The Human Tornado

I started working at the permanent location for my new job on October 14th. The first thing I noticed was my desk area was a disaster. It was piled up with random stuff, tons of old paperwork that should have been shredded, and just general disarray everywhere. I grabbed the Clorox wipes and went after it. After lots of degerming and shredding (that part took me a couple days as the shredder kept overheating), my desk space was what I would consider usable. I've already gotten compliments on how nice it looks, with one person saying "I've never seen it look that good." My only regret is that I didn't take before and after pictures. Words don't do the transformation justice.

Once my immediate area was acceptable, I started looking around. I saw a divider that blocked off a small hallway as soon as you walk in the office.

 I'm a naturally curious person, so I had to know what was back there. I understood why curiosity can kill the cat after I saw what was behind it.

Yes, a huge pile of JUNK. It was mostly empty boxes that "some lazy slob" (one of my dad's favorite phrases) was too lazy to break down and get rid of. This just would not do. I broke down all the boxes and took them to the recycling center on my way home, threw away lots junk, put other items into proper storage areas, and appropriately recycled an old fax machine & printer (They're e-waste. You shouldn't throw them in regular trash).  I also found a bulletin board and literature sorter we don't use, and I got permission to get rid of those. I offered them for free to the other agencies in our building. Apparently there was a fight over them while I was off on vacation. Here's how it looks now:

This area had been known among some of the staff from other offices as "the graveyard" for pretty obvious reasons. When I asked my coworker how it got to be like this, she said "I don't know. I've never looked back there". She's been at this office for 2 years! I was flabbergasted.

I do believe my coworker might be slightly intimated of me by now. She probably thinks a human tornado has come to her office.