Spoiler: None of Them Have Staples
When a friend’s stapler collection makes you feel seen in the most uncomfortable way
There’s a small mountain range in my office made entirely of papers I meant to file three months ago. Somewhere beneath it is a label maker I bought to “get organized.” It’s nestled between a stack of half-used notebooks and my third broken stapler, which—spoiler alert—I’ve kept just in case the first two magically fix themselves.
But here’s the real kicker: this all hit me while visiting a friend.
I walked into his office and there they were—staplers and tape dispensers lined up like a tiny, dysfunctional army. I laughed. Because suddenly, I didn’t feel so alone in my own chaos. The mess wasn’t just mine. It was ours. And that’s when it clicked: it’s time to come clean.
Literally. On camera.
Over the next few weeks, I’m documenting the great office clean-out of 2025—no filters, no fake productivity hacks, just a grown woman muttering under her breath and confronting the ghost of projects past.
Not because I want a medal for finding the floor. But because we don’t talk enough about the secret life of high-functioning, high-achieving, hot-mess leaders.
You know the ones. The ones who show up polished on Zoom calls but are secretly dodging a tower of unopened mail. Who crush deadlines at work and then shove receipts into drawers like emotional whack-a-mole. The ones who coach others through clarity but avoid their own closets.
And we don’t talk about it because we think it means something—that we’re flaky, lazy, or falling behind. That the mess is proof of our not-enoughness. Like somehow all this clutter is proof we’re not doing life right.
But what if the clutter isn’t a character flaw? What if it’s just a signal flare? A little red flag saying: Hey. Something needs your attention.
Because here's what I know (and maybe you do, too): When we ignore what’s overwhelming us, it doesn’t go away. It just leaks into everything. Into our confidence. Our creativity. Our energy. Our ability to say yes (and no) to the right things.
And here’s the kicker: it’s not really about the mess. It’s about the fear underneath it.
The fear of being found out. The fear of finally starting and still failing. The fear that if we let someone in—really in—they’ll see the truth. That we’re not as pulled-together as we pretend to be. That we’re just keeping the plates spinning and hoping nobody notices the wobble.
So instead, we avoid. We get “too busy.” We tell ourselves “I work better in chaos,” like that’s a personality trait and not a coping mechanism.We laugh it off. And we sit in this quiet, scratchy place of low-grade shame.
But then comes a moment. A moment where we say, “No more hiding.” Not because we’ve magically found the willpower, but because awareness finally cracked through.
That’s what happened to me. I looked around and realized: This isn’t about clutter. It’s about self-respect. It’s about letting go of the shame cycle and making space—not just on my desk but in my mind—for what I actually want to build.
This is not about becoming a minimalist guru. This is about choosing awareness over avoidance. Acceptance over perfection. And small, consistent action over heroic spurts of burnout-driven frenzy.
This newsletter is your official invitation to join me in that process. To unearth the hidden stories behind the piles. To laugh at the ridiculousness of four staplers and cry if you need to. To name what your mess might be telling you—and decide what you want to do about it.
Spoiler alert: It’s never about the mess. It’s about what the mess is covering up.
And if any of that feels familiar… welcome. Pull up a seat. Just brush off the stack of unopened mail first. Let’s uncover it together.
P.S. If you want to follow along on this messy little journey of leadership, truth-telling, and possibly unearthing a missing W-2 from 2019… I’ll be sharing updates here and on my socials. Expect dust, laughter, mild existential dread, and eventually… clarity.
No bleach required. Just honesty.
