In February I shared with you that one of my goals was to organize our office. Well today I’m here to report–I did it! Actually I was quite amazed that it only took a couple hours from start to finish. But before I get ahead of myself, let me show you where I started.
Home Office Organization
BEFORE
While it wasn’t insanely awful, we had several things that were sight for sore eyes. To begin my hubby and I have inboxes in which we share papers and mail with each other. It gives us a place to put all those odd and end papers you want the other see without it being all over the house. However, it made for a messy looking desk. In addition our supply drawer was getting very messy and the paper drawer…I think I was ruining more paper in my search for the right kind than I actually used.
Next, the upper right cabinet of our office desk was a boobi-trap waiting to happen. We’d open the cabinet and something was bound to fall out. Next to our file cabinet we had stuffed weird random objects. Books under the electric cabinet were all falling over (half of which we never even used anyway). And, our library and choir bags just lay on the floor which was starting to become a great tripping hazard. Yes, it was definitely time for a little upkeep.
Home Office Organization
AFTER
The number one goal of the project: find ways to better organize the office without spending any money. So how did we do it? Let’s take a look.
- Since our original filing system was still working I left the file cabinet alone, but did manage to clean everything away from beside it.
- I moved the inboxes to the top right cabinet so the mess could be masked by a frosted door.
- I put the most used papers and laminating sheets on the shelves above the desk for easy retrieval.
- I used card stock turned on end to organize other papers, labels, envelopes, and cards in the paper drawer. By adding labels, I can now find the exact kind of paper I need in a flash without having to dig to no end.
- Peanut and I worked together on the office supplies. She checked every pen and marker to make sure it worked and then we organized the supplies in small plastic drawers in the top left cabinet and completed the task with some fun labels. We then put only the supplies we might use regularly in the supply drawer.
- Next, I turned to the bags on the floor. Knowing that I had an unused Longaberger Picnic Basket in the hall closet, I took it out and put it by the chair. Ah, a perfect place to hide all our book bags.
- I went through all our books and got rid of any we’d probably never read or refer to again.
- And while I was at it I decided to go ahead and clean off the top of our other piano too as the girls were always wanting to play with the trinkets anyway.
And that’s it! Small change I know, but they have made such a big difference. Here’s one more look:
It makes a girl feel so much better inside. What about you? What tips or tricks have you found to organize your office on little to no budget? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
But all things should be done decently and in order. 1 Corinthians 14:40
