VIEW FROM HERE: FIGHTING A LOSING BATTLE IN THE WAR AGAINST CLUTTER

I'm fighting the clutter battle on my desk this week and while I'm winning the daily skirmishes now, I have no doubt I'll lose the war.

The battle began Monday morning with the announcement here at the Southeast Missourian that some executives would be touring the building mid-week. Wanting to show off a neat and tidy office, the ultimatum came that desks should be cleared.

So that day I dutifully went through the stacks of newspapers, press releases, memos to myself, books, sticky notes, notebooks and file folders spread in various layers across the top of my desk.

Big mistake.

Not that clearing the clutter was a mistake. My desk looked great, was better organized and left me with a feeling of accomplishment. The mistake was doing it Monday morning, then having to keep it clean throughout the week. AIl day Monday and Tuesday I kept having to fighting off the mysteriously multiplying slips of paper that kept creeping onto my desk when I'm not looking.

I left the office shortly after the initial cleaning and when I returned a few hours later, I wondered if we'd had an earthquake or perhaps a great gust of wind had swept through. The neat piles I had created had crumbled and slips and pieces of paper were once again cluttering my desktop. I gathered them into stacks and they seemed to be staying in their places, until I left for the day.

When I got back to work Tuesday morning, I hadn't been at my desk 10 minutes before the clutter began leaking out again, like an ocean of water pushing against a tiny dike crumbling under the pressure.

I turned for advice to a Web site promising tips on keeping your desk clean. The Strategic Organizing Solutions Web site listed many tips I could use.

"Put the trash can where the trash is." This makes sense since the less time it takes to throw away papers, the more that seem to end up in the bin.

"Take decisive action. Toss it. Call/follow up on it. Delegate it. Store it elsewhere. Archive it. File it." I already do this in my desk drawers, where files and folders keep things much more organized than on my desk top.

"Identify and sort each item into a category or project, whichever is applicable." I now have folders sorting my notes and papers into "Today," "This Week" and "Future Projects."

But then came a tip that confirmed my suspicions about why my desk is terminally messy:

"Time yourself. Spend only one hour per day decluttering your desk."

One hour? Who has an hour to spend each day cleaning their desk? I wish anyone who does would let me know so I can try to steal your job.

I'm a working mother whose "to do" list always includes more than I can possibly do in a day, both at work and at home. Most days it's difficult to take an hour for lunch. And when I do, that hour is often spent running errands, paying bills or other tasks I don't have time for in my off hours.

I've tried setting aside time at the end of the day to reorganize my desk, reigning in the clutter that tends to spread like spilled milk on a dining room table. But most days, I've got work to do right up until the time I have to leave the office to pick up my son from his after-school care. And even when I have a few minutes to spare, I'd rather spend it in pursuits other than cleaning.

So I guess it comes down to tolerance. Some people hate clutter and will go to any length, spend any amount of time to fight it. I'm afraid I'm a poor soldier in such a fight. I'd rather run up a white flag, call a truce and let clutter have its way.

But not until the end of the week after the visiting executives leave and the rules about desks are relaxed a bit to allow me back to my naturally messy state.