Mess to Less-My Home Office

Recently, I got a new Macbook Pro.  I have loved every minute I have spent with it, whether it is at a coffee shop or in my bed, I love the convenience of being able to write somewhere other than at a desk!

Something a bit strange started happening as I spent less and less time in our home office.  It started collecting things and became one HUGE “hotspot.”  It became the dumping ground for anything that didn’t have a specific home.  The desk top became a clutter collector as I was not sitting at it to write anymore.  Before, I would always clear the desktop so I could actually breath while I wrote.

Oh, boy!

Even the closet was starting to become a bit of a mess!  I have decluttered this home office in the past and even wrote about it, which really actually helped the process of doing it again.  I noticed the closet was so much easier to get back in order, and most of our desk drawers were still doing well in the organization area, too!  Progress…

This was midway through organizing. Here is what I used:

~A trash bag

~A bin for ‘giveaway to charity’

~A bin (or two!) for paper work that needs attention

~An area for ‘things that need a home’ (my dining room table)

~A broom

~A duster

~Spotify! For good music while I clean

This is ridiculous.  I have been ignoring paperwork.  It was super helpful to put it all into a bin to just get it out of the way, instead of trying to deal with it at that moment and get distracted from the rest of the office.  I knew I could gradually work on it in the coming days, and I knew my organized office would motivate me to do just that!  I am eager to get a better filing system going around here to help with this paper problem!

Here is the ‘giveaway bin.’  I love getting rid of stuff we don’t love.  THIS IS KEY to making our spaces more organized.  GET RID OF STUFF.  Less stuff = less mess.  One of my favorite sayings is “you can’t organize clutter!” 

Here is what my table looked like midway through.  This is stuff that was cluttering up our office that really belongs elsewhere.

And here is the finished product!  Ahhh..so much better.  We have yet to decorate in here how I envision it, but clutter free is beautiful!

Clutter free closet.  Yay!

This is my donation station.  I got the idea on Pinterest, but theirs is much cuter. Mine is lacking in the cuteness factor,  but has been REALLY useful. I have been looking around for canvas type boxes with lids.  I found some at Target that I love…they were black with white zigzag stripes.  I’m waiting for them to go on sale!  I will then make a small tag to label each bin so we know what goes where.  

In the time it took me to grab my camera for an “after” shot, my daughter had discovered the newly cleaned study and actually wanted to use it for the first time in weeks.  Funny how clear and clutter free areas attract people!  

Ahhh, so much better.  I have stacked paper holders, one for each family member.  It has helped keep the papers that would usually build up on the desk at bay.  I also cleared our bulletin board which also helps for those important little slips of paper.  This whole process only took me about 1 1/2 hours.  Not bad at all! We have ALL used the office much more often now that it went from mess to less. Why or why do I procrastinate?