My apartment is a mess. A tornado meets train wreck, landmine meets RPG, MESS. And it all started because of a missing laundry basket.

Where the laundry basket is does not matter, what matters is that it isn’t at my place right now, where it should be. Who would have thought one missing laundry basket could upset the delicate ecosystem of our household? But oh how it did.

Because we were missing the laundry basket, we started putting our dirty clothes in a pile. Because our dirty clothes were in a pile the bedroom began to look messy. Because the bedroom looked messy already, it was easy to let basic cleanup go and make it even messier. Because the bedroom was a complete and total mess it seemed only fair that the rest of the apartment… You get the picture. I lost my already tenuous Martha Stewart-ocity all because of a missing laundry basket.

And that led me to wonder, could we writers suffer from the same malady? Could we, if we are not getting something we need, allow that to sweep over our offices like a tsunami and wreck the rest of our working lives?

So, I decided to make a list of my needs as a writer. Taken alone, some of these may seem as insignificant as a laundry basket, but remove one, and a war zone ensues.

1.)    A Quiet Spot – It doesn’t have to be my office, but it does need to be quiet and private. I even consider coffee shops a quiet spot. Believe me, I get way more done in a café surrounded by 20 strangers than I do when trying to work in a room with one husband.

2.)    Laptop – Yes, I’m tied to this thing, as I’m sure we all are. I say “laptop” because I need its portability. Though I do most of my work in one spot, I would languish if I were tied to that spot all the time. I guess you could say that this laptop is the mamba jamba of laundry baskets.

3.)    Colleagues – We humans need acceptance into a group, and there are no humans who understand where you are coming from quite like your colleagues. This was brought home to me the other day when my best friend, not a freelancer but a great human being, suggested I apply for a writing scam. Who else can spot these fakes a mile way except other freelancers?

4.)    Feedback – If you live in a vacuum, you never know what you are doing right or wrong. I’m lucky in that I have a few people (and, of course, clients) who give me excellent feedback. It helps that I’m in grad school for professional writing and have a couple of talented professors to turn to when I have a question.

5.)    Downtime – Oh, the all important downtime. A coffee break, a walk around outside, a lunch with the husband. Sometimes I even toss the laptop and do some outlining on paper. It’s easy to become a workaholic when you’re a freelance writer. Sweet, sweet downtime is crucial.

How about you guys? Do you have any all important laundry baskets in your lives? If they were to disappear, what would come tumbling down?