Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts

The un-Office

Warning: the following photos are not pretty.


I saw this post today, about creating an office space when you have no office, and I wanted to share what works for me!

I have a computer desk in our basement with a small filing drawer where we keep all of our important papers. We also have a filing crate with less important files tucked away in a basement closet (things like laundry machine manuals are in there). This works in general, but I often found myself needing things like tape or stamps while I was in the kitchen, and paper piles would quickly accumulate until I had the chance to file them.

I came up with the following system which has been working for me for awhile.


It takes up one shelf in my pantry and consists of some stacking trays, a paper recycling box, a box of greeting cards, and three re-purposed baby wipes containers.

The stacking trays contain:
  • office tools - scissors, packing tape, ruler, pencil sharpener, stapler, tape
  • mailers
  • my laptop and notebook - the cord is plugged in behind the couch so I can use then when I need to
  • paper for lists, notes, and emergency coloring pages
  • the to-be-filed pile
To the right, I have a box of greeting cards as well as baby wipes containers that keep the following at hand:
  • mailing supplies (stamps, address labels, envelopes)
  • paper clips, pushpins, and rubber bands
  • child-proofing supplies
  • sewing essentials
Any papers that I need to reference, need at hand, or have to act upon live on my super-elaborate wall board.


(Pardon me, I obviously need to bring the paper recycling in! Our church has one of those paper recycling fundraiser dumpsters.)

Yup. Those are just papers taped to the door. I know it's ugly, but this actually works for me. I don't like the clutter, so it encourages me to act on the items I need to. I have to see every single paper every time I open this door (which is often) so it is harder to forget about things. I have a couple of envelopes there for smaller things.

Oh yes, I also have a cup of pens.

This system really only works because we have eliminated as much paper as possible. We do not receive paper bills or statements. We do not get the newspaper and junk mail gets put in the recycling bin right away. If I find a piece of paper that I'd like to be able to reference later on but don't want it hanging around, I will sometimes snap a photo with my smartphone and store it in an online album or in Google docs.

The majority of papers that land in the to-be-filed box are photos, tax documents and receipts (for home based business expenses), and to-sweet-to-throw-away craft projects. I have a photo box at my desk in the basement to collect the overflow of photos. I'll go through those someday, but for the time being the box is small and pretty so it works. Tax documents, medical records, etc get filed in the little filing drawer at my desk. Craft projects get photographed and thrown away or photographed and put away into Cecelia's treasure box.

Another system in the house that helps with small-item/paper build-up is the large outbox in our mudroom closet. I'm able to drop a lot of things in there (store returns, borrowed books, gifts) and then grab them when we head out!

Since everything is on display, and it's a very tight space, things in here are pared down by necessity. I have everything I need, and nothing I don't!

Bring on the Green

With cold days and early nights already upon us, I'm trying to take steps to make my home a little healthier this winter.


I happened to be driving by IKEA while thinking about this and quickly made the turn to look at their plants. I pulled up the list of air filtering house plants, and found one there that worked. The Red-Edged Dracaena, which is supposed to be very simple to care for (a necessity given my brown thumb). Bonus, it was only $10.

It looks cute in the living room where it's getting the filtered sunlight the tag asks for.


Oh, if you look closely in the above picture, you can see the other new addition to the living room:

Fake sofa tables!


We haven't decided what to do about a coffee table, we don't have room for end tables, and we need a place to put glasses, etc when using the living room. Sofa tables seemed like an extravagant expense when we're just tucking them next to a wall, so floating shelves ended up being our answer. We have the one you see above and another longer one against the wall behind the other L of the sectional.

Visually, you barely notice them, but functionally, they are perfect. It's one of those projects that I'm definitely regretting not doing it earlier!

Hidden Clutter

I've been cleaning out my storage areas recently in hopes that by cleaning them out I will be able to realize my dreams of turning the storage room into a 3rd bedroom/office so Jonathan can stop working in our bedroom!


We have quite a few obstacles before that can happen:
  1. Our furnace is enormous and juts right into the space we'd like to use. We recently had an HVAC guy come in for an estimate on replacing it, and he started taking pictures of our furnace to show his HVAC friends. Yes, it's that old (circa 1954). So first thing, we'd have to remove and replace that beast.
  2. While we're at it, we might as well add central air, right? Everyone says they will offer a discount for doing both.
  3. To do that, we would need to update our electrical panel, also circa 1954.
  4. As you can imagine, everything is so freaking expensive!
So, it's probably not going to happen. But a girl can dream and cleaning out the storage area is probably a good idea anyway.

I tackled our old electronic equipment first. We've had 2 very old flip phones with the batteries removed as toys for awhile, but everything else just sat in a box gathering dust. A friend let me know that the mobile rep at Target will give you a store credit as payment for turning in a working cell phone, so a couple things went there. Everything else is waiting for a trip to the library electronic recycling area.

Sitting in a box gathering dust is bad enough, but I discovered worse things: empty boxes gathering dust. Boxes for a DVD player, an ipod dock, our wedding china, etc. I had the electronic boxes saved for warranties (30 days have long passed); the china boxes were because my mom told me that things like that aren't worth any money without the box. After 4 years, I'm not planning to sell them so out they go.

These are the dangers of living in the suburbs with lots of storage space. Never again, I hope!

Daily Attack

I'm committing to something new - 15 minutes of cleaning my home's major trouble areas. I'll still have to do more cleaning throughout the day, but the plan is for these 15 minutes to keep clutter contained around the house.


In those 15 minutes I want to:
  • wipe down bathroom surfaces
  • clear off the top of our entertainment center and dishwasher (the "kids-can't-reach-it-so-we-put-everything-here" places)
  • collect stray dishes and put them in the dishwasher
  • put runaway shoes back in their place
  • deal with any paperwork found when cleaning up
Today I was so motivated that my 15 minutes lasted an hour! I did get a lot more done in that time than I had planned, so it's setting the stage for the real day 1 tomorrow.

In case anyone is fervently expecting updates on the sun porch progress, simmer down. It's very much stalled for now, but hopefully I'll find some time to work on it soon.

"Mudroom" Closet

It's all done! This was a lot easier than I thought, especially when the painting help was this cute:



Here is the before again....


And the new after!


Getting most of my shoes and all of everyone else's shoes in here was my number one priority. We always remove our shoes in the house to keep things clean, but were frequently tripping over shoes in our tiny back hall. As you can see in the before, we had a lot of shoes collecting here and the cubby system wasn't cutting it. This new system gives two shelves for Jonathan, one for Cecelia, and three for myself. Unfortunately, the remnants of my shoe obsession in college mean that I still have quite a few pairs of shoes in my own closet. I can keep out-of-season shoes special occasion shoes stored up high, but I'm also working on paring my collection down to the ones I actually wear. Sadly it seems that my opportunities to wear red patent leather stilletos are growing fewer and fewer, so I have a bag of shoes headed to Goodwill and a few saved for my sisters.


That little set of shelves to the right is a cubby for each of us. Purse in mine, big girl diaper bag things for Cecelia, and not much yet for Jonathan!

I love the two drawer-like baskets here, one for things to grab on the way out like sunscreen and cameras and the other as a house "outbox." Borrowed books and Tupperware to return to family, an old pair of glasses to donate at the post office, a birthday card ready to bring to a party this weekend, etc. This is the type of stuff that collects all over my house for months because I never remember to bring it with me. I'm hoping that I'll notice these items when I grab my shoes and bring the things that belong to the people I'm going to see that day.

The basket on the right is still empty, making me feel extra organized.


Up top I have the picnic basket filled with a few outdoor entertaining items, grill tools and cake takers. Coolers, beach towels for summer (will replace as seasons change), and my basket of disposable dishes below.


I installed 7 hooks that we had removed from our bedroom closets to handle the rest. A bag of pool and beach toys, umbrella, reusable bags, and a bag of plastic bags to bring in for recycling. There's also a couple hooks on the side for Jonathan and I to hang our most-used coat in the winter. The rest live on hangers in the front hall closet.

The shelves in here are all Closetmaid laminate organizers from Target. I've had a 9 cube shelf for years that still looks brand new, so I believe in their durability. That one has been moved from the living room to the basement to the back closet and back to the living room and still looks good. I considered putting adjustable white wire shelving in this closet as we have done in the bedrooms, but I'm glad we went this route. We do not need any hanging space here, and we can take all the shelves with us when we leave. I painted the old hanging rod, so when we go to sell the house it will hopefully still look this good.


I've joined a party at Remodelaholic!







So it begins.

Once upon a time, I purchased 600 plastic forks.




Two-and-a-half years later, most of them are still there. Ooops.

Today I finally took them down and repackaged them into a pretty crate from Target along with the leftover package of 225 plates and who-knows-how-many cups....


It's my very first step in the overhaul of this disaster:



I'm hoping that by publicly posting this abysmal back hall closet situation, I will be more motivated to finish this project by this weekend. Check for an update soon!