I’m taking a moment to catch my breath and rest my feet, here in my office, and as I look around I am once again struck by how annoying all of this clutter is. I may not be the most organized human ever to grace the surface of the planet, but I’m also not terribly fond of messy spaces. Every so often I’m able to perform upkeep on my immediate working space, but most of the time I simply lack the time and/or energy.

Let’s see…

• Three sets of writing utensils
• Two sticky pads
• Two stacks of “important” printouts
• One stack of old hard drives
• One stack of computer cards (one video, one network, one sound: the old “holy trinity” of the hand-built PC)
• Five baggies containing random computer-related paraphernalia (such as: screws, cords, connectors)
• One PCI slot cover
• One PS/2-to-USB converter
• Two sets of keyboard/wristrest/mouse/speakers
• Three monitors
• One flashlight
• One stack of KVM gear
• One paper clip

That’s just what’s on the surface of my desk. I won’t bore you with the contents of the shelves, or what’s on top of the filing cabinet, let alone what’s inside the filing cabinet, or what’s piled up alongside both doors to my tiny office. Did I mention there’s a workbench in the server room with its own drawers and shelving?

I think, sometimes, that what I need isn’t a technical lackey but rather an administrative assistant…