Before & After: The Bedroom Desk Gets Organized

A small desk in the dormer window of my bedroom has never really been used properly. The desktop has always been a catch-all for books, clothes, and papers at the end of the day. And the drawer, well, the drawer was even worse. I finally set aside some time to give the area some attention, and it paid off:

Now, instead of sitting on the floor at the coffee table, I have an inviting and functional nook to use for work. A small clip-on Artemide lamp was relocated to the desk so my husband or I can work at the desk late into the night without disturbing the other. I moved a tiny plant to the desktop from the dining room — where it always looked too small anyway — to add a little cheeriness even during this never-ending winter.

The drawer already had dividers in it. I had just ignored them until now. This is now a perfect place to stow away bills to be paid, stationery, business cards, and the various chargers and headphones that are generally scattered about. Organizing these items into the drawer dividers helped me to weed out all of that stuff I never really needed (like the 50 ink pens littering the front of the drawer, half of which didn’t work so well anyway!).

One last thing I’d like to do here: install a grommet at the back of the desktop for funneling cords down to the outlet below. Otherwise, the entire desk was pulled together with just a little thought, effort, and things I already had around the house.

Images: Regina Yunghans