2 hours ago, BTGBullseye said:"I have a great many things in the middle of my physical desk top. Since I have a computer on it, I have my monitor in the middle, with a power monitor below, (have to monitor my wattage since the entire basement is on the same 15A breaker, and I have to compete with a microwave, refrigerator, lights, and everything else plugged in down here) mouse, and keyboard. (keyboard has space front to back so I can reposition for if I'm eating/doing something at my desk besides using the PC) To the right I have a flashlight, some lens cleaning fluid, a microfiber cloth, a note pad and pen, a lighter, and a trash can. To the left, a glass for water, some headphones, a power switch for my rope light, a printer, my fingernail care kit, a sewing kit, blood pressure monitoring device, game controllers, and a book."
I'm going to go out on a limb here, since your computer sits centrally and you didn't mention a pen or pencil anywhere, and surmise that you don't write or draw things by hand or handle paper documents much, so you aren't using your desk as an actual writing desk, which is what they were originally invented for. I was referring to how an actual "pen, paper and drawers" desk would be used, which is pretty much how I use mine. (laptop sits charging on a shelf when not in use, gets taken out and set up when I need to use software of one sort or another, then goes away and back on charge again when I'm done) I keep a big, central space clear for writing and manipulating documents or any other task. Routinely used items like pens, document trays, glass of water, etc, sit along the back edge of the desktop - analogous to an upper-screen-edge toolbar, I suppose. Other stuff more intermittently used goes in the front desk drawer, items like my sphygmomanometer (yeah, I actually have one too - I'm not a medical professional, though, I just try to keep a close eye on my blood pressure when I'm taking my ADHD medication. ADHD is also the reason I only physically get the computer out when I've consciously decided to use it; it's too tempting a distraction otherwise. Nowadays I try to do as much as possible by hand on paper - I've taken to heart the philosophy of an old teacher of mine, that "a computer is just the world's most expensive pencil." Heck, I even taught myself how to use a slide rule a few months back, although that was more for fun and curiosity!)
In short, my desk is set up probably more like an early 20th-century (maybe even late 19th century) pre-computer office desk, which I'm pretty damned sure is what the "Desktop GUI" was actually modelled on, since the earliest ones literally used depictions of cardboard folders, document drawers and loose pieces of paper for their iconography - and what the people designing the first GUIs would have been acculturated to.