Less Desk Mess

So your desk is covered in crap. Is anyone except your mother going to care? Like any respectable college student, you have a vague idea of where most pertinent documents sit in that pile of compost you call a work area. From where you stand now, another newspaper that you're surely going to read later cannot possibly do any harm. Right? Wrong. When push comes to shove and you must have that outline for the midterm essay about Charlemagne's legacy as it pertains to the Napoleonic code in Cajun Louisiana in the early 20th century, it sure would help to be able to know exactly where it is instead of burrowing through a menagerie of pizza boxes and campus newspapers. Luckily, there are people chomping at the bit to help you mend your disorganized ways. Winifred Courtland is a Chicagobased professional organizer and a student at the College of Lake County. "In order to be highly functional," Courtland says, "[a desk] needs to be like a cockpit, with everything easily reachable." Courtland, who is sanctioned by the National Association of Professional Organizers, says the key to a workefficient desk is having everything you need available on top of the desk, so that you don't have to spend time getting up and down or searching through drawers. It may seem like no big deal to take two steps to grab your stapler, but at the end of the day all those short spurts add up. "If you have to get up every five minutes and get something, [you're] not really being efficient," Courtland says. Courtland recommends keeping the following on the top of the desk: computer monitor, printer, stapler, staple remover, pen and pencil cup, paperweight for notes, disk box, paperclips, post it notes and a small writing tablet. But in a college dorm room, there's not much space to begin with, so how can you relegate the entire desktop for studying purposes? Consider your options for space management. Eric Luna, a salesperson at The Container Store in Denver, says the key to making a small room operational is using vertical space. He suggests a unit called Skandia: a solid pine modular shelving unit that sits on top of the desk. It's 35 inches high and 12 to 16 inches deep and it retails for $29.99. You can also keep your desk pilefree by filing the stuff you're not using at the moment. This will help the whole working and studying process. The best thing to do, says Brit Katz, Emory University's assistant dean for campus life and director of residence life, is use a series of file folders stored under or away from the desk. Your various work projects, other reading materials, bills, letters, etc., can be stored in separate file folders. That way, you'll concentrate on one project at a time and know exactly where everything sits. In the effort to remove clutter and keep your desk simple and organized, don't make it too barren. Clearing everything except the computer and a telephone isn't good, Courtland says, because it will isolate you. "A couple pictures from home are pretty good to have on the desk," she says. You can glance over at your pals or Mom and Dad, then get back to work — knowing exactly what you're doing and where everything is.