I tend to be be an obsessive person. When something takes my fancy, I try to learn every detail and explore the topic as much as I can, until I grow bored of it or find another thing to obsess over. Lately, its been decluttering and organising workspaces.

As I’ve commented in the past, its one of my goals to declutter and organise my room and desk. Despite all external appearances, I am not a tidy person when it comes to my room. Its always been a constant struggle between my attachment to things (whether it be for their possible usefulness in the future or some kind of sentiment toward the object) and my ultimate desire of a clean and organised living state. In the past, I’ve settled for a somewhat organised chaos, where I’d dump things, but they’d be dumped in a specific place. I was left with piles of stuff, but I knew what was in each pile. This method sufficed for awhile.

Now that I’ve hit uni, I find that I spend (alot) less time at home and when I get home I’m generally too tired to do anything. So I’ve decided that my organised chaos method is not good enough anymore, and I now need to be an organisation nazi. My first plan of attack involved a blitzkrieg on my desk, the central working area. as of this moment, the desk top has some bare necessities on it: Lamp, Computer screen, keyboard/mouse, speakers, a mug with pens/pencils, clock, in/out box, Moleskines (to keep within easy reach) and other stationary items (such as post-it notes).

This is but the first stage of my decluttering of my desk space. I plan on organising all the unsightly wires under my desk (using cable ties and various other methods to keep them out of sight and out of mind) whilst also preparing space for another computer (which I should be acquiring in the second half of the year). Similarly, the drawers need to be cleared out of the stuff that is already in there (such as my collection of Star Wars novels attained throughout the years) and replace them with things that are better suited for those positions. Of course, just clearing out the desk isn’t enough anymore. After that is done, I’ll need to implement a system to streamline how everything is organised on the desk, most probably centered around the In/Out trays.

Anyway, this bout of madness and insanity was brought upon after reading one of the blogs I frequent, where I found a link to a fascinating flickr group. Whilst the majority of people there are Mac Users, I find alot of their workplaces quite appealing. The particularly good ones had this special quality, that je ne sais quoi. Its as if their workplace is inviting them to work. Sometimes its the sheer simplicity of it all, sometimes its the beauty, sometimes its just inspiring. These dens of creativity are somewhere I would not mind doing work.

I’ll probably post some pictures up at a later date when I am finally happy with the state of organisation in my room.

- Dom
Take a seat, take your life. Plot it out in black and white.

Edit: Here’s a decent otaku room that yappa found.