Office Organizing Journey 1Before Pics and Challenges

This was originally published 1/13/2009 on Organising Queen as a guest post series.
Pop on over and say Hi to Marcia. She has a ton of great organizing tips and ideas!

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Hello. My name is Anne. I am so happy to have you join me this morning. Today I will be showing you my office in its various stages. And while we walk and see, we can talk about the benefits and rewards of having an office system like mine.



Please remove your shoes, grab a pair a slippers from the pile over there, and follow me. We will be walking though the living room and dining room to descend the staircase. Here at the bottom of the stairs you can see a wide open room that is quite bright from the sun streaming in the window. But this room, while large and bright does not appear to be an office. We sneak a look behind each of the three doors finding 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom... We see no office.




No, really, we are in the office. A closer look around reveals wall studs built into place. Electricity run to lights and plugs. There appears to be the skeleton of a closet off to the side. And this wide open space. This space with no insulation, no drywall, no paint, no window coverings. This is my office space. But it is unfinished, in partial completion, and is being used as a junk collection station.

And let's go around this dark corner under the stairs. I want to show you my Long Term Storage Closet. I know that you will be timid to enter at first, squeezing in behind the stairs, next to the bookcases, but come along. There is much to see! We step into a large room. Each wall has rack upon rack upon rack of books and homeschooling supplies, office supplies, school supplies and crafts, Long Term Legal Files, even Long Term Linen Storage and Childhood memorabilia. I have science projects, family games, push pins and office equipment plugs. THIS is my long term storage.




Now, we haven't see a desk or anything resembling workable area, so follow me back upstairs and I will show you where I work. Back through the dining room, living room, down the hallway past the children's bedrooms and into the master bedroom. Although it doesn't look like a bedroom other than the blankets.


As we walk in the door we immediately see paper holders on a large dresser to the left. Looking right I see a table that had once been a patio table. It now houses 2 large printers. Beyond the table is a large executive size desk.

It is a bit worse for wear and appears to have had its return section removed leaving a bare feeling on the left side. But above that is a large pile of papers from the kids this past week.

Leaning against the wall is a 3 file holder in black mesh. It looks like it could be useful. But with all the papers streaming out of their respective folders at all angles like fireworks... it certainly doesn't seem to work right now.

I sit to use the laptop provided and immediately roll the chair over the wires plugging in said laptop. Whoops. I lean in to type and bump my elbow on another printer. piggy-back style on the printer is a cable box and a 20" TV. Half the desk is covered by TV and the other half is covered by piles flowing into piles.

I pick up one of the piles and decide to file those papers. The closest files are in the lower 3rd drawer. I look in there, bit those files look like craft stuff. I glance around the room. Clear on the other side is a large file cabinet.

There is no file for this paper. I set it aside and take another. This one is a receipt for a large Christmas Purchase, Electronic. I dont see a file for receipts. Should I just stuff it in this file with all this other paper? And this BILL looks urgent. Do I need to file it too? Or should I leave it on the desk so I remember to pay it? I probably will file it. It goes in the red BILL folders.

Let's see... It is a Bill, but what kind of a bill? a Gas Card. But from what company? OK, we go to the red section. I find the Bills. Behind that category it says "gas cards and stores" OR "Credit cards" OR "Signature loans". It is a gas card. so back up to that section. Hm mm, now where in here does it go? Ah Ha, here. Lookie! I got one filed! Whew. At this rate it is going to take FOREVER to file this pile... and there is another stack of papers right here stuffed in the drawer and they all need to be filed too. UGH!



I should make files for this stuff, I suppose. But that means another trip around the house and through the basement to get file folders. Then again, if I am going to walk all that way, maybe I should just take the whole pile and shove it into a box down there to deal with later. uh, no, I can't do that. I already have a couple boxes like that from the 90s.



Well, forget the filing. I want to scrapbook. Then again, there isnt any space to scrapbook. I will have to dig all the supplies out of the closet (stuffed in with the clothes) and haul them to the kitchen table. I don't want to do that either.

This is horrible. Ridiculous even. I think we should just have a snack and watch TV. If we ignore this mess, it will go away, right???

BUT SERIOUSLY, there are no benefits or rewards to my office space(s).

Here are the challenges:

• Things I need are not at hand
• there is no space to work
• the filing system is confusing
• things pile on top of piles
• I have remnants of 2 at-home jobs, remnants of homeschooling (it has been 4 years since we stopped) and everyday family life.

I need help! I need to dig out and move forward. Lucky for me, Marcia has an Office plan!

Please continue to join me on my Office Organizing Journey.

I will be decluttering, tossing, donating, filing, shredding, and finding a way to work in the space I have available to me.

See you next week for an update!

Hello all, Marcia here.

I think Anne's very brave to share her journey with all my readers. Go ahead and encourage her in the comments. She's doing a great job :)

And of course, you're all very welcome to tackle your office over the next 4 - 6 weeks.