Sophie, you're right, but unfortunately the rent is not split 50/50. The common spaces are hers, she is just hiring me to help her get organized. I can encourage her to get rid of a lot of things, but the desk will not go. :/

Why can't the office be in the downstairs study?

Would your roommate be wiling to instal a door?

Why arn't the books in the office on a shelf? to begin with, clearing off the table would be a great start. take everything off the table and put a bouquet of bright yellow flowers in the center. That should help your mood so you can get started with rest of it.

Ok, I have to ask this: does she *want* to change? Because if not nothing is going to stick. Nothing. And hiring you to get her organized is not necessarily an indication that she wants to change. I know this from personal experience.

When you say things like "this can't go" and "I could encourage her to..." and "I managed to..." it gives me red flags that she is hoping to pay you to make her problems go away without committing to the sacrifices and lifestyle changes that will make improvements possible. Or that you are hoping to elicit these changes by the sheer force of your good intentions.

Sorry to be so blunt and maybe presumptuous. I'd hate to see your time and energy wasted.

Why not move the "office" space to the "dining room". If the "desk" unit could fit into a corner it would take up less visual space. The main problem though is just a lot of "stuff" everywhere. She has to commit to going through and creating 3 piles of stuff "things I need every day"; "things I might need but don't need at my finger tips" and "things I want but could put in a storage area." Then last a pile that is "donate". Until this important step is taken, probably a waste of time. Some people have to have everything "out" to be able to work and she might be this type. The only solution for that is to make a separate room for them to do this. So, change the living room into a bedroom and make the bedroom her office so you can close the door.

I should just move out.

Probably the best course of action would be to find somewhere else to live. She isn’t going to change. Start looking now and plan to be gone by the first of the year.

You can't do anything until most of this stuff is gone. Is she willing to part with a lot of it? If so, there's some hope. If not, plan to move.

I just did a successful major purge of my mother's home, with her enthusiastic support. The best way is to sort things by category. Gather together all the hard cover books, for example. Decide what you really need and get rid of all the rest immediately. If things are sentimental, take a photo of them and get rid of the original. Then go on to the next category. (What on earth is in all those ugly plastic storage drawers?) When you're done purging, you can think about where things should go.

I don't know what kind of categories you'd use for office stuff. But you'll know very quickly whether you have an enthusiastic participant, or someone who wants an organized space but still wants to keep all the stuff. If the latter, plan to move. You can't organize clutter, you have to get rid of it.

That's a lot more than one days' work there.

If this isn't your significant other, get yourself out. She's happy with her choices and you don't need to subject yourself to them, nor does she need to change for your pleasure.

If this is your s/o, I guess you both have some soul searching to do to reach a respectful compromise.

Good organizational tips above.

Move out. You do not own the problem.

But on the off chance your roommate *is* actually interested in tackling that office area:

Fill that long wall with unified shelving. Right now there are many different types, and some of them are VERY inefficient. And some of them aren't shelves at all but stacks of plastic shoeboxes--which mean's it's hard to get into them.

She's got really good file drawers, tough etc., so those are good. Though:
*t looks as though she really could use some time (and maybe some help) to purge old files (lots of us end up with stuffed file drawers because there isn't a natural force that makes old files leave, and there IS a natural force that brings old paper in.
She's got a file basket on the floor, closer to where she sits, so maybe get her to think about what she needs to file and where she find it easy to do. Maybe those big drawers are too far away. Is there a different solution that doesn't have her still tripping over things? Are those drawers hard to use, too full, etc.?
But whatever she does, she needs to have tough, professional-quality full-extension file drawers (like those--though maybe a smaller set of drawers closer to where she sits?).



But I would vote for some sort of floor-to-ceiling shelving solution. Preferably one with doors, actually, especially if some of the stuff are things she won't really use anyway. Or doors on at least part of it, maybe.

Filling as much of the wall as possible with the same color, same structure, etc., will unify and calm the room a lot. And I'm a NYer, so I see great value in building UP. So many rooms end up feeling cramped because everything is so short.

Ikea's Billy series has lots of sizes to choose from, with or without doors, plus height extension units (that maybe you could switch to over the filing cabinets, to make them seem more integral). Maybe they've got a color that's similar to the existing bookshelves. Or maybe go w/ white to blend into the wall better.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/series/28102/

The Billy is only 11 " deep, though. You might want something a little deeper if those plastic units at the end are deeper. Some could go sideways on a shelf, but others look like drawers, and those are normally deeper than 11".

That's some organizational, and some visual.

For the dining area--renters have sometimes used liquid starch (not spray starch) to put cloth on the wall, wallpaper style. The cloth pulls away and the wall can be washed.

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/how-to-make-removable-fabric-w-74483

That could help you define and liven up that eating area.

Try to get that whiteboard off from that wall--can it hang in her office? Or shift the stuff hanging on the walls, so the whiteboard can slide over? It's really killing the vibe.

And, where the laundry is, can you put a couple of seating chairs?

The plastic chairs, etc., have a very makeshift vibe; I'm guessing that getting a dinette set is out of the picture? That would help a lot there. (We have some nice stuff at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore in our neck of the woods; there's Craigslist and Freecycle...)

Oh, and if not a door--maybe a curtain to hide her office?

Or, maybe a curtain in front of the shelves?

Not sure if you just decided to move out...

If not, this might help with long-term organization. https://www.houzz.com/magazine/get-organized-are-you-a-piler-or-a-filer-stsetivw-vs~7793707

She appears to be a piler, so getting some piler-style organization might help it stay better after you get it cleaned up initially.

Is she a laywer or something? That's a lot of paper.

First, I'd take the wine glass in the 2nd photo and fill it. Then, after the decluttering session, I'd consider a folding screen to section off/hide the office when you have guests (or a screen on casters might be easier to use). Good luck!

I helped my best friend in a clean up and we managed to get rid of literally dozens of boxes of stuff! The first thing to do is take everything out and start with a blank space. Like you said, a cleaning day first. And I mean everything. Just leave the furniture where it's at. Even take the computers out-because then it gives you an idea of how to set up the office in a way that works better. Then get out some cleaning products and dust, vacuum and freshen up.

Next up, get some empty boxes and plan to put stuff in them-garbage, recycling (if you have that), donate/give away, and keep. Then you take the stuff you took out and start sorting into those boxes. Once you finally get all the papers and assorted junk sorted, then you make sure to deal with those boxes right away-like take them out of the house and get them out!

Then have her sit at her desk and think outside the box as to how to set up the computers. Just because the desk is aligned a certain way doesn't mean it has to stay that way. In my office at work I set up my space on how I like to work, not what everyone thinks should work. For example, It's said if you're right handed, put the work you're going to work on on your right. That doesn't work for me, so I keep my working on files on my left, and my out box on my right. So just get her to think of how things work best for her and set it up that way.

Next up decide how she likes to work. I don't like drawers. I don't put things in drawers that I use frequently so I use them to store things I rarely use and keep those I use often within arms reach on shelves or on my desk. Again-thinking outside the box as to how I prefer things rather than how they 'should be'. This gives her a chance to feel more empowered about getting rid of things too.

With my friend I had her go through all her paperwork and we sorted it into keep, archive, act on now and shred. She used to keep all her bills, even years after they were paid. We shredded tons of paper! Act on now went in a basket next to her computer. Archive, which was stuff to be filed was just thrown in to a box to be dealt with later. This was long term storage stuff-like her mothers estate paperwork or her divorce papers (she was divorced nearly 20 years ago!). She hasn't used this stuff in years, so it can just sit in a box until she's ready to go through it. Into another box we put pictures-knowing full well that she'd never go through that box but it was ok to keep it, but knowing that ONLY pictures were in that box, nothing else.

So do something like that for your friend. She could probably use a task light-I see that lamp on top of the bookcase-it's obviously not used, so she can either get rid of it or actually put it on her desk to use.

Those are places to start. It takes a lot of time and energy and I dont' recommend thinking you'll get it all done in a day. But like I always tell my friend-you eat an elephant one bite at a time. Good luck!