I have a tiny little office -- about 7 x 9 -- though with fabulous windows and a balcony. Personally, I LOVE the smallness of the space, as if feels just perfect for one person working alone. Now, when I have visitors, I do feel 'invaded', because it's a ONE-BUTT space ;-) As a potential home buyer, I'd really discount a house with a 10 x 13' living room. That's not NEARLY big enough to be useful. So for that reason, I'd suggest looking at furniture solutions instead of walls. There are some great wall units that can work well for an office, then close up to hide the mess. (And you can take them with you when you leave.) Could a pair of barn doors (exterior mount 'pocket' doors) be used to separate the living room from the family room to give you the noise-insulation you need?

Is another living room the greatest need you have in your house? Will it be for the kids to hang out in? Or a quieter adult retreat? We turned our dining room into a home office with matching desks facing each other placed in the middle of the room, so together they are about the same size as a dining table. It looks like it might be large enough to fit a modestly sized sofa in there, with a small round table with 2-4 chairs that you could use as a gaming table. Any musicians? What about a music room?

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!

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