An eternity of binder clips...

I'm changing offices, temporarily, until March when I will move again. I've changed offices 3 times in 5 years and each time I purge a little more...a few more old files are discarded, old reprinted articles tossed, books given away, pictures pitched. I can throw out overhead transparency pens, right?  They aren't coming back.

All in all, having to pack up and move is not unpleasant. I get a chance to do a little reminiscing, find things I thought I'd lost forever, get rid of things I thought I could never bear to let go.  But, the binder clips....where do they come from?  I have piles and piles. Every recycled stack needs first to be liberated. I have tiny ones, hardly more than paper clips. I have huge ones I can barely open. The most popular size seems to be 3/4 inch and 1 3/4 inch.  (I could measure them because I found my ruler deep in a desk drawer! I have a tape measure, too.)  They are on student papers, on articles I've printed out, on committee reports, on memos and assignments. They are everywhere!  And now, absent their papers, they are piled on my desk and table, swimming in the bottom of my desk drawers, lounging in the deep recesses of my file cabinet. I fear they are waiting to organize; to form their own binder clip union with usage restrictions, minimum wages, and mandatory rest periods and vacations. I'm almost afraid to leave them for the semester break...