See the search window up at the top right? Put "how post picture" in there and it will come up with several great posts explaining how better than I can explain it. Then you can always find it again if you forget how. The rug looks nice but it sure would help if we could see the room. Is this a boy office? A girl office? Or a unisex office? Did you look at the home offices thread in the Gallery? Did you find and save to your computer an inspiration picture or two you like in there? That's where I'd start.

Thanks, everyone! I need to clean up the shelves and put some things away that I will obviously never need again, but.... this was the room our youngest child called "school" during his middle school years between trips to Europe and Japan, California and Costa Rica. He was playing Go competitively at that time, and we loved having the freedom to travel at will. Some of his old schoolbooks are still in that office. He's a junior in college and I am still not ready to let them go. I don't consider myself a helicopter parent but there's probably some name for a person who hangs onto an old eighth grade physics book!

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!

Wow, so excited to see such good and varied inputs on my request! Thanks @Flo Mangan - I am now certainly going for a ladder shelf for the corner. I am not sure of moving the desk away from its existing place for precisely the reasons @functionthenlook mentioned - my desk job can sometimes result in 8-9 hours, and I do plenty of video calls throughout the day. So not only is it nice for me to have a view (which BTW Flo is right, it is limited since the windows are a bit above my eye level (photo of the view below)) but it is also pleasant to have light on my face. Further, the remaining space in the room comes in handy when the occasional extra guests stay over and the sofa beds need to be pulled out. Thanks everyone for all the rug options - this weekend is going to be (window) shopping weekend :)