Shoveling Out the Office and Letting Go

Okay, not shoveling-shoveling. But while dh was struggling to get my new computer running right, I looked around my office. It's not big, maybe 8 and 1/2 feet x 11'. It's well organized and usually sorta neat, unless I'm in research mode. In that case, there are PILES everywhere. Still,it was hard not to notice how much extraneous stuff filled my bookshelves, desk drawers, and standing file, not to mention the top of my desk, work table, and printer stand. Amazing how you collect and forget things you no longer need.

So in between long periods when dh was waiting for the techie, I showed him things that were his or that I thought might be useful in the future. Three wastebaskets later, my bookshelves and desk drawers looked good. Then I looked thru my (hard copy) promotion,review,book events and organizational files.

Dang! That stuff approached pre-historic. Current files like this go straight onto my computer these days. The interesting part of this task was that I realized I loved reading my reviews, feeling and smelling newspaper copy, throwing out old email and URL's that I knew must be defunct by now. My two bulletin boards, BTW, are fine.

What remained was pretty much stuff I use all the time (or plan to use) and my bulging standing file. One drawer from it especially--the one holding old mss. that never sold--I'm not quite ready to toss them.

Who knows, maybe a MG historical about a Shaker boy or a Holocaust novel set in a Polish convent will interest someone if and when the market improves.

Right.

Hey, TLC's nightly commercial "breaks"(which occur every 10 minutes and last four) should allow me plenty of time to throw out dusty old research files and pix. More than enough time to look over old mss., too.

And I bet that will be fun, until I have to throw them out.
And I can, really.
As long as I still have a copy on my hard drive.