Welcome to day 8 of decluttering to free your home and your mind.
When my children were young I could NEVER find a working pen. Now they have left home, every pen I ever bought has been found, everywhere, in great quantities. Plus more stationary than I will every use.
I am not blaming the children, it is easy for things left in one place to stay there if I am the only one doing the placing.
On a spring clean of my office, house, car, they appear. Coloured pencils that I used to painstakingly take a bit of wood off and write my child's name on. How many parents did this just before school resumed each year? Calculators, textas, the list could go on. I overflowed a 20 litre plastic box with these.
Then I was going to go through and see which ones worked. You know the process. Get a bit of paper and scribble on it to see if it worked, and if it did then put that to one side and if it didn't put it in the bin.
Well, this would be time consuming, and what would I do with them when I never use them myself? A phone call to friends who had children was the solution. Would they like a sleep over at Auntie Helen's house with fun games? Of course they would. One of the games was for THEM sort out the viable textas, sharpen the pencils etc. They LOVED it! The best part they said, was taking home everything that worked. One woman's trash is a child's treasure. Plus, we all got to have a fun sleepover.
As for the pens, I looked at the ones I really liked, kept them, and then gave the rest to the children. The calculators, rulers, sharpeners etc I gave to a local school. They were glad to get them and said they would give them to some children who didn't have them. A win-win all around.
I could have just thrown them out and bought new ones, but would not have had so much joy.
On your office desk, keep things to a minimum. 5 things are recommended:
Computer
A few pens and pencils
A notebook and post it notes
Landline or mobile phone and charger
Thank you cards and envelopes
Everything else can go into a handy drawer or container. Check out how many stationary items that are on your desk that you don't use daily. Store them away somewhere accessible, a handy close by drawer or container.
From personal experience I will vouch that this activity is rewarding, and the results are very pleasing both physically and mentally.
Happy Travels!
