Friday 29th April - Notebook nightmares

 I have too many notebooks on the go;

Looking at the photographs, I realised that the top two notebooks in the first picture don't get used much.. They tend to live at the bottom of the pile. The next one is a notebook swap - a sort of extended letter/musing/thoughts and ideas swap book with a friend that we have just started together, my green paper diary, the moth-patterned postcard embroidery swap book, a plastic covered book for jotting down current notes on a church group that zooms every week, a smaller commonplace book and another writing project.  

there are more... these stay upstairs. Most days I write in all the 'upstairs' note books; the green daily sketch journal, the purple morning pages book, and, in the evenings, I write about the events or non-events of the day.  ;

But they lie around in untidy heaps making at harder to keep a clear work space on the table;

I thought I had found a perfect solution, and sent off for a flat-pack desk organiser. NO NOT BUY THIS! It took us a while to assemble the horrible thin scratchy pieces of fibreboard; eventually we realised that the stubby little screws go into the notches, not the wood, and it became simple to put it all together. This is the back, with all the screwheads protruding. All the edges are unrounded and rough. 

It is entirely unclear from the instructions how the screws are supposed to go; there is also a helpful note saying that it is normal for them to go in crooked and damage the edge of the pieces but not to worry as this will note affect the functionality of the product!

 

From a distance, it look fine - that's why I bought it!

It does a great job of gathering up all the notebooks, and also paper piles and random bits and pieces, into one space,

.

And I now have a lovely clear space to work in, just like my husband's; he uses the opposite side of the table.

There were several moments when we came close to just chucking the whole thing in the bin and starting again. But if you, like me, were wanting some kind of desk organiser, I whole heartedly advise you not to choose this one!