The best part of a deep cleansing of the space is the next morning. You don’t get a sense of the total difference while you’re doing it because you’re there for each part of the gradual change. After a night’s sleep, you forget a bit, and the results are shocking. (click for larger versions)

I’ve had this basic office layout for years, and I wasn’t planning on changing it. I have a view of the Santa Cruz mountains when I sit facing the workspace. For the funspace, I face the forest. Not having an outside view readily available would be suboptimal.

The big win for this cleansing is space creation. My work desk is a vast space of empty tidiness. Gosh, it feels good. I did nuke my desk lamp and will likely need a replacement, but as you can see, I’ve got existing lighting coming from many directions. There is still a cable situation hiding in the back there — a future project.

The new secondary workspace is important for two reasons. I want to get up and move around during the day, and this small standing desk gives me a new location to wander to… seven feet away. There was heretofore undiscovered shelving under this janky desk, which is incredibly useful as a charging station for all the things. However, there remains a visually annoying cable problem. There is a cable wrapping exercise in my future.

There is a historical pattern to these types of significant cleansing. It indicates that I am have just completed a significant project (the book) and am preparing myself for what comes next. What’s next? Staying at home, working, avoiding most of the news, figuring out how I can help those in need, and being with those I love.