How to get rid of excess baggage

I have always been the type that finds it difficult to let go--of people, memories, and things, most especially. I bring a lot of baggage along (so BF always says, although always in a slightly different context).

The result: every square inch of the earth's surface that I have ever been on, I have left piled up with things--all sorts of things--at one point or more, or even forever. I want to show you what I mean.

This is a snap shot of one corner of my workstation back when I was still there full-time. (Those who know me know that I've been trying to limit my trips to the office to twice a week--max!) If this were a panoramic shot, you'd see that there is thrice as much mess. "I work better when I'm in the midst of rubbish," is the excuse that I always give. And there's always the "I haven't even had the time to come up for air so you can't expect me to have time to clean up" alibi.

Maybe there's some truth in these excuses. But mostly, I simply find it a lot easier to manage five clients at a time than to make sure the mess doesn't pile up. It takes a lot of effort for me to monitor the piles of paper, much more to keep them to a maximum height of an inch or two. Besides, it's mentally exhausting to sort out the ones that you still need from the ones that you still might need in the future, from those that someone else might need, from those that you can throw away.

Ask my mom, and she would tell you that when she would drop by my former office, she would be compelled to clean up my desk because she just couldn't stand the sight of it and because she thought no human being should be suffered to work in such a dismal environment. 

"And what about the two-day-old fries that we found underneath the papers?" I can almost hear Anne ask.

To that, I'd say: "I haven't even had the time to come up for air so you can't expect me to have time to finish my fries, or remember that I didn't finish them pala!"

Today, I made my momma proud.

Blame it on that 5S chorvah, or blame it on their threat of throwing all my work belongings into the incinerator. On a Tuesday afternoon (despite the fact that ed board was moved to Wed), I had to rush to the office to claim my important stuff, and throw the rest that I think I could live without. In the process, I found that the easiest way to do it is to sort them out into two piles only: 1) those that I want to keep, and 2) those that I don't. At the end of the exercise, I was able to salvage two boxes, one basket, one paperbag and one bag of the things I thought I would miss; and one full pushcart of the things I didn't want. Oh, and I kept the recyclable bond papers and placed them in the pile next to the printer din!

So this is how my workstation now looks...

 

Now I just need to remember to work somewhere else whenever I come by.