Our home office is in many ways the nerve center of our home. My husband and I spend countless hours in this space. My husband is in here each evening checking his personal email acccounts, reading up on news and sports (since he doesn’t really get time to watch them anymore) and his biggest task, handling our finances. I use the space to write blogs, handle personal correspondence through Facebook and email to manage the {carpools/MOPS meetings/Marriage Prep class/Biggest Loser contest/playdates/Bible Study} that makes up my weekly life, and to print off countless superhero and Mario brothers characters for my boys to cut out. It also stores all of our books, my craft and hobby supplies, my husband’s gun cabinet, a chest full of my home decor tchotchkes, and anything else that needs a hiding place when company is coming.
It is the only room in 9 years that I have not addressed. We slapped some shelves on the wall to move the clutter vertically and stopped there.
I’m a true believer that chaos breeds chaos. When my boys start fighting in the playroom, the first thing I do is make them pick up. As the mess on the floor disappears, the whole vibe of the room changes. It is like hitting the reset button, and soon, they are all back to playing nicely.
Our office needs a reset. And I need your help.
I love to organize but this space just seems to suck the energy right from me. I try to clean and organize it nearly every month only to find it back to a terrible state within days. A complete rehaul is in order.
Accountability seems to be working in my life lately. I am 4 weeks in on a Biggest Loser contest in my MOPS group that has yielded consistent workouts in my weekly routine, consciencous eating choices and 6 pounds of weight loss. Being part of a bible study group keeps me diligent in studying God’s word and lifting others in prayer. Four little boys watching my behaviors and attitudes as an example makes me want to demonstrate a Christ-centered life each and every day.
Will you hold me accountable to the task of taking our home office, the nerve center of our home, from chaos to order?
And will you help me do it? Got some ideas for me? How about a starting place? What should I tackle first?
About Danielle Peters
Awesome article Danielle! For me, the best way to organize is take a section, sort, throw away and donate. Then move to the next section. I like to get some cheap bins/baskets at the $1 store, label and stack
Let me know if I can help in anyway!
It can be so overwhelming, right? The first step I would recommend is to purge — whether it’s books to donate, paperwork to shred, or bits and pieces to toss. This always helps me breathe a bit easier. Once the contents of a room are culled a bit, I try to get a plan– How do we need the room to function? In light of that, what HAS to stay? What can find another landing place in the home? Then I would break the room into zones, based on function. These smaller zones are so much easier to tackle! I just went through this with my Mom Cave/home office and we were surprised by how much space we were able to carve out once we simplified the room’s functions. Good luck!! Breathe….
I just want to echo what the other ladies have already suggested and also say that I will be looking forwarding to seeing your solution to this room! Over the next few months I will be setting up a room almost exactly like yours minus the books and I am interested to see how you change things around so I can see if it’s something that will work for me as well
Good luck and try to have fun with it ~ things always go faster when you are enjoying it
If possible, take everything out of the room, clean & paint a pretty new color. Then only allow what needs to be there back in the room. Also, check out decorating ideas on pinterest to make your new room exciting to you! Enjoy!
Thanks for all the inputs!! I witnessed what a fresh pair of eyes can do when a friend stopped by yesterday. I was telling her about my post and showed her my office. She said “What about removing the books?” Um. So simple. And I was so blind to it because we had built the shelves for the books. Then I realized we had a small bookshelf in the upstairs hall that did nothing but clutter up. In 30 minutes last night, I cleared one long shelf in the office and have all our favorite reads right outside our bedroom, where we do most of our reading anyways. It inspired me to keep moving…one shelf, drawer, bin at a time.
@Kyle…I wish I could tackle it that way, but our less than 1500 sq ft house doesn’t leave me with anywhere to empty it to…except right into prime living space. With 4 boys under age 5, that would be a disaster!! I will be emptying at some point (hopefully this month though) only briefly to pull out the old carpet and replace the flooring! My prize if I dig out of the mess!