My Somewhat Organized Desk

There isn't always time to take on a huge organizational overhaul.  Between work, school, spouses, kids, pets and the many other obligations of life, organizing projects can often get pushed to the back burner.    The irony is that all these responsibilities are what make organization so necessary.  So I say organization projects should be taken off the back burner, and given the priority they deserve!

This may mean that you won't be able to tackle a whole overhaul in one go.  And that's ok.  If all you can handle is one step at a time, then that's what you do.  Anything that will move you closer to the finished organized product.  And with how crazy my schedule has been recently, this is exactly where I am.

I have been wanting to revamp my desk into the organized 'office' haven that I have always wanted.  Unfortunately, I never got the time to sit down and do it all the way through.  So I kept putting it off, and putting it off.  Then the other night, I finally said 'enough' and dug in.

If you recall from my most recent home tour, my desk looked like this:

It was perfectly fine, not an eyesore or anything, but it just wasn't working for me.  It wasn't set up to accommodate me and the way I like to work, so I never wanted to work there.  I want to turn my desk into a space I truly love.  Given my love for organization and office supplies, offices have always been my favorite spaces in a home.  I want an office (even if it is only a corner in my bedroom for now) that I truly love, and that reflects my true organization fanaticism.  And here is my progress towards my dream:

Ok, so it's not much different, but it's progress!  The bgigest change was removing the last of the large pink bins I had been using in the cubbies.  This also helps with 'project de-pinkify'.  The half-sized bin is also living on borrowed time until I can find another solution to house my post-its and small notebooks.

The surface of the desk has me most baffled.  Ideally, I'd like to have things lined up along the back.  Things such as my spice rack organizer, my little organizational caddy and maybe eventually my laptop.  I'm just not sure how to set it up so I can still get into that last cubby.

It doesn't help that Melissa told me I could let loose on the Recollections organizers from Michael's if I purged some junk from my desk.  If you follow the blog, you may already know I have a slight hoarding problem, so I need a little motivation to part with my precious "stuff".  Needless to say the excitement of new organizational goodies was enough motivation for me to get to work!

While it doesn't really seem like it, I really did get rid of a bunch of stuff from the shelves.  First thing I needed to do was to decide what I really wanted to store in the desk, and what didn't belong there.  This included things like a bin of extra dog supplies I had stashed here when we moved in, simply because I didn't have another place to put it at the time.

That seems to be a common theme in this apartment.  We move in, put things somewhere 'just for now' with all the intention of going back later to find a better place for it, and that day never comes.  So I finally got on it, and took out all the stuff that did not belong in my desk.  And I was still left with too much "stuff".  So more purging will definitely be in my future.

For now, I put the larger and the less accessed things in the bottom eight cubbies.  This includes my filing boxes (found at Target) my binders and memory albums, and some extra storage boxes.  Eventually I'd like to get some prettier boxes, but for now, shoe boxes it is.

For the upper cubbies, I assigned each cubby a specific purpose.  These purposes are temporary, and will definitely change once I do a full revamp, but this system works for now.  I have my painting cubby, which holds a bunch of supplies Melissa has leftover from her art school days.  I also have my Project Life cubby, which I cannot wait to dig into and really organize.  Then I have my small pink bin with my post-its in it, and behind it a bunch of old junk, most of which will probably get thrown away.  Finally, I have my 'writing utensil' cubby, which is pretty self explanatory.  I'm also pretty excited to go through all my pens and markers and get them sorted and stored all pretty-like.

Finally, my last cubbies are somewhat organized, but to be honest just basically hold a bunch of stuff I don't really know what to do with.  I have some sketchbooks, all my different types of paper, some wrapping paper, and a bunch of just stuff.  These cubbies will probably be where a majority of the purging will begin.

So there is where I am starting on the journey to my dream office.  I definitely have a long way to go, but I have faith that it will all be worth it in the end.  My next step is to brainstorm and outline a plan for where I want this space to end up.  I will need to decide exactly what I need out of the space, and go from there.  I can't wait to share every step of the way with you guys!

I guess the point of this post is to let you know not to get discouraged if you can't manage stunning before and after images.  Organization is a process, which sometimes requires more time and planning, and may not allow for an overnight transformation.  Don't get discouraged if all you can manage is a baby step in the right direction.  Add up enough of those baby steps and you'll be at your dream after image before you know it!