Pearls: Keeping it uncluttered
EDITORIAL MUG: Matt Pearl
Spring cleaning. Did reading those words raise your anxiety a little bit? I feel your pain.
The cleaning bug bit us at one of our offices this past week. Our Albany office has just moved to its new location on US 136, so there wasn’t much sorting and rearranged to do at that one, but King City was a mess.
Why was it a mess? Because I don’t know how to maintain my space well. I know how to clean, how to file, how to discard and how to buy things, but don’t ask me to keep things particularly tidy from day to day. It’s just not my style, you know?
I solve problems. I clean up messes. I throw away trash. I shop for things. I have never been the world’s best at keeping things cleaned up and nice. Somehow, I periodically look around me, recognize that I have a messy workspace, and start cleaning with a trash bin, a fresh can of Lemon Pledge and another person to help me move the heavier stuff.
And then I always think, This would have been easier to do a few months ago when there wasn’t such a mess on my desk. And I’m right. But I don’t change my habits in the slightest.
My wife and I had our 14th anniversary a few days back, and I spent a few moments that day thinking about whether/how I had changed over that time. I came up with several things, not the least of which were my skills at grilling food, my tendency to spread up the bed and my views on general time management – all improvements.
But what hasn’t changed is my habit of letting the piles form, then dealing with the mess after it has become a large one. No weekly dusting. No regular sorting. Nothing like that: just cluttered, dusty messes that I tackle far less often than I should. I am, however, always proud of how much better things look after I finish my long overdue cleaning.
This past week, though, my staff was pretty clearly fed up with my mess. The office got an overhaul: furniture moved (some discarded), desks dusted, floors vacuumed and files, well, filed. It’s amazing how much space you have when you put files into piles – or the trash can, depending on each item’s merits.
And then once it was done – the piles sorted, the furniture rearranged, the clutter managed and the shelves ordered – I had that same thought I always have: I’m going to keep it nice this time. No need to let things get out-of-hand again.
Ha. Ha ha ha. You fool, Matt. You know you’re not going to do anything of the sort. You’re going to look around and see piles everywhere, cluttering up the office and hiding the dust bunnies.
Well, maybe this time I have my cluttering tendencies under control. I would like to think that with age and maturity might come a better perspective on keeping a clean workspace. Maybe I’ll finally turn a corner now that I have my office just right. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
Anyhow, the spring cleaning day has done me some good in the immediate. I can see everything on my desk, and I have a functioning inbox for the work that needs doing. My telephone isn’t behind a pile of papers now, and my scanner can be used for scanning, rather than setting hidden beneath a stack of folders.
It’s a start. Next step: maintenance – I need to keep things picked up to prevent driving my employees crazy. And who knows? Maybe I’ll graduate to having some pride in my decluttered work area. Anything is possible…
Matt Pearl owns and operates newspapers The Tri-County Ledger
