More Stuff for DH's Home Office
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8 years ago
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8 years agoAnne
8 years agoRelated Discussions
New Additions to Home Office, or: A Full Room Gets More Crowded
Comments (4)I love your office with all the personal items. So nice to see you using things that have special meaning to you. Good for you....See MoreHome office / homeschool / clutter....yikes!
Comments (34)Thanks Talley, it is good to know I am not alone. It drives me crazy when I do spend hours cleaning, only to have DH come home and move something centimeters. Or I haven't touched something all day, and he will come home and move it. AAARRGH. Just leave it alone!!! Now to the office. I do have a good 2 drawer filing cabinet I think we got from an office that was moving, but it is full! Although I am sure it needs to be cleaned out. Right now we have a corner computer desk that has really no storage. Everything is on the top of the desk, cubbies, in baskets, paper, paper everywhere! I do research for a coupon website and am the secretary for the music boosters at the high school, so there is a lot of paper. Just need a better filing system. I do have in the closet a cabinet that right now houses lots of craft stuff that I haven't used in forever. I am thinking about taking that out, cleaning it out and repurposing it. Maybe paint and a little molding, a cork board on the front, baskets and labels inside... I need a real desk with drawers to put stuff away. I have 4 different rolly carts with different size drawers for various and sundry things. One holds kids school supplies I try to always have on hand so there is no running to the store in the middle of the night! Buy them in Aug/Sept when they are cheap! Then I have all my fabric, I make flannel rag quilts for friends then use the scraps to make blankies for preemies. Have lots of flannel remnants, need to get that in line. Ok, now I am stressing, just need to concentrate on one thing at a time. Today it is the paper work on the floor. Once I can get through that it won't be so bad. Thanks again, Laura...See MoreDH let them see the stuff that was leaving!
Comments (35)Somewhere I can actually have some input instead of questions (if I could only implement it and stick to it myself!) My parents used to make a deal with me. They'd give me a few small boxes and say "Go through your books" Or "Go through your toy bins" For every small box I filled I got a small amount of money. With that amount of money I was allowed to buy ONE new thing of whatever I donated/got rid of. For books, I was allowed to have the money that the used book store gave us for them. So if I filled 5 boxes with say...30 small toys. And I got one dollar a box, I was allowed to buy ONE 5 dollar item with it. Money from books I was allowed to buy ONE new book, or ONE new toy. I think teaching kids that by getting rid of things and creating space, you have space for new things is important. When you just ask them to get rid of their things, they're going to be hesistant to give up much, if anything. But if they realise doing it will create space for something better, or more exciting, they might do it. They did it every 6 months or so. The rule was also that whatever I bought had to fit where everything I got rid of, came from. I could clean my toy bins out, and buy a toy that didn't fit in any of them. If I wanted a new larger toy, I had to give up a larger toy I already had. Of course this only works if your kids are old enough to understand that once its GONE its GONE. It's not you fill up your box, get two bucks and a new toy, and all your old ones back. And you have to make sure your kids aren't tossing out all the things they love because they want a lot of money. I guess you could regulate it a little better if your kids tend to do that. "If you can fill up one box a week, you'll get X amount of money and in X amount of weeks you can go buy this" They also did it with clothes once I was a teen. "If you fill up this bag with clothes you don't wear, we'll get you one pair of jeans/a shirt you really want" I still do that. If I buy new clothes, i don't allow myself to put them away or even wear them, until I have made space for them by getting rid of other clothes I don't wear. If I buy a new black shirt, I get rid of two old ones I don't wear anymore" etc, etc....See Moreoffice clutter and more stuff
Comments (16)Annellis, The thing to do when you have so much necessary "stuff" and just not enough room, is (1) try to declutter again - throw out what you can live without, (2) separate "home" from "business" from "hobbies" (3) Within each one of those three sections are sometimes ten or so subsections. Don't feel like we've all got the tiny desk with the 3 flowered vase on it and are just so content with that. At the moment, I've got a few rooms of disorganization spilled over onto the next (but I work almost 16 hrs a day and wait for weekends to catch up). Anyways, those magazine desk rooms are "staged" rooms - they don't exist. The minute you put a real person with real receipts and documents in those rooms, it will be a tornado. Anyways, a few tips I've used that have helped me: (1) Buy a photo album with the clear sheets: I put warranties, important receipts, important documents (deeds, mortgage transactions, etc.) in these bad boys because it lets me see instantaneously what I have. (2) Get an accordian style folder. This is for coupons. Label the tabs by month, and put the coupons in that are due to expire in that month. We are never more motivated to use coupons then when their value will expire. At least that is the way for me. (3) Get fancy (but cheap) bins to put "stuff to look over when I have a minute" and divide by type: business, home, play. Organizing is very personal; make it the way you need to in order to retrieve documents quickly and to organize efficiently. If big color stickies are what grabs your attention, then do it! If you want that kind of attention-getting organization, but behind closed doors - stash your stuff in matching bins, cabinets, etc. You don't have to buy fancy stuff, just make it all consistent; paint the ugly file cabinet a nice brown to match the incoming & outgoing mail bins, that will match the accordian files. Harmony is established visually through consistency. So, you can have alot of clutter, but consolidate it behind consistent color and texture and find a code of organization that works for you and your family. Having alot of "stuff" isn't bad - especially if it is important documents or idea sheets or creative inspirations. The trick is to be able to devise a system to organize it so that you can retrieve it quickly, or flip through it to remind you of what is available. I have volumes and volumes of pictures I've cut out from magazines, because I loved the way a room looked. I have several albums dedicated soley to kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, bonus rooms, basements, mudrooms, and gardens. And in each one of those categories, I have several subcategories (paint style/color, furniture arrangement, etc.). As long as you organize in a way that you won't have to lose an inspiration idea, you are fine! And you can do all this on a budget, and still be eloquent, and organized looking. Go over the system with your partner and make sure you two are on the same page in regards to (1) what needs to be filed and where they go (2) what things can wait and where their holding place is, and (3) not sure, but I'll ask my partner about this one bin. Remember that the "home office" is the "brains" of the house; deceptionaly pretty, but internally complex. Kinda like what my DBoyfriend calls me. ;)...See MoreOutsidePlaying
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