It's a squirrel thing

In general I'm a neat person. I pick up after myself and I like everything to have its place. I alphabetize my CDs -- by genre of course -- and I notice when something is out of order (some call it anal-retentiveness, I like to think of it as attention to detail). At work, I'm a piler -- I cover my desk with piles of papers, all neatly organized by content and date.

Yesterday at work, I went on a organizing frenzy. I went through every single pile of paper and filed it all away. I took everything off of my walls so that I could update my decor (the 2005 fiscal calendar is nice but so...well... 2005). Another thing I organized was my "stash" drawer.

You see, I hoard. Not everything, mind you -- I'm quite specific. I have no idea why I feel the need to squirrel away these particular items (I can't remember ever suffering from a shortage of any of them), but I am consistent and seemingly incurable. Here is a list of the items I stockpile (in order of personal value):

• Plastic spoons
  
• Push pins
  
• Post-It notepads (the mini size)
  
• Empty manila folders
• 3-ring binder sheet protectors
  
• Rubber bands
  

I have an entire drawer filled with these things. I don't use them that often, other than the plastic spoon I use for my yogurt and clean diligently every day so that I don't have to use any of the other plastic spoons in the drawer. And in spite of the fact that I rarely use the things I have, I continue to collect more. I also have boxes of the same items (other than the spoons -- that's a relatively new obsession that developed while I was at Microsoft) stored in my basement. I've been accumulating most of them since my college days, and I have a few baseball-sized rubber band balls that I made in high school.

And no, I don't "acquire" most of these things from the office supply room. I actually go down to Office Max and buy them, even though they are readily available at work. Except for the plastic spoons -- I grab one whenever I pick something up from O-to-Go (the organic deli in our building).

I guess of all the vices I could have, amassing office supplies isn't that bad. But it is kind of odd.