Late last night, frequent guest blogger Michael Strouse from The Scholastic Store emailed me. Turns out, he’d been so inspired by something that happened in the office yesterday that he immediately thumbed me a message about it. It said, “I had a moment on my way home. You see, today, for the first time in weeks, I could see the floor to my office. Then more new product came in, and the moment was gone. And it got me thinking…” And then he explained:

“OK, I’ll admit it…I have the messiest office on our floor.

The rest of my floor is HR, Publicity, Communications, and yes, the Library, so it’s not really fair. I try very hard to keep it neat but honestly, there’s no way I can help it. I’ve got a lot of stuff. (Just look at the photo!)

I, of course, have books. Lots and lots of books! There’s also stuff for the latest in-store event. My office, though, is the first stop for many of the educational toys, science kits and games we carry in the store. They aren’t neatly displayed on fixtures, nor are they kept in packaging.

When we consider a product for the store, we want to make sure it’s great! That means every once in a while, I get to block out some playtime on my calendar. Yup, the store’s Buyer, Neota, and I get to play the board games (she wins most of the time), do the science experiments and generally become 5-year-olds for a while.

Despite what some of you may think, this is not only work, but some of the most important work we do. We not only identify the quality and kid-friendliness of the product, but we identify the skills kids learn from using it. I will completely admit, there’s an occasional wizard duel or moment of chaos (the ant farm incident last year produced some of the most stressful moments I’ve ever had at Scholastic*) but overall, we take this very seriously.

Then we have to put everything back as neatly as possible, which any parent knows, never works. So despite the fact that I rarely see an inch of carpet, my messy office makes for a great array of product in the store!”

So there you have it — a plausible explanation for why some of our offices are so messy — and why it’s so important that they are! If you work from an office, do you keep it messy or neat? Sparse or crammed? Does it look like Michael’s office here? Let us know in the comments.

* Morgan here. I’m just going to pretend Michael didn’t mention anything about ants.