You know how it’s only when addicts plummet to the bottom that they can begin to rebuild their lives? So it goes with my home office. Which I, over the next many weeks, hope to transform into a beautiful, functioning workspace where thoughts will soar and inspiration will flow in like a spring breeze.
Some background: I live in a delightful two-bedroom 1947 condo in Southern California with my über-supportive and well-meaning husband, Steve. We are not terrifically messy people, but we’re not completely compulsive either. What the architect intended to be a dining room is my workspace, open for all to see. There’s a desk and several bookshelves. And in an attempt to be organized, I have purchased many holdy-things: snappy cardboard boxes in attractive colors and prints, a file rack that goes on the wall, desk organizers and under-desk storage.
I thought it was a genius move to commandeer a cedar hope chest as a filing cabinet and stick one of those press-on lights to the inside of the lid, but I have not opened it since I tucked away papers I apparently can’t live without two months ago. Steve tried to put up a shelf but ended up with a precarious installation that seems like it’s trying with all its might to escape the wall and go back to Ikea. There is a lot of glue where I think screws are supposed to go.
I think I may have all the tools for effective organization, but there is a user-error issue here. My office is where I write magazine stories and work on my blog. There is always an impending avalanche of paper. My tax guy told me to save all my receipts, but I honestly do not think that the IRS cares that I spent $26.29 on sheep’s milk gouda, Valrhona chocolate and lavender-scented laundry detergent at Trader Joe’s. My desk is covered with menus and brochures from travel story research, “inspiration” pages torn from magazines, photos that are not important enough to frame but too dear to toss, mortgage re-fi paperwork, postcards from the vet reminding me that my dog is due for a dental cleaning – you get the idea. Pretty much everything.
Once I hired a woman to help me organize my office, and after her two-hour show of folding and tossing and filing, I thought, “Well that was easy enough. I didn’t need to pay anyone, I could have done that.” And then everything went to hell the next week.
The issue is that I need a system. I need to know what to do with each piece of paper, each electronic accoutrement, each business card and bank errata that passes my way.
How do you do stay clear and organized in your workspace so that you can actually produce? Welcoming all suggestions, and I thank you in advance.
Originally published at Lifework by Vanessa McGrady
Tina Wilson's Striking Style 
30 DIY Projects for the 3-Day Weekend
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Dunes & Duchess Can...
Make Chocolate Magic Shell Ice Cream Topping with Only 2 Ingredients
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
Comments (5)
Oh you have to choose "holdy-things" that work for you. My desk used to look the same way. I got a vertical file folder organizer that makes it easy to stash away stuff that piles up quickly. The key for me was buying organizers that don't allow me to pile stuff on top of them. If you are anything like me you will need LOTS of open style storage, I can't stand having to open a box or a drawer to put things away, right at my finger tips is the only way. Good luck, can't wait to see what you do! I posted a photo of my space on my blog if you want to take a peek to get ideas: http://www.mintedcondition.com/home-office
Perfect timing: Living with Less, Week 4: Incoming Mail & Electronic Files
Also useful are FlyLady's declutter tips.
I know tackling a messy work place can be overwhelming -trust me, I really do- but it's one of the most rewarding cleaning up tasks there is. I managed to empty my physical desk and computer desktop and am capable to deal with any mess now! Good luck.
How have I done it? Little by slowly.
A: I've tried every possible arrangement of my spare-room office. The one I have now has stayed organized and become moreso as I've used it, so I think I've finally hit on the winner.
B: A couple of things that have made all the difference (apologies to W.C. Williams):
1) Keep paper off your desk. I know, I know, sounds heretical. I have a small bench. Inside the top are Do It Now Items. I pull the bench beside my chair and work on one paper item at a time. Then it gets scanned & efiled, filed, sent on to someone else, or trashed. Everything that's not a Do It Now item is shelved or filed or pinned to my inspiration board directly above and behind my monitor.
2) Set up a file tree in your computer that works and then make your paper files match.
My tree's top level is as follows:
(~~Please file me) what it says. (~ar) archives. (~do) currently active projects (~e) Stuff with plugs. Two subfolders -- Hardware, Software (~go) Travel/transit/car/bike related (~hl) Health of mind/body/spirit (~hs) Household; subfolders for objects clothes clean food HomeDec et al, (~j) for Joie de Vivre, aka fun, recreation, hobbies, etc. (~l) Learn or Library for info, book reviews, etc., (~m) for money, (~p) for people, contact info, etc.
Everything I have in my computer, on my shelves, and in my files fits into one of these major categories. The more I sort everything this way, the easier it gets, little by slowly.
**If you type your main folders with the tilde as I did ~ar, ~do, and the ~~Please File Me folder with the double tilde, they'll sort nicely at the top of your file tree, uninterrupted by system folders such as "My Music" "My Pictures" "Downloads" et al.
Hope this helps some!
I love the white file rack! Do you know where I can got one like that? Good luck ;)
It looks like you have lots of storage ... but the wrong storage. I think you need to edit out the stuff that doesn't work and find things that do. When I cleaned up my office, I treated it like a kitchen remodel. I took stock of what I had, what I needed to keep, and what I didn't need. Then I found the right storage solutions that worked/fit for me. The best tool I had was a wand scanner - It saved me tons of time converting "stuff" onto the computer. I kept everything really simple with detailed computer files and for the paper stuff, I have a bag (actually one of those permanent grocery bag things I got at a trade show) that I throw all the paperwork into that I will need for tax preparation (the IRS wants the original's for an audit - and at the end of the year I have one bag to go thru and tally up which usually takes me a day, and then it's ready for the accountant. Then everything that was saved goes into a Rubbermaid bin in the garage.). Everything else gets scanned (including those inspirational tear sheets) and put on the computer and I toss or shred the originals. Oh and I got a cute permanent notebook (think hot pink leather cover) that I put all my little jots in ... I'm more comfortable with writing rather than putting it on the computer .... so EVERYTHING that I would have put on a scrap of paper, an envelope, or a sticky note; all the phone numbers, directions, passwords, or random thoughts go in the notebook. It's almost like a stream of consciousness .... Well, that's what works for me. Good luck with your space!