My own office make over

Every January I like to take my house apart, one room at a time, and clear out what is no longer working and clean up the rest. This year I started with my "office" which is housed in a specially built armoire.

I live in a small space, so I need my office to be as efficient as possible. As the year goes on, things get out of sorts - even for me, so before I can embark on the coming years jobs, I need to take care of my own space. I thought I would share the process with you.

The process of organizing a space is always the same. Julia Morgenstern named this process SPACE, which stands for Sorting/Purging/Assigning a home/Containerizing/Equalizing. I have adapted this to suit my own process, SPACED. Adding the D = Decorating.


The first step - Sorting, began with my taking everything out of the armoire and cleaning it. I used a vacuum, a swiffer duster, a bottle of spray cleaner and rags to go over every surface. The computer and phone were turned off, but left in place, as I knew they would be staying in those positions.


Next I sorted through everything I took off of the shelves and decided what would stay and what I did not need any longer. Its been years since I had to use a three-hold punch, so there is no need for that to be taking up valuable real estate in my desk. Last year I bought an IPHONE, so the charger needed to be added to the phone area and the cord neatly tucked into place.


After Sorting/Purging, I began to Assign a home to the returning items. Rebuilding the desk by putting things back in the order of their importance to my use. Obviously, the computer and phone are the first things to be placed. Then my client folders and my activity files (more on these in my next post) needed to go in next.


I just kept adding in the next level of important items. Adjusting the shelving as I built upwards. In my case, I was able to Containerize as I went along. I had already decided that I wanted to bring in some color to my space, so I purchased some new holders and boxes from Ikea and the Container Store.


After everything that I want back in the space was placed, I spend a bit of time making sure that everything looked, felt and worked where I had put it (Equalizing).


Finally, I hung my calendar, my favorite poem and added my ivy (Decorating) and I am ready to get down to business.