super sunday messy office cleanup

After cleaning up the blog last Sunday, I wondered how I was going to top it. I walked into the office to work on my posts and was greeted by this:

Crazy messy desktop with papers, and bills and junk piled everywhere.

No lie. What a freaking mess.



I am not sure quite when it got like this. The stacks piled on the stacks. I believe this stack is four layers high. And there are only, technically, three shelves counting the top.

Four high stack of just junk.

Our first foray into remodeling, about four years after we moved in, was adding a home office and laundry room onto the back side of the kitchen. The original laundry room was in the kitchen (you know, women's work, etc.). And back in the fifties there was really no need for a home office. We used the spare bedroom for our office, like most people.

Long view of the mess. Look under the desk. 

We knew that booting the laundry room out of the kitchen would provide a ton of sorely needed extra space, and kicking the office out of the spare bedroom would allow for an occasional guest every odd year or so. Plus we could take back a closet (the previous owners had built a bookshelf into the bedroom closet). So we innocently dove right in. Let's just say the office build deserves its own set of posts. I hereby solemnly swear to scan the pictures in and tell all.

In general I have been really happy with the laundry room office. But. What. A. Trash. Heap.

Cabinet stuffed with things I haven't looked at since we put these cabinets in.

The office has become a dumping ground for every single piece of household paper. And birthday card. And tax return. And, our electronics seem to be spawning themselves. Yes that is a laptop on my desk and a computer tower under my desk. And a hard drive immediately on top of the tower.

For inspiration I read this post, 10 Reasons to Clean Out Your Office Now. My favorite reasons are:

2. You toss things.
8. You give things away.
10. You rid yourself of nagging guilt.

I thought to myself, "If I am going to take pictures of the office for a post, I'll have to clean it up." Super Bowl Sunday seemed like the perfect day for office clean out. I don't watch the Super Bowl except for halftime and the ads.

So I worked and I worked. And daytime turned to nighttime.

I kept pulling stuff out of the office, wondering where it was all coming from.

And I filled up a trashcan. Twice. And piled a storage bin high with stuff for Goodwill. And I stacked another set of papers for sorting through and shredding. And I finally moved the bonus computer out, ready for Albert to re-image and give to some lucky relative.

Stuff left to sort through, which I did later in the evening. And the leftover computer.

And, ta da!

Serenity and beauty. 

I swear I did not just jam everything into the cabinets. See? All neat and tidy too. Mostly.

Peace and harmony.

I even did the drawers. Not impressed? Go back up to the befores. This drawer was hanging open.

Bliss.

It is a stunning transformation, right? We did these built-ins through one of the closet companies  They were actually pretty inexpensive and used the triangular addition space most efficiently. Have you met the triangles in our bathrooms? Hindsight 20-20, I wish I had done the cabinets in something more modern like white and a little less officey. Good news is it gives me something to re-do someday.

Contentment.

Are you thrilled for me? I couldn't quite dump the little bookshelf I keep in front of the window. But that is an excellent goal as I know I will just clutter it up with more stuff within a week.

Valhalla.

Don't look opposite my desk. This is where Alex and Albert sit. **sigh** Doing my side of the office took the whole afternoon and well into the evening. I could not have possibly attempted their side in one day.

The opposite.

Just swivel back in your chair and face what I face when I settle down to work on the blog. Or the taxes. Or shop. Or FB. Or Google+.

Just to remind you again, here is the before...

And here is the after.

Jack and Annie are my frequent companions when they can get to their favorite spots.

Ah. That is much better. I can think again.

Does a clean office help you think? 

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