We investigate how users managed physical and digital objects during the longitudinal field deployment of a tabletop in a biology laboratory. Based on the analysis of 15 hours of video logs, we detail the objects used, their presence, use and organization, in this particular setting. We propose to consider occlusion as a situation which should be prevented rather than reacted to, particularly to avoid distracting changes or animations. This implies (1) pre-positioning digital content in locations where it is not likely to be occluded and (2) acknowledging that some physical objects are deliberately put in occluding positions. Since users want to interact with them conveniently, occlusion management action should not necessarily be triggered immediately.