Is there a reason why the poster and the whiteboard are not hung on the walls? Hanging stuff on the walls would be nice, if it's possible! If you can't make hole in the walls, maybe those 3M removable sticky hangers would do?

Reconsider plants, even under those conditions. Fake plants (I just bought some little fake plants from IKEA for $5) or even real ones that are easily neglected (cacti, philodendron) would really brighten it up.

Keep thinking upward, and sorting. I see a lot of... flat. Flat surfaces. An upright file holder on the desk (like this one, just to give you an idea, or a long straight one with maybe 8 slots) is great for keeping paper and such in order (and tall enough you might remember it's there, behind the computer!). Stacking baskets or inboxes, or (if you can put things on the wall) those wall pocket sorter things (again, like this, to give you an idea - you can get them way cheaper)...

Also, a candy jar on the desk is cheerful, but you may not agree, if you don't like people coming over to your desk and chatting to you. Then again, if you're the not-receptionist, this probably happens already.

If you keep the pirate ship, hang it from the ceiling: in the window, over your desk, over the bookshelf in the corner. =)

Yeah, I don't know why I haven't hung stuff up. The walls are those temporary-yet-permanent thingies that I don't think you're allowed to hang things on for real. But your idea of the Command strips is a good one.

I am forever trying to think up different ways of organizing current projects and little pockets of necessary detritus. A small set of boxes would be good. My in-tray is currently in that dead spot, which would probably explain why neither I nor anyone else has used it in years *giggle*

I would get some color on those walls along with the plant(s).
You could hang personal photos in a nice layout on one wall.
Check out posters.com for a great selection of wall art. Love
the idea of a candy jar. I inherited the candy jar with my job
and it's a social perk. I have a few toys near the jar, the
kind of tiny toys adults like to play with at Pier 1 because my
desk can be a gathering place. YMMV.

Philodendron will grow happily in water alone, which makes it damn near impossible to kill. I had a philodendron in an Arizona tea bottle for two years in college, and I was definitely not responsible enough to keep standard houseplants alive at that point. A tall vase or bottle (or a cluster of them) would give you some height in the dead corner.

Definitely hang things up, if you can. You'll open up desk space, and the window, and your office will look much more pleasant.

Think about moving the computer away from the corner of the desk and put it against the wall instead (can't tell from the photo if you have one of those stupid drop-down bits there on the desk, though). That gives you a much larger contiguous space on your desk and gets rid of the dead area. Get all the stuff of the desk, windowsill, top of bookcase and onto the wall where you can (the 3M command hooks are good for where you can't bash nails into the wall). Put a plant on the windowsill that you can train to grow around the window using pins for support. Can't remember the name of it, but there is a plant that will grow like this and that can grow straight in water (not very helpful, I know), so is next to impossible to kill.

Tidy, tidy, tidy. Get rid of anything you don't absolutely need. If you have access to a scanner, you can scan any papers that you need to keep copies of but don't need to carry around. You can often find copies of reference materials either on-line or on your network and, where you can do this, you can get rid of the paper copies. I've found that this alone makes a huge difference to the clutter that can be hard to get rid of.

The telecoms guy left my office about 30 minutes ago after moving all the network/phone connections to the other side of the office, so tomorrow, I'll be moving my desk and getting stuck into the clutter that has been accumulated by previous inhabitants of the office/position. I hate clutter and I hate having my back to the window and I hate having to remember to close anything sensitive on my screens before a meeting, because the screens can be seen from my meeting table. I'm excited!

OK, here are my top suggestions:

1. Computer table. There are a lot out there -- do you like this one?

2. Use the tops of your surfaces, like top of your bookcase, edge of computer table, and your window ledge, for plants. Which only you are allowed to touch.

3. Everything that can goes up on the walls.

4. Dump the file cabinet. If there are indispensable things in it (rarely true), get a different sized file cabinet that opens from door toward your desk and is out of view. Replace with a small chair or two, maybe on a little rug.

5. It is a huge desk organizer to use an "in" and "out" box. It looks nice too.

I do love your red chair. Keep using red touches . . . very warm!