, plus an armoire. I need to find some space for my husband.)

The desk will be here when I finish all of those tasks. If not - well, tomorrow is another day.

And, from past experience, I know it will just get messy again. Kind of hard to get motivated in that case. But I will.

Right after I finish these other tasks. I swear.