Desktop Disasters – Updated July 31st with #15!

I like to label my wife as a neat freak, but truth be told, Oscar the Grouch is a neat freak compared to me.

Something is always getting scrubbed, wiped, swept, rinsed, or vacuumed around here. Yet, even with as spotless as this house is thanks to her efforts, there is still one area of the home she avoids like the plague. My office.

Sure, she’ll dance this little sucky-thing contraption around my feet when she vacuums and give me a quick spritz of Febreeze, but that’s the extent of it. She knows better.

When it comes to my desk, I live amongst organized chaos, and try as she may to ignore it, it drives her absolutely mad. She repeatedly asks if I enjoy living in squalor and I think it’s cute that she expects more than a blank stare in response.

Today she remarked that if people could see my desk they’d lose all respect for me. I disagree. I don’t think it would take a photo.

But I’m posting one anyway and I have agreed to clean my desk if it is proven that I have the messiest desktop of those who share their photos with me.

So here’s the challenge. I want you to take a picture of your desk or (work area for those with laptops) AS-IS and email it me at deskmess@tellingdad.com. I’ll then post it below and we’ll just see where I fit on the sloppy scale. The clean freaks will have my wife’s admiration and thanks. The messy marvin’s of the group will have mine.

To start things off, I wanted to include a shot of my desk as it appears at the time of this writing along with completely reasonable justifications for everything on it.

1. Official paperwork from the US Trademark Office stating that our name is now a registered trademark. I need to file it but I have to find a folder first.

2. Current project workload.

3. My son’s flight stick.

4. The dictionary I used 3 weeks ago to look up the spelling of a word. The bookshelf is all the way on the other side of the room so here it sits.

5. My blackberry, external drive, charger, and some Sea World coupons we received to introduce the 2009 season.

6. Cupboard latches that I was asked to install in April.

7. Empty Hot Tamales box next to a bowl full of recently spittooned cherry pits. I don’t recommend the combo.

8. My second monitor tastefully decorated by my 7-year old.

9. NetFlix…all that ever adorns my second monitor.

10. Wires and cables in a tangled mess too dangerous to approach.

11. Keyboard that crunches as I type thanks to the cracker shards dropped by a son who eats like a woodchipper.

12. Bills that help hold my desk down and block the printer’s ability to function.

13. Stuff my daughter brings me from the paper recycle bin.

14. My front license plate that I was supposed to put on my car after getting a ticket for it in May.

See? Not so bad, right? Now I don’t need this kind of depth from you. Just a photo will suffice.


There are only THREE rules.

1) You must take a photo as your desk or work area appears RIGHT NOW (laptop users welcome). No cleaning allowed!

3) Comment on this post and give me your opinion on Your Mess (or lack thereof) versus Mine.

Submitted Photos! Please Add Yours!
So far, I think I’m losing the battle but I have faith that some of the more messy peeps simply can’t find their camera beneath the heaps of clutter.

Update: New Pic #8 hurt me but then #9 came in to help me gain some serious ground! It’s a close race again! And #10′s evening entry pushes me further into the lead. Although this may not count since I’m not sure that computer is even plugged in. But I’ll take it!

Ah ha! #10 helps even more now that the purveyor of that pile-up has admitted it is a fully functional computer. Beautiful. And #11 did me some favors as well. I’m telling myself there’s a computer under there somewhere.

#12 just came in and I think it was the death blow. Unless some really slobbinly peeps come to my rescue I will be forced to clean my desk and post the results come this weekend.

Big thanks to the Caffeine Bunch Morris Bunch for this submission. I think it’s safe to say that desks like #5, #8, and #12 are in the minority. This bodes well for me.

Tonight I received two distinctively different desktop shots. One that hurt me and one that REALLY helped me. I can’t thank her enough (promised she’d remain anonymous) for I think I’ve managed to win this one. #15 counts as half a vote because it’s not a home office and I’m sure there is a cleaning crew involved. #14 is clearly A) a home office, and B) ignored by any cleaning crew. In other words, it’s perfect.

Want to add your own? Please send it to deskmess@tellingdad.com! Thank you for your participation and for helping to prove me right.

To comment, just click the comments link below. As always, instant good karma awaits!