I try and keep my office organized and free from clutter, but since it’s part of the house and I’m not the only one living here it accumulates clutter from time to time. Usually that’s not a problem. Things that have a place simply need to go back to where they belong.
It’s when things show up that don’t have a place when I have a problem.
But I also have a solution: make a hole.
Frankly, it’s not my idea. This one comes from Aristotle. “Nature abhors a vacuum.” As far as I can tell, nature is fine with vacuum and emptiness. It’s people who have problems with empty spaces about the places where we live and work.
If you clear a spot on your bookshelf, the pressure to fill it will become intense. Clear a spot in a corner or the floor and you’ll be looking for something to put in that space. The simple act of creating an empty space can start a chain reaction of moving objects, which creates more holes that must be filled.
This happened to me the other day when I needed to move five books from a table. I started looking for places to put them on the bookshelves in our family room. As I shifted books to place them by category I had to remove other books and re-categorize them. Before I was done a half an hour later I had completely reorganized four different shelves.
In my office we got rid of the aquarium and the cabinet that sat on. It occupied the space to the left of the entrance to the room for years. I’m staring at the empty space now. It is creating a need to fill it. The contents of the cabinet are piled at the foot of my office bookcase. The clutter is annoying. But soon, the empty space and clutter will resolve back into order.
Dealing with a cluttered desk? Take a big box and put everything on your desk into it, then put it in the middle of the floor. Your empty desk will call for the things that you require. For everything else, find a place where they belong, just not on the surface of your desk. For the things that don’t have a place or a purpose, send them out into the world (recycle, gift, sell, dispose of).
You there. Make a hole. Now see how long you can tolerate it being empty.
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