Being tidy

I really wish I was tidy… I do try but obviously I don’t try hard enough, and something more interesting or important happens halfway through, or my new system for filing and putting away things just leads to lost things and frustration and untidiness in the search for important and vital thing which was put away.

We have too much stuff… far too much stuff… if I look round the small room where I work I am horrified by the amount of stuff I have, but also the way it is organised… but I have yet to find a system which accommodates everything and yet is useful and usable.

• window sill: half a dozen pistachio shells, one mug, one wine glass a plastic tub with a couple of highlighters, a picture of my mum, a plug and cable, a Buddha, a pottery mug my sister made with pens, pencils, scissors, ruler, and empty box, a small plastic bottle of squash
• desk: computer, piles of random papers (including forms from the Inland revenue and Student Finance, handouts from my Gaelic class, bits of paper with jottings etc) 2 cameras, mug, toothpaste, mirror, note books, pile of DVDs, pile of CDs, a towel, a cheque book, pens, post-its, cookery book, a bell from the neck of a Lindt bunny… and more
• under the desk: two old laptops, bos of empty notebooks/exercise books/refills, box of envelopes and stationary, box of old manuscripts and writing, box of CDs,, case of CDs, pictures yet to be hung up, empty plastic bottle… and a pile of paper to be recycled – or filed
• small table with printer on it, printer paper beneath it
• set of drawers; photos, photographic paper, old photos/articles/bits cut out of newspapers etc, old stamp albums possibly full of priceless old stamps
• bookcases by the door: books, photograph albums, photo of my mum, cds,teddy,model aeroplane
• on top of bookcase by the door: cd player/radio,cd rack, 2 souvenir empty beer bottles, phone, used printer ink cartridges, cd rack stand thing, pottery statue of a singer, deer antlers (real ones) ball of string, dud battery, 2 hard drives
• bookcases by the window: books, storage boxes containing miscellaneous forgotten items but including old writing, magazines, stationery things
• on top of bookcases by the window: baskets of greetings cards – ready for any occasion, Mavericks’ LP, wipes, books, tub of drawing pins
• floor… stuff, so much stuff… including ukulele, portrait of my grandmother leaning against a radiator (the picture is, she isn’t), box full of family history stuff, Chineasy – teach yourself Chines card set… and more stuff
• in the doorway: small suitcase, waste-paper bin (empty) set of Game of Thrones books

… and this is the smallest room in the house (apart from the downstairs loo! – which, by the way is probably the tidiest and emptiest room in the house!)

…Oh and there are pictures on all the walls…