When my mind and life get cluttered, so do my physical environments. When I lived on my own, it was the whole apartment. Now, it’s pretty much confined to my home office. But as I celebrate the end of the semester and contemplate what to do with myself this summer, I scan the office and see much clutter.
Starting on my far left and moving clockwise (that’s left to right, for you folks who only know digital clock faces), I see:

• My graphic novels and comics bookcase, groaning with unread material
• Two small wicker baskets holding 1) an Airport Extreme router I’ve not been able to sell and 2) a stack of old MacWorld magazines, a MacBook for Dummies, and a binder of Take Control ebook printouts
• On my desk, books to take back to the library
• My seltzer can
• My overflowing inbasket
• My 10-year diary
• My MacBook and laptop stand
• My desktop PC and monitor with old CDs in the hutch and a 5-ft CD rack sitting atop a 2-drawer filing cabinet
• A poster I’ve not had time or opportunity to put on the wall
• Stand with a boombox and 2 big messy piles of CDs, with a turntable (unplugged, bereft) on the lower shelf
• My banjo case and materials (restarted my lessons this week)
• A box where I’m collecting books to take to BDFAR for trade
• And let’s stop there, shall we?

Zoiks. Probably the first thing I should do, to put my mind in order, is to put my environment in order. As without, so within.