One of my biggest goals has been to get the house organized before the baby comes. I used it as an example in an article on how to set goals because it was something I’ve been working with actively. I’m really pleased to say that most of my organizing is done and I have worked steadily on my goal! Breaking it into small, bite-sized chunks really helped – I was able to stay motivated and it fit into my busy schedule.
I found that most of my rooms were pretty straightforward when I actually started to work on them. Even my upstairs landing – where I kept tossing everything that didn’t go in rooms I organized before it – went pretty quickly under a few days of intense work.
Then I got to our office. And I realized what a tough room really is. We have so much “stuff” that goes in the office. And I do so much work in here. Not only work on my website, but I also keep track of all of our family paperwork, our accounting, and many, many books in different categories.
There’s a lot of computer equipment in the office that either needs to be kept or won’t be parted with. Computer CDs, music CDs, and did I mention books? Office supplies were everywhere and never where I needed them.
I was overwhelmed.
Finding a Starting Point
The first thing I did was figure out what worked in the office and what didn’t work. The places our computers are at work well. I get a very good view of both the front and side yards from my desk, and I’m next to Scott’s desk. I like that in the evenings. I had an inbox system started next to my desk that works well for me.
But other than that pretty much everything was a mess! The files were horrible and they were far away from me. That was not convinient at all because I use the files frequently while I take care of our family’s paperworks and business. There was computer paraphernalia *everywhere*, huge totes in the closet which were mostly empty, and our audio CDs were in the closet which annoyed Scott.
After I figured out just what worked and what didn’t, I was able to pick out a starting point – try and get the files closer to me.
Working out Solutions
Our office space is not terribly big and my desk is really quite small. We’re planning to get me a slightly larger one when our budget allows, but for now it’s not the highest priority. Since I have a small working space I’d been using the closet as part of my work area. Those huge totes that were half-empty served as a surface for me to keep my inbox system on.
Upon looking at our filing cabinet – which is two drawers high with each drawer holding two rows of files – I realized it could fit neatly into the small closet space. We went ahead and moved that. I took the few things out of the big totes and took them outside. Later Scott put them into the shed so we can take them to his mom, who can use them.
Getting this first step done helped me feel a lot better. The next obvious thing was figuring out what to do with all the computer equipment I’d just put on the floor. We already had a drawer unit with some things it. I went through that, cleaning it out, and was able to get most of the computer equipment neatly inside. I liked that because it was all together and all out of sight! Some of the bigger cables and old floppy disk cases (which Scott needs to keep) went to the top of the closet.
Realizing we Needed More
This was the first room I encountered where I realized we would have to make some bigger purchases. I’d purchased a couple of small containers for the kitchen and one for the bathroom after getting done with those – but they were small and a few dollars each (a few dollars made a big difference!)
But the office needed bigger solutions. One will be a slightly larger desk for me (one that actually has a keyboard shelf!!!). But that one can wait. We did need something to go where we’d moved the file cabinet from – because the printer now had no place to go! We decided upon a heavy-duty utility shelf. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it’s very functional and sturdy.
Scott set that up and fit it between the wall and the kids’ “office desk” where they can “work” while I do my work. We were able to fit the printer and scanner onto a shelf with enough room to open the scanner fully. The next shelf comfortably holds all those CDs Scott wanted out of the closet. The top shelf has some tapes and assorted things that just needed storage room.
I was able to get all the computer software CDs gathered up and put into an empty file folder box, which fit well on the bottom shelf along with some paper products. The shelf directly under the printer holds another file box which contains extra, empty files, and has room for some of the children’s supplies as well.
This shelf was a big purchase for us but helped a lot.
All of my cleaning inspired Scott to somewhat clean his desk (I’m not touching it!) He had a wire “in-basket” that I put on top of the file cabinet next to my desk. Then we purchased a small metal shelf (meant to go on an existing shelf or surface). I put that on the file cabinet too.
I found a small, pretty wicker basket at Goodwill to hold cables and small electronic things I use frequently (digital camera and cables, a calculator, webcam, my iPod, etc.) I put that on the little shelf along with a medium sized container to hold my office supplies – tape, stapler, scissors, super glue, etc. I also had a little room on there to put a container for holding pencils and pens.
I put magazines and products I’m currently reviewing in the space under the shelf.
After these few purchases (and finds) I suddenly had an office that was working much better!
The last thing I did was organize our files and books. The files took a long time and a lot of work – I may make another post about working on files! Books I moved and shifted around some and ended up with more room for books than I’d started with.
End Result
The office was the absolute toughest room I encountered. The only room that has come close is the laundry room because it holds such an assortment of stuff (and Scott has things in there that I have no clue what they are and don’t want to mess with them without his help :p).
It was a room where I realized we truly did need to make some purchases, and I had to go to absolute “square 1″ and figure out where to start. Hopefully sharing just how I did that will help you figure out that even if a room looks really tough, it can probably be organized to work effectively.
When I sit down to take care of business or family matters all that I need is within arms reach of me (unless for some reason I actually need all the computer paraphernalia we have in those drawers across the room). I’m able to get my work done much more quickly and efficiently, even with a small space for my office.
This entire experience of organizing the house has been very nice for me because I’ve been able to figure out how make our relatively small home work well for us. There’s some things I still can’t figure out (where are we going to put that china cabinet……) but for the most part I’ve been really pleased with how I’ve been able to make space – and make space that works for our family
