May 8: Office space

I loved that movie. But I’m talking about something else.

Last fall we converted our fourth bedroom, which had been my office, into a playroom again. The idea of confining Katie and Jack’s toys and gear in one room was the biggest factor in this decision. With their things having a place, at least we can yell at them about stuff not being where it belongs, right? I hated to give up my office but figured I could use the bookshelves in the family room to store my work and scrapbook supplies. I figured wrong. I rearranged the family room over and over and just couldn’t get it to be anything but a mishmash of Rubbermaid storage boxes and file folders. Yuck.

Part of the problem was that the family room bookshelves weren’t big enough for a lot of my 12x12 scrapbook supplies. Another issue was that my desk did not have any drawers. I loved the workspace on the desktop but storage was a problem.

This is what I had:


And this is what I replaced it with this week:


The new shelving unit is about five feet square with 16 sections, each about 13” square and 15” deep (the pic only shows part of the fourth column). The desktop is as spacious as what I had with my other desk, perfect for all my work projects and scrapbooking adventures. The whole thing fits a lot nicer in the family room too. I love, love, love it.

IKEA makes a bunch of different types of storage that perfectly fit in the 13” sections. I haven’t bought any yet because I can’t tell which and how many I’ll need. The problem, really, is how to arrange my things in these 16 squares. Where do I begin? Because do you understand that I’m talking about SIXTEEN squares??? I don’t know if I even have 16 squares’ worth of things that belong there. I think I’ll shove stuff in most the sections and continue to rearrange until it all feels right. Then I can head back to IKEA for doors or boxes or drawers or baskets or whatever I decide to use to disguise all my crap. Because, you see, my ultimate goal is for the office area of the family room to look better than a mishmash of Rubbermaid storage and file folders.

That shouldn’t be difficult, right?