Monday, August 14, 2006
Home Office Organization
I am a very organized person - hypothetically. I am also a packrat (nothing hypothetical about that one), although I prefer being called a collector.
I like everything to be in it's place. The problem is, I have too many things and not enough places.
I am working on organizing my home office space - my one bastion of freedom to display my collected items without persuading my lovely wife that other normal people would actually think 'it looks good'. In my space I am surrounded by my collecting successes - actions figures, old and/or foreign coins, Army Antz from 1984, magnets displayed on a dryer panel, unsold pictures from April's display, road maps from an internet 'experiment', little people, cameras, viewmasters and toy trucks, books and letters, metal file boxes and Rubbermaid containers big enough to hold cold drinks for an out-of-control tailgate party.
And struggling hard to belong in this evolving display are a 3-hole punch, stapler, shredder and file tray - home office denizens embracing the theory that longevity will earn them the right to function as they were intended. I can just imagine the 3-tier file tray looking over at the 3-hole punch late at night and whispering, "he actually used you while processing the power bill yeterday, didn't he? wow, maybe one day I'll get an inbox label and he'll throw out some of these Travel Montana 2005 magazines..."
Well, this afternoon I discarded nearly 20 LBs of glossy paperbound travel enticements that were sent to me for the sum of their value, in exchange for my name on too many state and provincial mailing and emailing lists, and the 3-tier file tray is now 2/3rds free. The freedom that this simple action brought was suddenly sullied by the realization that this irreversible step created the need for labels. Not simple labels that ring of familiarity - 'inbox' and 'outbox' would not survive in this culture of collections. The file tray would be mocked by the light of the glowing green 'online' indicator on the Shaw modem as I work at my real office. NO! If the tray is to function effectively, it needs labels that call out and direct the appropriate documents and invoices to their places! It needs 3 labels that communicate the same painfully clear messages to all who chance upon them - "Put unprocessed paperwork here!", "Put things to read and ponder here!, "Put things here that need to be filed somewhere else, but ensure that these very same documents do not require further thought than that lest they be filed away never to be seen again until some strange employee at a large collection agency calls requesting the forgotten payment or I notice that I haven't received the annual report because I didn't change my address when I moved so long ago!".
Those are the labels that I need.
But those are far too many words - people don't read since the internet became such a common tool, they skim. Can you help me while I look for my labelmaker?
I like everything to be in it's place. The problem is, I have too many things and not enough places.
I am working on organizing my home office space - my one bastion of freedom to display my collected items without persuading my lovely wife that other normal people would actually think 'it looks good'. In my space I am surrounded by my collecting successes - actions figures, old and/or foreign coins, Army Antz from 1984, magnets displayed on a dryer panel, unsold pictures from April's display, road maps from an internet 'experiment', little people, cameras, viewmasters and toy trucks, books and letters, metal file boxes and Rubbermaid containers big enough to hold cold drinks for an out-of-control tailgate party.
And struggling hard to belong in this evolving display are a 3-hole punch, stapler, shredder and file tray - home office denizens embracing the theory that longevity will earn them the right to function as they were intended. I can just imagine the 3-tier file tray looking over at the 3-hole punch late at night and whispering, "he actually used you while processing the power bill yeterday, didn't he? wow, maybe one day I'll get an inbox label and he'll throw out some of these Travel Montana 2005 magazines..."
Well, this afternoon I discarded nearly 20 LBs of glossy paperbound travel enticements that were sent to me for the sum of their value, in exchange for my name on too many state and provincial mailing and emailing lists, and the 3-tier file tray is now 2/3rds free. The freedom that this simple action brought was suddenly sullied by the realization that this irreversible step created the need for labels. Not simple labels that ring of familiarity - 'inbox' and 'outbox' would not survive in this culture of collections. The file tray would be mocked by the light of the glowing green 'online' indicator on the Shaw modem as I work at my real office. NO! If the tray is to function effectively, it needs labels that call out and direct the appropriate documents and invoices to their places! It needs 3 labels that communicate the same painfully clear messages to all who chance upon them - "Put unprocessed paperwork here!", "Put things to read and ponder here!, "Put things here that need to be filed somewhere else, but ensure that these very same documents do not require further thought than that lest they be filed away never to be seen again until some strange employee at a large collection agency calls requesting the forgotten payment or I notice that I haven't received the annual report because I didn't change my address when I moved so long ago!".
Those are the labels that I need.
But those are far too many words - people don't read since the internet became such a common tool, they skim. Can you help me while I look for my labelmaker?
# posted by Anonymous : 11:54 PM
