Archive for August, 2009

I’m an organization addict. I used to be worse and I had to check certain things were in their place before I left my house/dorm room/apartment. (Probably borderline OCD issues.) I’m “better” now, insomuch as now I make piles of stuff to organize but then fret over where to PUT stuff because now all my worldly possessions are in a small apartment out in the boonies of New York and I just don’t have enough space to do what I want to do!

I lovingly refer to my “office” as “the place where things and projects go to die.” It seems as soon as something enters the frame of the doorway, I stop working on them and get tied up with other things. Most likely because I just don’t spend a lot of time in that room because I have a crappy desk made before any parent could foresee their child owning their own computer so it is a pretty pathetic and horrible work surface. My closet in my “office” if full of book boxes from when I moved in almost a year ago. I can’t actually put anything useful in there because there is no where to stuff things between the boxes and the at ready crutches I keep in case I have another fall down the stairs (I’ll save that story for another time!)

During a pause at work last week I happened upon Lifehacker’s Featured Workspace of Before and After: The Inherited Office and became inspired. The woman who posted in the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool described how her new office had been passed down by many people over the years and had grown like a monster. Papers were everywhere and things were shuffled around each time someone new took over the office. She did some research on Feng Shui and cleaned up the office to be a nice airy workspace for her and for those visiting her in her office.

When I work from home or want to work on a project while at home, I usually camp out in my family room on the couch pointed at the TV with my laptop on my thighs (feet usually propped up on the coffee table.) My back aches, my ankles ache from being balanced on wood and I get distracted my the TV and from Isabella nuzzling me every five minutes for “petting” time – NOT a good work environment. Not surprisingly, I haven’t accomplished many personal projects since moving to my new apartment.

What I would like to accomplish in my office is to get rid of my old bookshelf that is worn from use and water damage and buy new bookshelves to house the multitude of books and supplies I have accumulated over the years, buy a new, large desk from Ikea capable for inspirational computer work, and keep my old writing desk for well, writing. I want to have separate areas for each creative thing I do. The writing desk will house my art supplies such as little do-dads I create, my colored pencils and paints and other things of that nature. My computer desk will be mostly clean except for references books I may pull from time to time and a single bluetooth keyboard and mouse (apart from the actual computer that will reside on it of course.)

I am going to try and detail this grand reworking and take some pictures and if all goes well this will be a great success. I might even be able to post it to the Lifehacker stream as well and inspire other people – who knows.