New desk among many changes at the North household

Here is the top of my desk, nice and neat. Maybe I can get some work done now.

Over the past year, Paul and I have made many changes, which we put off for far too long. We have begun purging our home of stuff that we no longer need or never needed in the first place. We’ve eliminated clutter – physical and mental – that have bogged us down for so long.

One big change came several weeks ago when we installed new kitchen appliances. Paul had been our dishwasher for the last two years. We had also whittled our way down to one burner on the stove, so meals were cooked and eaten in stages. The refrigerator froze anything that got pushed back more than six inches from the door. I find I’m still stuck in the habit of keeping things at the front in the new fridge. Everything takes time and 13 years of a habit takes a while to break.

We also purchased a new bed to replace our 20-year old bed. A dresser for me will be coming along with it. Both should arrive in the next week or so.

Harvey is unsure what I am about to do.

Our latest purchase is a new computer desk for me. We are in the process of transforming our spare bedroom into a home office and my current computer desk will go there. It is a massive desk and I love it, but it takes up at least 30 percent of living room. I spent hours assembling the new desk and disassembling my current desk while you get to enjoy this photo essay about the process and some of the stuff that was on my desk.

A “clean” day at my desk.

From left to right on the desk is the alarm clock my grandmother gave me the money for when I went to college. I purchased it in 1989 during my sophomore year at the Walgreens in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska. I don’t like ticking clocks, so it sits in my living room.

“The Lovers,” next to the dinosaur my grandmother got me, is made of hand-cut stone. It shows two lovers in an embrace that lasts forever. I really liked the way the colors of the stone blended together. When I got it home, I realized the bottom was not flat so it wobbles a little. I thought about having it smoothed down, but that takes away from the piece of art and I like the idea that, even though the two may wobble, they will never fall apart.

I purchased the machete (in front of the alarm clock) in at the Mwenge Woodcarvers Market in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania in 2005. I hope I never have to use it. I brought it back in my backpack – sticking out the entire time – and even opened it a few times on the plane ride back to New York. No one cared and a lot of people thought it was cool.

There’s my stack of hand-written things I need to get typed up and a squishy shark to help with staying grounded during the tough times next to my copy of “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius. It has quickly become one of my favorite books, even surpassing my all-time favorite “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson. I rarely reread books and this is my third time through “Meditations.” It has been useful, comforting, and thought-provoking on so many levels for me.

Behind “Meditations” is a stack of full notebooks ready to be turned into stories. I always have one of these in my pocket, ready for whatever thought pops into my head. I never know when a great story or crappy poem is going to arrive in my brain.

My favorite picture in the world rests just behind my Nikon D7000. It is the only selfie ever taken of me and reminds me of a great day at work with my friend, Charissa. The stack of books should get smaller soon. I’ve finished some of them. I also need to learn not read five books at the same time.

What’s that on top of my computer tower? Well here’s a closeup.

From left to right, front to back: The green and pink dinosaurs were a gift from my grandmother when I went to college in 1988. I graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in Anthropology. Although my first love was cultural anthropology and 90 percent of my anthropology classes were in those classes, I always enjoyed dinosaurs. Even today my lunch bag has dinosaurs on it.

I picked up the tiger somewhere along the way. It has been with me for the better part of the last 27 years. The green glass is a piece of broken bottle I found about 2/3 of the way up Chimney Rock. You’re not supposed to climb Chimney Rock. It’s one of those nice, old bottles with thick glass, so I presume it’s been up there a while.

The lizard I found on the ground during a walk when we lived in Endicott, New York while Paul was attending graduate school at SUNY-Binghamton. The space shuttle is Paul’s, but somehow found its way onto my desk. The critter next to it came out of a Kinder Surprise in June while I was in England. Kinder Surprise is banned in the United States because they assume kids will eat the toy inside, thus forever marking Americans as dumbasses.

The blue poison dart frog was a gift from my grandmother. She found it while cleaning her house about 20 years ago and assumed it must have belonged to me somewhere along the way. She might be right. I lost a lot of toys in her house.

I built C-3PO in 1984, I think. I had also built a plastic model KITT car and a Star Wars speeder bike from Return of the Jedi. I was just about to start painting the speeder bike when our new landlord entered our home unannounced to tell us he was evicting us. He purposely smashed what I spent months constructing, but I was able to save C-3PO.

It’s hard to see, but a piece of nutmeg rests between C-3PO’s feet. It came from my spice farm tour in Zanzibar.

The back row, from left to right, with a mini bobblehead of former New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza that came out of a cereal box. The blue duck was given to me by my friend Candice. Paul and I purchased the flags after touring the United Nations in New York City. Osiris and Anubis came from a museum in Raleigh we visited during the time we lived in Southern Pines, North Carolina. I still regret not purchasing the entire line of Egyptian gods, but we were super poor then and I could only afford two. I picked Osiris and Anubis because of Stargate SG-1. Also, I kind of like Anubis and think he gets a bad rap sometimes.

The Soylent Green crackers box are a joke. I like the movie. The crackers were crap. The dinosaur, along with another one on my desk, were gifts from my grandmother. The leaf on top of the Soylent Green cracker box was under my desk at the Star-Herald for the 5.5 years I worked there. The leaf was there when I arrived and served as proof that no one ever vacuumed under my desk. I took it with me when I left.

My helpers inspect the packaging to make sure there was no damage.

Overall, I like my new desk. It will help me stay organized. The printer will eventually go upstairs to our office. The desk is taller than my old desk, so I have to get used to it. My feet don’t touch the floor, but such is the life of a short person.

I was going to put something on that shelf, but the inspectors aren’t finished yet.

I don’t like the “slide-y” keyboard tray. That won’t be a problem for long. Once the oil starts to wear off, the issue will go away. For now, sticking my leg between the keyboard tray and my chair does the trick. I have no opinion on having my mouse on my desk. I have just spent the last 17 years with it on the keyboard tray. It’s a minor adjustment.

There is a lot more room in this area now. I think the lamp will stay here until the printer moves upstairs. Otherwise, we will just not even use the lamp. Paul and I have eye issues and like the dark anyway.

Since my new desk is much smaller, there is less room for clutter. I had to be selective about what items stayed on my desk. The things that matter to me most will stay.

Here is the top of my desk, nice and neat. Maybe I can get some work done now.

There was only one injury during the process. I dropped the box on my right, big toe and I smashed my left hand and left ring finger on the second knuckle. It was the kind of smashing that brings instant tears, but leaves little pain residue a few minutes later.

The process took about seven hours. The breakdown is as follows: 1 hour to take everything off the old desk and take the old desk apart; 5.5 hours to put the new desk together; and 30 minutes to arrange everything on my new desk and be back up and running.

Shiny.

One thing Paul and I have learned this year is we have a lot of stuff because we didn’t have stuff when we were little. As adults, we bought stuff we didn’t need or more of something we needed because we didn’t have it in our youths. For example, does anyone really need two dozen 64-128 GB USB drives?

Not only do we have more physical space, it frees up the stress you put on yourself when you think about all the things you have and what you should do with them. If you don’t need it, get rid of it. It’s a burden you don’t need and your relaxed brain will thank you later.