Week Three Purge: Inside the Desk

Zone: Inside the Desk

Well, I'd say that this project of simplicity is in some ways more challenging than I thought. I do have a habit of purging every once in awhile and apparently, I was more "bare-bones" inside my desk than I realized. Nonetheless, I found ten items I could get rid of:

1.  50-foot phone cord.  Who uses phone lines anymore? - free pile

2.  Citibank battery-operated calculator/clock I got for free at a conference.  It would be useful if there was a way to power it off.  As it is, it doesn't power off (because of the clock function I presume) without removing the battery.  I have several clocks and a mini solar-powered calculator that I've had since college.  So the Citibank chotcky can go bye-bye - free pile

3.  A pile of used batteries that need recycling.  We have two battery recycling buckets at the office (one for regular batteries; one for rechargeables); I just need to take them in - recycling

4.  "Heart John" button.  A left-behind item from Johnny who last subletted my apartment.  I kept it around for awhile in case he ever missed it and wanted it back.  It's been a year and a half; I'm assuming no.  Same goes for 5. "Fanny Floss" jokester butt floss and 6. pirate's eye cap.  - All three of Johnny's lovely left-behinds are going in the trash.

7.  APS film camera.  I kept it around - just in case - but haven't used a film camera in at least five years.  If I do decide to go to film, I will be using the 20+ year old Kodak manual camera my father dug out for me a month ago - free pile

8.  Luggage lock.  I lost the keys when I was in Korea.  It's useless  - trash

Speaking of keys, I have a baggie filled with random keys.  Here's one thing I wasn't able to do: get rid of any of them.  I can't get over the queasy feeling that I would be tossing something away important yet unknown...

9.  Pile of useless pens.  That's right - I went through dozens of pens and tested each one.  These are the ones that don't work and are just taking up space - trash

10.  Seafair King Neptune pin - Actually, I'm still on the fence on this one.  Uncle Bob Santos gave this to me the summer (2007) that he was Seafair King Nepture.  During a particularly difficult time when I was acting Executive Director at IDHA, he came over to the office and anointed me as a special Seafair honoree.  It really made my day, and tossing this item would likely toss away that memory - as I had forgotten it until the moment I started writing this post.

I might have to come up with eleven items next week.  Next zone: On top of the desk (including over the desk shelves).