a cluttered desk is a sign of...

I got a sneak peek at my future office in the weeks before I started here. The former YM hadn't left yet, and hadn't cleaned out her things. The office is what used to be the refectory of an old convent building. It's situated right inside the back door to the building, and it's actually two rooms- one side was the kitchen, and the rooms are divided by the counter top that they used to slide their plates across when dinner was served. My assistant sits in the kitchen side, and jokes about how appropriate it is that she's constantly in the kitchen, even at work. The building is old, probably from the late 40's or 50's, and was built, clearly, for function rather than beauty. In fact, the entire first floor is divided up by padded walls. Really- padded walls. They're wood up till the 3 foot mark, then a grim gray naugahyde to the ceiling, with padding beneath. No one here seems to know why the convent walls are padded- the best two guesses are for noise control (in a convent?) or that the good Sisters just got a great deal on the stuff.
The office, when I saw it last Summer, was a MESS- piles and piles of stuff everywhere. The kitchen side had a dripping faucet that hadn't been looked at in years- and that room was full of boxes and boxes and piles and broken things. I had nightmares about it- that dripping faucet- for weeks before I started the job. I spent the first two weeks of my time here cleaning out that room. I sometimes had to wear rubber gloves just to get through it.
I am not a neat freak. Left unattended, I do let clutter pile up- but eventually, I reach a point where I know it's time to do something, and I clear out the muck.
I'm just sitting down after cleaning out my office to the point where I wouldn't be at all embarrassed to have a guest in it... NOW I'm ready to do "real" work.