Cleaning the office

Augh. I guess I last did an extensive office clean in 2006.

I decided it was time again, mainly because that was the best way (I figure) to find all the odds and ends of stuff I need for my promotion packet.

I started yesterday, with my computer desk. Cleared off the entire top, rearranged the "tea area" (such as it is - a small place next to the monitor (this is a computer desk with an elevated shelf for the monitor). The tea area holds my eat, plus a few "medicinal" items (Ibuprofen, hand cream, the herbal insect repellent I have to use now when I go out in the field) and also a small "emergency" packet of nuts and a couple fruit bars. (You never know when a freak thunderstorm will make it impossible to leave and get the lunch you had planned. Or, more sinisterly, there could be an "incident" on campus requiring us all to lock ourselves in our offices (for safety) for a period of time).

I also found my multitool and sewing kit, so they reside there now.

On the spot below that, is where I keep the tea mugs (I have two that I use, plus one now in use to hold pencils) and office supplies (chalk, paper clips, scissors, tape, tissues).

On the other side of the monitor shelf is my Happy Fun Spot, which got badly neglected and buried. This is where I keep all the odd little gew gaws I've collected. There's an upended (empty) turtle shell I found after a prairie burn (it holds business cards). I also have a nice old photo (15 years old, now) of my family and my uncle's family taken at his lake house. And I have the little Chanchito my friend Chris brought me back from a trip to South America. And the plastic frogs and lizards I bought to make the place seem more friendly. And a sand painting from the gift shop at (IIRC) Glen Canyon Dam when I was out there years back (It's a little landscape, made inside an inverted shot glass, and sealed up).

And I have the thermometer I poached from the ecology lab, so I can complain about how hot it is in my office. (Well, I have to either complain in degrees Celsius or do a conversion....) Right now it's 27* C, which is not too terrible, considering what it's been.

Of course, once I got done with that part, it slowed down considerably, because most of what I've been doing now is sorting papers. We're asked to keep (IIRC) 3 years of back student papers in case someone contests a grade. (I have never had that happen).

So far, I've got the tops of the filing cabinets clear. And I think I'm going to use the strategy in the future of (a) storing the box of "not legal to toss yet" student papers on one, and get some bookends for the other, and keep my textbooks-in-current-use on it. So I won't be so tempted to pile stuff there.

(Seriously? I could use an assistant just to deal with all the papers that cross my desk in a week.)

The other problem is tossing the papers. I TRY to recycle, but in my town, to recycle office paper, it must be shredded. Do you know what a drag it is to stand over a shredder with a copier box full of papers? So I'm going through and all the "non secure" items are going in a trash bag which (sorry, Mama Gaia) are going tot he landfill. Because, you know? I've lived in this office for four years with a box of "I'll get to shredding it someday" papers and I AM TOO BUSY WITH OTHER THINGS to do it.

The student papers, though, I still have to shred. Wharrrrrgarblllll. I don't know if I broke the shredder yesterday (it quit working) or if it just shut itself down (it does that after being used for a period of time).

Too bad I can't call Fawn Hall out of retirement (or whatever she's doing now) and get her to do my shredding for me. There aren't even any sensitive government papers involved!