In anticipation of next month's focus on home projects and befores and afters, we've spotted one woman's hard work of reorganizing her home office. With a little effort and planning her work space went from - well, let's be honest here - chaos to a tidy place to really get some work done. Take a look at the after:
Doesn't just looking at the progress shown here make you breathe a little sigh of relief? We love the feeling of having a space freshly organized. Its effects are not just visual: an organized space can help you to complete work more efficiently and feel happier going about it.
Stick around for the month of February to see lots of our own organization projects and befores and afters.
Images: Flickr member Evelyn Giggles, licensed for use under Creative Commons
Where to Squeeze a Home Office into a Full House?
Juan's Garage Turned Modern Guest House
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Commercial Flour Sa...
Yuck: A Fourth Grader Reveals What School Lunches Really Look Like
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
Good job!
wowza
Much better!
Looks like my mother's house. Even the circa 1823 eMachine, hehe. Nice job on the clean up. :)
Oh my. Yes, this is MUCH MUCH better. This example is especially visually arresting because it's a public area of her home, but even those of us who'd never let a public area get this bad are often hiding a disarrayed closet or disorganized boxes under the bed or overflowing junk drawers.
Organization is a challenge, but so worth it. You definitely just *feel* so much better knowing you have fewer things and that you will open your cabinet and be able to find everything immediately. I'm trying to tackle my closet right now. Yesterday I trekked three large bags of things (clothes, knickknacks and wall art I was saving, etc) to Goodwill and recycled a boatload of papers and photos I was hanging onto. And I still have a ways to go before my closet is the sort of neatly color-coded, matching-hangered paradise I am envisioning. BUT one day soon, I will want to take pictures of my immaculately organized closet! That is my goal! :)
This looks like a home "office" that's no longer used. I think the owner has a laptop now and keeps the desktop "just in case." No one would have piled all that stuff onto a keyboard that's used every day.
But it does look nice! Always good to be neat and organized.
I set up my new home office a year ago when I came back from a year-long maternity leave (we're lucky that way in Canada). But it never got completed. Bits and pieces are floating around, never having found a happy home. Maybe your organisation project series will help me get on track? Certainly, this before/after gives me a good kick in the butt.
Much better! I like the file cabinet
Hey! What happened to the mannequin head thing? That was really fun.
eek! what happened to the mannequin head?
oh my, the before looks so much like mine right now.
I'm sorry, but just because it occurred to someone it was a good idea to clean, doesn't make it good enough material to put in a design blog.
Please, please go to your moms for that pat in the back some of you so much seem to need.
I think mannequin heads are about as scary as it gets. That said, the "after" looks wonderful!
love the neat ! =)
love the neat ! =)
tbgboodler, it looks to me like there's a keyboard tray under there, in which case those piles wouldn't have interfered the keyboard.
yeah I love that mannequin head...hopefully it just got a more prominent spot in the house.
The after seems way too staged. I would guess it's not used much since there's not a whole lotta room and since it was so cluttered before it's doubtful it was used then.
seriously well done!
Congrats you cleaned up!
How come you can see into the next room in the before... and in the after there is a wall there... they didn't just tidy they relocated!!! Don't believe me... the desk top with the computer is flush against the wall in the first picture and not in the second... before... move and after... Just sayin.
I hadn't really caught that se7en. At the very least the desk is now on the other side of the room and I'm willing to bet in another room completely.
Its time to replace the CRT monitor with a flat screen - you will have MUCH more room in that armoire.