I recognised the symptoms; interesting projects are being stored in all the right places, the hopper in which the ‘will-be-fixed’ items are placed has started overflowing, and along with the ‘essential-but-it-is-winter’ (so can’t be stored in the shed) the leftover bits from work exercises and the quirky-but-fun presents from family have started to accumulate on the only available spaces in my study and I think they have started to breed.

The evidence is unmistakable, even if easily refutable.  The pile has grown larger in the past year since I refurbished and painted the room in place (moving piles around from corner to corner) and since setting up the standing desk with home treadmill and whiteboard wall.  The pile is now comfortable territory and sometimes I wave and greet familiar objects jutting from its edges – projects started one weekend and then abandoned when the working week intruded, or essential fixing tools which have to be close at hand when needed, then not returned to their place in some drawer.

As Stephen Covey observed (The Seven Effective Habits of Effective People) those who get the most done, decided beforehand what to do.  They prioritise, they categorise, they get things done.  Mostly, I’d have to admit, by deciding a lot of what not to do.

So the need remains, and I have one radical solution.  Dump it all in my son’s room.  He’s away at university and I can pretend that sweeping it into there will somehow help me declutter myself over here.  Done.