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Wednesday, February 1, 2012

I'm Organizing My Office in 29 Days


As you probably know if you read my blog regularly, on Mondays I link up with Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie to share my menu plan from the previous week. Well, she sucked me into a 29-day organizing challenge. That's right. I actually hemmed and hawed about doing it, and then after I decided I needed a push to organize something in my house, I hemmed and hawed about what space to actually organize.

Um, you would have thought it was obvious:

You walk through the door and look to the left. There are stacks of papers on top of the file cabinet. I sit on a really nasty pillow, some baby clothes, and an empty pillow case every time I nurse Little M. There are 2 sound machines on the shelves to the left. I stub my toe on the crate peeking out from under the shelves every time I nurse Little M.
Look to the left. The armoire is missing a knob on the drawer, making it difficult to open (so of course nothing goes in there and it just gets piled up on the shelves). Look at the wires. The papers piled up on the shredder that's hiding on the floor to the right of the armoire. There are papers and plastic falling out of the too-small garbage can.
Look to the right of the glider. A boppy, a book, a matchbox car, and a sweatshirt have fallen into the abyss and stayed there.
Keep turning to the right. This happens to also be Little M's bedroom (until I can move him in with Baby T). The bed is never made, and there are blankets instead of curtains. The pictures on the wall are crooked.
Turning to the right a little more, there is the bookshelf that's overflowing with papers and...stuff.
Even Little M thinks I need to do something with all this crap. He chose today to pull it all down from the shelves.

I know. It's embarrassing. And slightly disgusting. This is my office--my space to organize my business and personal paperwork. I don't spend much time in this room, but it's Little M's room and the guest room when people visit. I need to be able to actually find things. And to feel a little less embarrassed when guests stay here. The room needs some major help.

So here I go...

I have a list that includes:
  • Get a bigger garbage can
  • Organize armoire drawers
  • Get longer screw for armoire knob
  • Cover cereal boxes with burlap for work paperwork
  • File/organize old documents (there is an empty beer case filled with old paperwork under the armoire).
  • Rearrange room
  • Fix wire situation behind armoire
  • Make curtains
  • Fix the artwork in the room.
  • Put shelves on wall for photos
  • Cover pillow on glider
  • Organize armoire shelves

I started today by quickly removing all the junk that didn't belong in the room: the matchbox car,  the sweatshirt, the towel on the floor.

Then, I tackled the mail organizer that was overflowing with papers on top of the bookshelf. I brought it into the kitchen so I could have more room to work.
It basically entailed a lot of throwing away. I also pawned 3 small bags and a bunch of little lotions off on my friends. This was the final product:


It's a start.

6 comments:

Ryanna Gamble Battiste said... Best Blogger Tips

you are my inspiration!! if that room gets organized, so much can fall into place! nick and i are trying to do our office too. its the brains of our home and is such a disaster. you will have to tell me about the burlap covered cereal boxes. i need places to hide paper! go gaby go!

Denise said... Best Blogger Tips

Oh my gosh! This room has so much potential! You have some great pieces in there, and I am DYING to come help you! I have to say, your "to do" list sounds very daunting to me, but that's because I can't sew. Great job on the mail organizer. Can't believe you did that so quickly! Excited for you!

Melissa said... Best Blogger Tips

That's a great start! I definitely have a few spaces (err, almost every space in my house) that could use some reorganizing. Perhaps you'll inspire me!

Tmuffin said... Best Blogger Tips

Melissa, that's how I felt. And sadly, I felt like this room DIDN'T actually need organizing. I guess I'm a little delusional. But now I can see the cascade of EVERYTHING else that needs organizing. If I did one space a month, my house would be amazing in about 6 months. (Who am I kidding--maybe in 6 years!!)

Tmuffin said... Best Blogger Tips

Denise--what? There is no sewing on my to do list, is there? Oh, curtains. Well, there is always sticky hem tape for people who don't have sewing machines!

Tmuffin said... Best Blogger Tips

Do it with me! Our brains will be so sharp after it's all done!

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