After a pseudo-argument with my live-in boyfriend over a few (messy) stacks of my important papers that he had moved around to clean up for company, I arrived at (what I thought) was a compromise solution: Let me design a proper home office space—one with plenty of room and where all of my stuff is completely off limits to your bit-by-the-cleaning-bug hands. Here's why he vetoed the idea.
Our current home office consists of a tiny desk that's barely big enough for our PC monitor and keyboard—which he mostly uses. I, on the other hand, do my blogging and bill-paying from a MacBook stationed in the living room.
As you can guess, I often leave unsightly trails of cell phone statements and unpaid bills in my wake. But—allow me to recite the organized-chaos-believer's motto—there's a method to my madness. When he cleans, it messes up my flow. I need a space where I can leave my piles undisturbed.
I proposed that we upgrade our desk space and that the boyfriend grant me a tiny bubble of our apartment where my paper piles lay undisturbed. He vetoed the idea.
Since our home office does double-duty as a guest room, he argued that it's first on the list to get straightened up when we've got guests. It makes sense, sure. But if I can't have my office be an off-limits space, what other options are there?
Readers, do you have a long-standing treaty with your S.O. to keep their paws away from your office? Can you recommend another spot for me to call my messy own? Let us know in the comments!
(Image: Photo illustration based on Gregory's Refreshed & Refreshing Home Office)
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The BF and I share our desk space, but we each have drawers that neither should touch. I don't know how, but he manages to keep track of his bills and statements and receipts as they get stuffed into the drawer - I like to keep my side tidy and organized. Drawer-space compromises! The top of the desk is no-man's-land. Just computers, lamp, speakers and other items we've mutually agreed upon, otherwise it's chaos!
We have the same issue at our place. However I am the one who wants the place to look clean. I have a small desk with my Mac in the in the living room. When my boyfriend moved in I cleaned out my studio space and we placed shelving, a decent size desk and put his PC there. However he never uses it, he likes the Mac better. The compromise we have come to is anything that clutter the desk top in the living room goes in to that person's in box. It has been working pretty well.
If I want my husband to leave something alone, I lock it in my toolbox :)
I can totally relate to this situation. I'd recommend a stylish and portable accordion-style file folder to keep any papers neatly tucked away in organized fashion when guests come over. I make the recommendation as someone who lives, loves and works with someone who leaves similar paper trails as they work in the living room also, so I sympathize with Taryn's boyfriend!
Method-to-the-madness anti-organization unfortunately never works with tidying up for guests...it only makes sense to the person who created the mess :D
Convert all/some of the closet to meet your needs so you can shut the doors on part of your storage/office space. Guests usually don't stay THAT long that they would need a full closet.
The only option you have, if you can't move elsewhere in the home, is to clean up after yourself. You either have to organize as you go along - get a hanging file system, plastic containers, drawers, anything - or YOU will have to pick up before guests arrive.
I used to be a nomad in our home - my "office" was first combined in my boyfriend's "office" (I use the quotes only because they're workspaces, but it's not like it's a cubicle that we do work-at-home type stuff); after that didn't work out, all my stuff ended up in the living room. It was unsightly, and always in the way when people came over. Eventually, I had to gut the other bedroom and move in there. Now, he has his room, I have mine, and we have a living room. It's the only thing that works for us.
My husband and I always agreed on private work spaces. This said, I share mine with my 3 years old boy, with strict rules about what's off limits. I guess he will need his own desk space when he will get older. For the moment we get along very well.
Paper work is limited to a small corner where we also charge portable media items. Like that it's off territory for both of us, so we don't argue about it.
I think that everybody has a right to a private space in the house. Having a place where you can be comfortable with yourself helps building self confidence and makes better family relationship.
I agree with the drawer idea or can you add a desk in your bedroom that can be just yours?
I bought this hanging wall-mount magazine organizer from the container store, and made small labels for me, my partner, and our housemate. That's the drop-spot for mail, plus any other miscellaneous papers that end up in public spaces. When I need to quickly clean off surfaces (often of my stuff), I do a fast sort into 5 piles: hers, mine, housemate's, magazines, and recycling/trash. Each pile has a slot in the hanging organizer, recycling & trash go directly there.
I go through my slot in the hanging organizer every week or so - they go through theirs at their leisure.
My partner and I each have a desk, and I try not to over-neaten her desk when company are coming over, plus she knows that I like the piles to be relatively straight, so does it herself before I get to it.
It works relatively well, because it allows us to sort and organize things into manageable piles that can also be stored in a slightly-less-unsightly manner.
@del4yo "everyone should have a private space in their house" - hahaha try living in a 550 sq feet apartment with your boyfriend and a flatmate. we use the dinning table to work and have two sets of drawers and a bookcase with books and boxes. well, it doesn't work, when he leaves everything everywhere i just stuff it in his boxes. he complains, i argue back, life goes on.