If you had to clear your desk today...

[MavisEnderby74]

Would you be able to fit your personal belongings in a banker box a la Cummings?

I think I could probably manage it, but the role of wrapping paper that currently lies behind my filing cabinet would be sticking out.

What personal belongings do you have at work?

Mine:
Notebooks
Mugs (one used as a pen pot, but the pens would stay)
Decaf coffee
Coaster
Fake plant
Three tins of soup
Tin of tuna
Tin opener
Running shoes
Blanket/wrap thing
Running belt
Nail scissors
Tweezers
Pukka teabags (although they could probably stay)
Desktop Christmas tree (it's not up, but stays in the drawer year round)
Tinsel (see above)
Hot water bottle
Fingerless gloves
Hat

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can remember as I've been WFH since March.

Yes everyone’s situation is different Gin. I had a formal environment, a long public transport commute including lots of walking, lots of clothes (built up over decades) and the desire to wear interesting varied stuff rather than stick to a classic capsule. That’s one of the ways you get to need lots of stuff.

On the question of duplication - a lot of the stuff people have listed is consumable. So you don’t actually need to buy more deodorant/herbal tea/porridge if you keep one set at work and one at home.

Shoes are more of an issue - but as a non-driver I’d rarely wear towering heels on an evening out - I’d have to bring a pair home if I knew I was going to need them for some reason.

I had to clear out my office and walk in cupboard. It took two car loads. It included my computer, phone, printer, laminator, bookcase full of text books, games, Christmas, Halloween, harvest festival, Easter, birthday and other celebrations materials, spare clothes, toys, musical instruments, song books, choir books etc etc.
I was an activity manager who had to buy everything for the department as there was zero budget - out of my own pocket. No way was I leaving over £1,500 worth of equipment.

When DH retired, clearing his office was a monumental task. Besides all the usual stuff he had 5 pictures in frames plus 2 full size rugs. Which was fun as he commuted by train to London. In the end we had to pay the congestion chRge and drive to his central London office, where of course there was no parking!

This thread has opened my eyes. I am reminded of when I used to commute into London 40 years ago. I used to walk a mile to the station every morning in heels and then back in the evening (goodness knows how I managed that), train then tube, and then a fair old walk to my workplace. Back then no-one dressed casually for work.

It is so long ago now, and my life is so different now that I had quite forgotten. I remember one year when we had a lot of snow, going to work in the appropriate clothes and footwear for the weather, and being nicknamed Captain Cook

Everyone else I worked with just lived a short tube ride away from the office, but as I came in from further out we had had a lot more snow.

Currently at least 2 pairs of shoes, a couple of mugs, a box of coffee bags and 2 box files of archaic paperwork. So yes, it probably would fit. The paperwork would go in the shredder as does my diary every year.

With the number of teachers posting, I think it's worth mentioning what happens when some leave, especially if it's not a relaxed, happy, everything is on good terms departure.

After they took the most expensive items they could remember owning, it then fell to somebody else to sort out the mess. Somebody usually on fuck all money, likely to not be physically able to do it without extreme pain, having to do their actual job as well as tidy up after the departed teacher and under pressure to get it sorted immediately so that the replacement can get their stuff in or because they are horrified at the thousands of things left scattered over cupboard floors, under desks, on shelves, in offices and filling cabinets and drawers.

Keep it at home. Bring it in when you need it, then take it home again. Your technicians, admin and TAs should not have to work in a shitty, dangerous (trip hazards, cluttered, dirty) environment. And no amount of tinkly little laughs about 'Oh, I'm such a hoarder, aren't I?' amuses somebody on around £1100 a month fulltime when they know the things they have to step around and over with eventually become their responsibility to get rid of.

That’s interesting Mitzi - I’ve never experienced anyone other than the incoming teacher have to sort out classrooms, certainly not TAs or admin staff but I do work in primary schools. Are you in secondary?

@ladygracie

That’s interesting Mitzi - I’ve never experienced anyone other than the incoming teacher have to sort out classrooms, certainly not TAs or admin staff but I do work in primary schools. Are you in secondary?

Yes, I am. It wasn't just a single subject, either - it happened to support staff in Art, Music, Maths, Drama, Science and English, and it wasn't necessarily much of the classroom itself (although it was in some subjects) - it was the offices, storerooms, equipment cupboards, recording studio, practice rooms, etc, etc.

I think it's revolting and, although it seems draconian to have a clean desk/room policy from the point of view of staff who don't do that, but want to leave a mug of pens on their desk overnight, I can understand why some heads do it, as they have obviously worked in places where there are ridiculous levels of hoarding and mess previously.

I’d need a haulage company!

Mugs x 3 possibly 4? All office Xmas gifts
Drinking Glasses x 2
Chargers x 2
Echo dot
Dog treat jar x 2
Shoes/boots x 4prs
Plates and cutlery
Desk fan
Freestanding fan
Christmas tree (small)
Books (at least 3)
Bookend x 1
Fracture boot
Babyliss big hair
Fake plants x 3
Dog bowls x 3
Dog food, leads etc
Blazer
Waterproof coat
Omelette maker

I spend most of my time at work and take my dogs.

All my teacher clutter is still in use. Primary, so a very eclectic assortment of things needed for all subjects across the year. But it's all stored in my large walk in 3m by 1m cupboard so doesn't impact my class or colleagues.

I do regularly clean and sort it to keep on top of it. No room in my house for any of it.

When one of our teachers who admitted to being a hoarder was leaving all of her teacher friends piled in to help her sort her stuff and help her get organised when she retired. It was a massive job so I have learnt not to keep as much stuff after seeing how upset she got having to part with things that she suddenly had no use for.

The number of people mentioning pens is what got me. Why do so few of us get supplied by work with decent writing implements?

Loving the username btw OP. An honour and a privilege.

1 mug
1 pair of shoes
1 desk tidy (which I got specificall6 as a barrier!)
1 decorative item (a small wooden, self standing picture, it fits in the palm of my hand)
I have a few other things but I'd probably chuck them.

Am I the only person who didn't usually drink water at work and made do with just one mug?

@yeoldetrout define decent. No workplace would supply me with my pens

Most have a few boxes of bic biros, or company branded click biros of some description. Decent enough for the most part, but I like my liquid ink pens. Same with notebooks, supplied with company branded, or otherwise, but tends to be crappy paper.

The coffee at work is also shit. Hence why I also have a jar of my usual.

It makes my day better using nice pens and paper for my notes. Drinking my nice coffee out of my own mug, rather than a tea stained supplier one from the back of the cupboard.

As for cutlery....you know how teaspoons disappear in a domestic setting? The same happens for forks in a office....or worse, still have the crusty remains of someone's pot noodle!

Nothing. We have hotdesked for years. I have a locker at one of the three offices I usually work at*, but that it mostly full of documents, tights and cuppa soup. I'd leave them the key and donate the contents.

*the people who work there full time also hot desk and only have a lockers for their things.

Office plants and wall art are all provided by Facilities!

I’d have to take my stuff back to them rather than the other way around: my laptop, phone, some confidential folders and about 2 car loads of baby/ toddler toys. Most are mine that I’ve bought nowadays but I guess I wouldn’t have a use for them so I’d donate them to work.

I’m surprised at the amount of people who require dog treats in the office. Where are all these offices with dogs wandering around?

When I worked FT-
Gym bag full of clean clothes/hoody/trainers/spray
5/6 pairs of shoes
Random jacket
2x speciality tea boxes
Hair brush/ties etc
Hand warmers
Blanket/shawl
Mirror/spare concealer and lipstick
Personal trinkets
Tights (clean)
Special cup
Small clutch bag in case i went for drinks

Now I'm 2x days per week
A hair brush

@LadyCatStark
I kept dog treats as we had three visiting therapy dogs! (Care home not office though)

I don’t have a desk. I do have a boot though full of PPE, medical equipment, various bottles for peeing and coughing sputum into and lab forms.

When I left the office to go on maternity leave, I had a small clear-out of my desk essentials and they fitted into two bags for life. Then work presented me with some baby gifts, a bunch of flowers and a huge card that eveyone had signed. When I left and walked out to my car, the bags, flowers, laptop bag, handbag, pregnant bump and I got wedged in the carpark turnstile and I had to be released by a passing colleague

So no, I don't think all my shit would fit in one box

I had to clear my desk in August as I was starting a new job. I hadn't been in the office since March. I had the following, that I can recall

Shawl
Trainers
Flat shoes
Headphones
Christmas Lights
Mug
Glass
Work award x2
A few photos

It wasn't as much as I thought to be honest.

I can't recall but yes, about 4 pairs of shoes, a photo frame, stationery, painkillers of all sorts (says so much about the job), some files.

To be honest i'd leave it as i can't deal with walking through the office unless someone packs it for me.

Was sent home from the office at short notice in early March and havent been back since then. (I'd had a cough for the past 4 weeks but as people were starting to panic I had to go to WFH).

I didn't bring anything with me and dont miss anything so I reckon if I was leaving for good I'd just bin everything.

Just my desk? I could probably ram it all into a box. Lots of pens, tape measures, pen pot (handmade as a student), plate, mug, cutlery set (covid ban on using office stuff), Christmas decorations (though my tree is MIA from the covid secure move), sweets, chocolate, hot water bottle, sanitary towels, notebooks, post it notes,

My cupboard however would need a wheelbarrow, it has my resource files and text books. (It is only a little one though)