I had a friend by the name of Jack Kellam, God rest his soul. But one of the things I noticed about him was that whenever he got a piece of important information on a piece of paper, or maybe some inventory list, or packing list, and didn’t want to deal with it at the moment, he would, without hardly opening the drawer, slide it into the middle drawer of his desk where it would be safe.
I really don’t know if he ever went through that drawer.
Ever.
I have a rather large desk that is in my study. It’s got seven drawers that face where I sit down, and it also has a very large center drawer that is shallow. I, too, like Jack, have oftentimes put stuff in there thinking that one day I am going to go through it, and rarely ever do.
I had some inspiration the other night from who
knows where, and took out the drawer and walked into my living room and just turned it over on my living room Berber rug. It took me two different days to try to sort through it all.
I know I had over 45 pens and pencils which were all of good quality. I had dozens of paper pads that I have gotten in the mail from non-profit organizations. I always kept those, thinking I might need to take one out and write some note on it, but I never did. I instead would get some envelope on the top of my desk and write on the back of it whatever I was talking about on the phone, or doing some quick figuring. I also had bolt parts to shelves, ear buds I’ve never used, lots and lots of calling cards that I fool myself into thinking I better keep these just in case. I’ll bet I’ve got close to 100 of those! A bag full of twisty ties. The scroungiest paper clips you ever saw, even though I have also a package of brand new paper clips as well, etc.
I threw a lot away. But if you had not seen it before, you’d look at it now and wonder why I was so messy.