Do Professional Organizers Keep Their Desks Neat All the Time? See for Yourself!

UPDATED - 8/09

This weekend, Monica Ricci  (who is hosting the HGTV Spring Get Organized Challenge! for the next eight weeks) and I were emailing and discussing Meyers Briggs personality types. On one website, my personality type (ENTP) was described as "messy & disorganized"  SEE:  http://similarminds.com/jung/entp.html    (WHO ME??? SEE my rebuttal at the end of this post)

Monica on the other hand was described and "neat & organized".   So Monica had the brilliant idea to post pictures of our desks on our blogs so we could see for ourselves!  I thought it would be great to challenge all professional organizers who blog as well as other bloggers to do the same thing! 

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Welcome to my Office!  Here's my desk pix taken at 7:00 AM  this morning.

Desk 1 - Where I write, talk on the phone, process mail, work on projects, to do's etc.

To the left on the wall are my horizontal trays which allow me to indulge my "piler" tendencies without looking too messy.  One tray has a box for me to dump coupons in, and one for me to put things I want to talk to my husband about, and one for my P-Touch)

I also keep my calendar (the black open binder) to the left.  The purple folders are my client files, (which I wrote about here - Clutter Clearing Pays Off Big Time!) The yellow folders are my project files. My office phone which you can barely see is in front of my purple files.  My backup phone (home line) is the one on the upper shelf.

On my desk are projects and TO DOs in progress.  To the right, my printer, scanner, copier & pens. My recycle bins for paper and plastic are under my desk drawers, and my financial files are to my right.  My shredder is on the floor under my computer desk.

This 2 desk setup allows me to open mail and then instantly either toss, recycle, shred, put dates in my calendar, list to dos in my to do notebook, put the papers in my action files, make a call, type an email, or just file it away.  It may not be extremely pretty or neat, but it works for me!

DESK 2 - My computer Desk, with a home for my cat Alex!

Here you can see all my timers I use to keep myself on track and to time projects when I'm doing client work in my office vs. on-site. My inbox is to the left as is my essential oil diffuser and oils. 

And there's Alex, my adorable cat, who you may remember from these posts a year ago when he took over my TO DO basket!

http://blog.neatandsimple.com/blog/2006/02/heres_a_purrfec.html

http://blog.neatandsimple.com/blog/2006/02/purrfect_conten.html

Okay, so my desks are NOT perfectly neat.  But do I look terribly messy & disorganized to you? Let me know what you think & leave me a comment!  

While you are here, why not <B>pick up my FREE organizing and clutter tips in my ebooks</B>

And now I challenge my organizer and blogger friends...Can we see your desks???  See my complete list of organizers' and bloggers' who have shown us their desks!

Leave me a comment and let us know when you've shown us your desk!  : )   I'll add you to the list here!

My rebuttal to the description of my personality type as seen at: 

http://similarminds.com/jung/entp.html

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acts without thinking, wild and crazy, dangerous, fearless, careless, thrill seeker, life of the party,  experience junky

(not since I was a teenager - I admit I did ride my bike down a set of stairs when I was 12 and ended up in the hospital...and I did hitchhike to FL when I was 13.  So I suppose I was rather fearless then, but today?  I'm very boring and I generally think a lot before acting : )

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risk taker, outgoing, social, open, rule breaker, adventurous, spontaneous,i mproviser, not into organized religion, pro-weed legalization, adaptable, comfortable in unfamiliar situations, appreciates strangeness, (generally true)

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messy, disorganized, !!!!!  (I can be at times when I'm really involved in a project, used to be worse and I do have to work at staying organized...it was never extreme, though.)

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dominant (my husband calls me "the will" because I make things happen.  So yeah, at times, even though I hate to admit it - I do have dominant tendencies and tend to get my way a lot at home)

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emotionally stable, talented at presentation, (I hope this is true!)

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player, always joking, aggressive, attention seeking, insensitive,  (nobody who knows me would agree with these, I do have a sense of humor, but i tend to be serious and philosophical, I'm also very sensitive to people's feelings and don't like to call attention to myself other than through writing and teaching.)

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carefree, easy going, not easily offended  (I try to be these!) 

Comments

[Jeri Dansky]

Hi Ariane,

OK, my desk is here:
http://jdorganizer.blogspot.com/2007/04/professional-organizers-show-their.html

Jeri

[Jessica Duquette]

Hey, Ariane, I LOVE this idea! I don't want anyone to think I am chickening out, but I won't be home until next week. I will post my photos then, I promise!

Hey...I am an ENFJ, I have to look up what that means about me, but my desk is not nearly as neat as yours (I have an "L" shaped one, similar to two desks), but I am ok with how it is as it works for me.

It was great seeing you the other day and I will write about that, too. Too busy working 9 1/2 hr days here and kicking butt!

hugs,

Jessica

[Sheryl]

It's okay, I'm an ISTJ, and I'm supposed to be the poster child for order. NOT!

[Monica Ricci]

My desk pic is up on my blog finally! Click my name to see it.

[Meg]

I found this post from Laura @ I'm an organizing junkie, and I just had to post to say.....countertops are the secret to "looking" neat and organized. This is at work of course, at home I don't even use my desk. I'm thinking of throwing it out in my next decluttering session. See work desk at this page: http://futurequeenoforganizing.blogspot.com/2006/11/after.html