What is in my desk drawer?

Wouldn’t you like to know?

By Jeff Salter

Our topic concerns the contents of drawers… presumably those in our office / study / writing place.

Before I reply (concerning my present situation), let me clarify the arrangement I had in my WORK office for most of my 26 years in the library administration job from which I retired in 2006. [On most Saturdays, my work office became my personal desk for handling my bills and any creative writing projects that I had going.]

That large desk had a spacious center drawer which held pens, markers, highlighters, pencils, paper clips, etc. I think I also had keys in there and certain important lists. Probably some TicTacs and Lifesavers, too. That desk also had three drawers on one side — and those held various publications, certain files, and miscellaneous paperwork. The other side of that desk had one top drawer which held about the same as the other three… plus a drawer which held upright file folders. I no longer remember which files were in that largest desk drawer, because my office had three short metal cabinets with two drawers each for other files. [I think at least four of those six drawers were for correspondence of various kinds.] Presumably the files in my desk had more importance than the others in the metal cabinets.

No, this is NOT my desk / office… but there are times mine looks nearly this bad.

Present situation

Now, fast-forward to late 2017 when we moved into our newly built house on Fossil Hill on my wife’s ancestral farm in the heart of Possum Trot. Here in my narrow study, I have mostly book shelves [9 units of varying sizes which feature some 34 shelves of varying dimensions], eight metal file drawers, 4 wooden file drawers (under-utilized because of their construction and the narrow space I have to move about in), a few milk crates, and more boxes than I can count.

My primary workstation – which holds my desktop PC and monitor – features a high cabinet and a low cabinet. But no drawers in this “desk”. I miss that desk drawer… and make up for it by keeping a lot of clutter on the “easel” which sits between the bottom of my monitor and the top of my keyboard. It’s modified from what arrived with this unit, but necessity is the mother of invention.

Question

What about YOU? If you have a desk drawer – at home or work – what’s inside it? Are we even allowed to know?

Related discussions

For a look at previous blogs dealing with somewhat related issues, have a look at these:

Space, the Writing Frontier

Where Did All That Come From?

[JLS # 534]