What's on your desk?

By Maggie

When we first moved into this house, my "office" consisted of a giant Ikea tabletop in the guest room while my husband got the full use of the actual office downstairs. Then we had kids and I lost my fantastic-for-art-projects "desk" and found myself stuck with the dining room table. Since THAT was a total bummer I talked my husband into buying me this perfect-for-small-spaces desk from West Elm. LOVE. 

 

This desk has been crammed next to my side of the bed, crammed between my husband's desk and the treadmill in the office, and now it lives next to the couch in the living room. Since this is pretty much the only space that is ALL MINE, I wish I could keep it cute. However, please take a gander at the extreme lack of cute: 

 

The sad thing is? This is pretty cleaned up. (I'm practicing for showing the house!) 

Usually there are stacks of paper on either side of my laptop - the mail, magazines, notes to myself on one side and bills and receipts on the other. I had one of those paper sorter thingies but I, uh, have too many papers for those. Everything I finish and need to file goes on the pull out tray, hidden out of sight for six months until I remember to file them. 

In THIS picture we have, on the left, one glass vase, left over from my wedding, in which I will stick some red and orange gerber daisies come house showing time. Next to that is a confiscated toy. Also a magazine and a cookie. I need snacks when I pay the bills! On the right I have a galvanized tin full of different kinds of pens, a flashlight and a ruler. The pink tin is full of scissors and multicolored Sharpies and yes, I use all of these pens on a near daily basis. I LIKE PENS. There's also a tape dispenser I didn't put back in the drawer, my cell phone, my iPod shuffle and my favorite notepad. There's usually WAY more random junk on this surface (and tons more hiding behind the computer monitor), but I worked hard to put stuff away in preparation for showing the house. Would you believe this desk was all cleared off just HOURS ago? Containing nothing but a shiny computer, two cans of pens and an empty vase? I have no idea how this clutter happens. The only thing I'm sure will disappear is the chocolate chip cookie.

My desk has to be flexible. I can't hang anything on the wall above it because I'm always moving it around. There's not enough room on top for filing or storage. I try to keep a photo of my kids in view, but it always gets knocked over. One day it will have a room of its own and all the cute things it deserves, but for now it makes do with a slice of the living room and status as the surface on which Important Looking Papers Go To Die. 

What's on YOUR desk?

{photo credit: West Elm}

Comments

[HollyLynne]

On my desk currently:

A sewing machine, A pile of fabric, pieces for the sewing project I'm working on, sewing bits like a quilting ruler, chalk, corset boning and pins, a finished baby block, a bag of jingle bells.

. . . then . . .

A torch, three glass terrines filled with metalworking supplies (files, hammers, mandrels, etc.), a firing block, a metal block, a rubber block, a glass tub of pickling acid and a warming plate, letter metal stamps, solder, flux, tweezers, a third hand (not as morbid as it sounds), a fire extinguisher

3 framed photos: one of a Welsh chicken, one a caricature of me pregnant, one of me and my parents.

I couldn't make this s**t up.

You'd think it was a huge desk but it is actually probably a yard long by 2 feet deep.