Is Your Desktop Clean or Messy?

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file-horror

There are so many funny things about us humans, you know?

You know, my computer is my kingdom. I’m a control freak to the nth degree here, and nothing says more about my personality than my computer desktop.

It’s immaculate.

And when it’s not my life is chaos. I’m a “clean and clear” desktop guy. My wife, on the other hand, is not.

This kills me. I can’t stand it. It drives me insane. And when I interact with her machine (or other people’s) I’m momentarily paralyzed when I see the chaos that is their desktop.

So, are you a picture of clean-desktop-godliness? Or are you a clutter-fiend that’s destined to for the deepest bowels of desktop-purgatory?

81 thoughts on “Is Your Desktop Clean or Messy?”

  3. Tom,

    wow. dude, that's scary. i have one icon too. that's it.

    that's insane.

    i went to the extreme though… instead of backing up that junk for my wife and cleaning it out i just bought her a brand new mbp.

    the end.

  4. my physical desktops at work and at home are messy, messy, messy and my computer desktop at home reflects that. But, my computer desktop at work is nice and tidy and I can't explain why

  5. I am extremely paranoid about my desktop and all my files. I organize like its nobody's business. I am currently using my MBP for our church's Pro Presenter setup, and the volunteers that use it constantly tell me how extremely anal I am, but they keep everything clean and organize. I even began adding custom images to my external hard drive icons so when they pop up on my desktop they have a picture of what the hard drive looks like.

  9. Home machine (your former MBP) is still clean and trying to keep it that way. :-) I like the beauty of the simplicity. Now I am working to clean up the work (pc) desktop. I used to use it to try to "remember" things, but now I'm using Remember The Milk to GTD! Goodness!

  10. I have three icons on my desktop, they are all hardrives. That is all that I have. I hate having files on my desktop, hate it.
    I am like you Tom, I have everything organized in folders and have a system for that. As well I have two hardrives that are backing up my machine.
    You have to keep it neat and clean. Only way to do it, unless you are a women.

  12. My wife and I are both organizationally… well… ok… i'll just say it… i don't think i have OCD but I do have OC. I've actually got a blog post coming today about that: http://www.subversiveREFORMATION.com I would prefer to have nothing at all on my desktop. A little icon of a drive or folder just rubs me the wrong way… especially if it is not color coordinated with the desktop wallpaper… as is my closet… shirts and pants and everything arranged perfectly by type and color.

  19. Dude, you and your wife sound so much like my wife and me.

    I am *ridiculously* organized when it comes to my machine. Aside from, literally, having a clean desktop (1 icon!), I'm compulsive about my file organization structure, and I'm paranoid of losing all my data so I have two backup strategies.

    The wife, on the other hand, organizes her files in her own way. But that way is so … not *my* way, so /of course/ I can't help notice. She does backup all her data, though. I think that's the most important thing.

    Really, in the grand scheme of it, however she or anyone else keeps up with their files is their business. But what you said hits close to home so I had to toss my thoughts in ;) .

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  21. I hide all the icons on my desktop so that my beautiful Digital Blasphemy backgrounds can be displayed in all their glory. ;)

    Everything I'd normally keep on my desktop is a shortcut in a special folder that can be accessed via the Windows Run box. WinKey+R, type out a few letters, [Enter] and I'm ready to rock.

    No need to use the mouse or minimize windows to get to the desktop.

  25. For the past few days my desktop had cluttered, sorry make it littered like hell, assuming that hell is not so organised.

    It had been spick and span earlier, but due to the continuous work load, I am made to what it is right now.

    This weekend, I have to dedicate some time and organise to bring it back to the previous glory :D

  26. For the most part I keep my desktop clean. But when I'm in a busy season it becomes a dump ground for all the things I'm working on for quick access. Then after the busy season passes I go through and clean it up again (putting files in sorted folders, deleting waste etc.)

    For windoze machines, i get paralyzed when I see what's in some people's start menus…whaa? How do they find anything when everything is so randomly placed in a 4 or 5 column jumble?….

  27. My desktop should be the face for Clearasil. I'm clean and clear and under control. I know where every file is and where every program is located. I should get bonus points for using windows and still maintaining this.

  30. oh, and like you and your wife.. my wifes desktop is a crazy mess.. I often get in trouble, because when shes not looking, I try to clean up her desktop..

  31. Every month with a new desktop background, my icons get cleaned up. I think I have 4 stagnant that are the Mac HD and 3 folders. Curiously, other things pile up throughout the month but at the end, they get ditched or put in their place. I do like it as clean as possible!

  32. I also use the app Camouflage.. which allows me to press a user defined keystroke, and it hides any icons on my desktop.. I use this when I'm working on a project.. websites, photos for clients.. etc.. that force me to need to have icons on my desktop..

  33. I keep it to 4 icons, and no more. I've got My Computer, My Documents, Firefox, and the Recycle Bin. It keeps me sane. My girlfriend is the opposite and it drives me crazy!- I feel your pain!

  34. I hate having anything on my desktop. On my work laptop (running Windows :( ), I hide all the icons on the desktop and run Rocketdock as an application launcher.

    On my home computer, the only icons on my desktop are for my hard drives, which I can tolerate.

  38. I have a spotless desktop, just one icon… usually a CD/DVD or an external drive.
    Every now and then when working on a project, my desktop will get taken over, but as soon as I'm finished… have to clean it up, can't walk away from the computer if the desktop is cluttered.

  39. I have three folders and my hard drive on my desktop. Alphabetic order. I like to have three main categories on my desktop. Otherwise its spotless.

  40. Ok, I'll be an alternative voice today. My desktop is always a mess. I had the whole screen covered in icons and folders that I wanted to keep visible and my MacBook had to go into the shop. The guys moved all of it into one folder on my desktop because the fans would kick on for every boot because it had to draw so much on the screen. Now it's not so bad, but I still have some random stuff on the desktop just because I don't know where to put it.

    But I still know where to find everything. So there! ;)

  44. For the most part I keep my desktop pretty clean. There are of course moments of messiness when I'm in the middle of a big project. I also use the app "Camouflage" to hid my desktop icons when I have to use my MacBook as a presentation computer in meetings.

  47. I'm insane abouut organization. Everything in it's folder and every foler in it's place. My computer is 4 years old and only has 8 icons on the desktop. I love it. =)

  48. I am a clean once every day or two person. But I do a lot of work on the desktop. So not unusual to have 20 or 30 icons. But the desktop is a work space not a storage space. It drives me nuts when people use it as an organization system.

  57. Drive icons – that's all.

    Love it.

    My pastor has more icons on his desktop than I do files… I especially can't stand when people have so many icons that they make piles of them on their desktop. PUT THEM IN A FOLDER!!!

    Folders FTW!

  58. any good ways of finding duplicate files on a mac? that creates a mess for me as I drop files in multiple places and then forget where they all are

  59. any good ways of finding duplicate files on a mac? that creates a mess for me as I drop files in multiple places and then forget where they all are

  61. I made it!

    I took a picture of a red, painted wall at David Crowder's church, used Photoshop to apply some neat pattern effects, and then made it look torn up. I am flattered by your compliment!

  65. Well I don't think you have to be a genius to see that your desktop would be clean just by looking at your blog. It is super clean and uncluttered which would indicate somebody that is a control freak

  67. My desktop isn't too terrible, but let's just say that my overall organizational style revolves around the really good search functions we have these days.

  70. The only icons on my desktop are for the two partitions on my hard drive, mobilme, my time machine backup, and two external hard drives. I used to be have a cluttered desktop but I vowed to keep it clean after installing Snow Leopard and so far I have succeeded!

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  74. I always have my Desktop clean im a neatfreak myself so I even have the recycle bin on the quick launch.. My family and friends on the other hand cluster f*&^ of icons I myself get paralyzed when I see this as well