The method for tidying

Lordy lordy look at the state of my desk! I'm working on a bunch of stuff that has a deadline, and apparently, the way for me to deal with it most efficiently is to have everything all over the place, lids off everything, 3 pairs of scissors on the go and my actual working area diminishing by the second. There's no method involved in creating this sort of mess - I get things out as I need them and just don't put them away! I have that fab glass mat from EK Success which is my work surface of choice, I can cut on it, glue on it, use it to store sticky tape, stamp on it, spill on it and abuse it more than you would the real surface. Then I stick it in the sink, scrub it and it's perfect all over again. But you can't tell because it's covered in stuff...the grid you can just see represents square inches, so despite my 6 foot table, you can clearly see that my actual working space is about 28 squared inches! How can anyone be so untidy? It's no more inspirational, but I think it is indicative of what happens to me when I (finally) get into the zone. I can't stop to tidy or put away - rather spend minutes looking for things. I get a slightly perverse pleasure from the increasing pile of the glasseine 'peelings' from foam pads and double sided tapes...it makes me feel like I'm working really fast. But it's an illusion created by the number of foam pads on the back of everything to be stuck down, rather than an indication of the masses of images I've cut out and created with! The strange thing about all this mess is that I'm perfectly comfortable with it while I'm working in it. As soon as I have to break off - 'phone, coffee, bathroom, coffee, food, coffee, stretch, coffee - whatever, as soon as I come back to it, I am ashamed and laughingly, can't imagine how I can work like this and get a bit uppity about the mess. Then I have to restore order before I can start again. Weird. Order comes slowly; no-one can help either, my fear of something necessary being thrown away is justifiably very high. I expect for outsiders, the temptation to sweep the lot into the bin would be very great indeed! So, more than in the creating, I have a method for clearing up! Pick out the scissors, pens, felt tips and such, re-pot them. Then collect adhesives, tapes, runners, eyelets and brads. This usually frees up the piles of rubbish, for they all end up on my right (I am right handed). After binning the 'peelings' I pick off the tools - cropadile, punches,then the re-usable bits of paper and scraps of card, maybe even re-home unused pre-scored cards, cast aside when discovered to be useless colour matches for my creations, dahlink! Stamps go into a basket on my far right where they wait to be cleaned (sometimes for days..sorry if that makes you wince, but I'm OK with it!). Then inks and embossing powders are re-homes and the desk looks like it should, and I can clean or at least enjoy the size of my glass mat in it's 13" glory! While I'm in the flow of confession, I should also say that while I'm in the zone, I don't throw away trimmings as I cut either, and the work station behind me is, as I type, groaning with little slices. I think the mind-set behind this is the satisfaction of tidying - all I have to do is lift the guillotine off the top and sweep everything into the bin. Instant result! You may well like a little look around at my work space, my haven, the room that the love of my life built for me to make me happy. And you can. When I've put this work in the post and tidied up a bit. And I don't know when it will be tidy enough, but I guess now I've revealed the table, I've got nothing left to hide!