Cleaning up after the storm

There's always a moment right after I finish up each issue (usually when I've completed proofing and hit the "send" button that gives the printer the go ahead) when I look around the office and realized I've created a disaster area once again. I spend the week of layout running around in a daze throwing papers, not refiling and generally making a big, old mess. And then reckoning day comes--I have to put all this crap away! 

I'm not a naturally neat person but I do like things very neat and organized so it's a struggle. I've found the answer in the rest of my house to be decluttering and simple routine. I've made a concentrated effort to declutter every area of my home following the advice of William Morris to "have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."

It's worked pretty well everywhere BUT my office. No matter how many times I declutter I find more. No matter how many times I file, the stacks remain. No matter how many issues I get to press, I face the same mess after I get done. 

Maybe it's time for either a) a professional organizer to set me on a different path in my office or b) simply accepting that this is the way it's going to be and letting go of the need to be different.

I'm cleaning up the mess and then I'll decide!