My current (temporary) table is composed of two sawhorses and an Ikea PRONOMEN countertop, 8 feet long and 3 feet deep.

In response to the question on Unplgged:

Survey: Is Bigger Always Better?

It has to do with how often you want to return things back to their original place.

There is a sweet spot where it is neither too redundant to clean all the time, nor too much a burden to clean a lot of things at once, and that largely depends on your work. A writer who only uses a computer may still need a whole table of reference materials to map the brain, while an apparel designer will need a large table to lay all the fabric as well.

While I’m in a flow, returning tools, books or paper back to their drawers and shelves interrupts the workflow, thus counterproductive.

When I’m done with a project, I’ll return (and sometimes clean) the materials back to their position and state. Everything starts with a clean slate again.

But if I forget to do this step, that is where clutter begins: objects lost their original position and were placed arbitrarily on the desk. The key is to always find where these objects should belong… which unfortunately always ended up in the Miscellaneous box.

I find that there is nothing wrong to be embarrassed about a table with many many open files. It shows that I’m working, and not a neat freak that spends half my work time cleaning. I find people with clean tables all the time are a little OCD!