I am on the front page today

Today, one of my articles is being featured on the front page of Helium. It is about Spring Cleaning for Writers: Organizing Your Office. I wrote it last year when I was getting ready to do the annual dusting of my office. I am not the best example of organization, or tidiness. I tend to let things slide for awhile until they are piled up to the ceiling, or it has to be absolutely done (dishes, laundry, trash). It is not good if you are trying to earn your living by being a writer--the idea is to be able to find your research when you need it.

The tendency to let things pile up to the ceiling has gotten worse since I started to go to college. My recent humor piece about house cleaning did not mention that a lot of the time lately, both my wife and I have no time to clean; it is either clean or do our homework--big choice, isn't it? Yet the attitude I portrayed myself having is my actual outlook; maybe if I ignore it long enourgh, someone else will clean it instead. Often it works, the wife has a lower tolerance for dust than I do--though dishes and litter boxes would never get done if I left them to her devices.

So I admit that I have a tendency to just let things slide and the clutter to build up. Except during the spring. For some reason, spring brings about the urge to clean and organize. It is not just in the house either; the majority of the garden work that gets done is accomplished during the spring.

I have never been able to put my finger on why I get the urge to clean, organize, and garden during the spring. It is not exactly like me. Outside of spring, cleaning, organization and garden work is typically a sign that I am avoiding something--normally a piece of writing that I am having difficulty with. Writing is not anymore difficult in the spring than in any other season, so I remain puzzled by the urge to do these things.

In fact, over the lot couple of days, I have done some gardening and organizing of the computer files, plus I started to sort the piles on the coffee table. Someone please send help, I feel another case of spring cleaning coming on.