My packrat tendencies are surfacing

With finals, I was suddenly faced with a novel challenge: sit down and do some hard-core studying. Typically, I'll do my homework on the couch or in bed right before I fall asleep, because I'm usually writing papers or reading something. But now, because I have to actually WORK at things, I need to sit down and concentrate without the distraction of the ability to lean back and fall asleep.

This means I need my desk.

I like my desk. I have great posters around it, and a white board, and a bulletin board. In fact, there are a lot of things I keep in its general area, and I think that's the problem: the little four-letter word KEEP.

Evidently, since I suddenly have ten times more space than I did in my dorm room, I found it not only possible but also beneficial to KEEP EVERYTHING. Every bill I got this summer, every photocopied reading assignment, every schedule, every paper I printed and had to reprint ("I'll use it for scrap paper"), every piece of mail I got this year is currently piled on my desk. And this is great if I need to know how much I spent on electricity in July or what I scored on my very first (or second or third)Italian quiz, but it's a little ridiculous.

And I do need that space to study, but right now I have everything piled on the floor, and I'm wondering: am I going to throw it out? or am I just going to let it sit there because look, it's organized now?

I fear for my sanity and for the few shreds of neatness that I cling to right now, because I'm afraid I won't want to get rid of those articles about grant writing. And for the life of me, I don't understand why.