I thought about titling this entry “Cleaning House,” but it seemed more misleading than content enhancing, so I went with this oh-so-much-more-descriptive title.

Stalled and stymied at my writing work, tired of playing marathon online solitaire, unwilling to look behind me at the shambles of my “working office,” I decided to tidy up my desktop. The onscreen one.

Uh-huh, I saw that. You immediately looked at the random docs and folders on your own screen, didn’t you?

But the problem goes so much deeper than just the cosmetic stuff on top. Layers of files in folders inside files in folders, inside more files in folders, ad infintum. It’s a wonder I can find anything in all this mess.

And yet, as I muck about in the depths of electronic crapstacking, I can see there is a glimmer of method to my madness. No one else could figure it out, but then I don’t suppose I could figure out someone else’s filing system either.

After nearly an hour of moving a few documents from one file to another, I decided that maybe I just need to straighten things up on top. Under “View” on the menu bar, I found this nicely worded entry: “Clean up by…” followed by a list in a pull-down menu.

There were six options for cleaning up one’s desktop and I could only image the havoc each of their choices would create to my personal space. I decided to leave well enough alone, and opened up the solitaire file.

Some things aren’t meant to change.