help! my desk needs organizing
I’m so embarassed! I blog about homes and my desk is a mess. I want to make it more functional. Writing for three sites, keeping a day job and paying the bills probably shouldn’t be done on the couch, but I find myself there because I can’t make my desk work. I need to organize the top. How do I keep it clean and modern, while allowing for a calender, my charging station (the brown box) and all the other odds and ends? — Kim B.
June 21st, 2007 at 5:49 am
Ikea sells kitchen organisers that are to die for in an office where you are short on desk space, but have some unused wall space available. You buy thte rail, then the utensil caddies/rack/etc. and you can customise to your heart’s content. I love them to bits!
Most of my office storage comes wither from kitchen or garden items. I find they’re so much more flexible than specific office designed storage.
June 21st, 2007 at 6:01 am
Hmm! I’ve seen a lot worse. http://unclutterer.com/ is a good blog for such matters.
June 21st, 2007 at 6:26 am
This is one of my greatest pet peeves with modern desks—to have an efficient work station, one needs drawers to store and organize all that crap. But if you want to keep the desk you have, I’d get a drawer unit to put next to the desk, in place of what looks like a black file box to the left. If you need room for files, I’d go with something like this; if not, then this. Move the charging station and what looks like your modem on top of the drawer unit to clear off more surface area on the desktop. Organizing the drawers so that everything is easily accessible is key here. At work, I can get almost anything (paperclips, post-it notes) out of my top drawer without even looking. That way, all of those unattractive office supplies are almost as accessible as they would be on top of your desk, but you don’t have to look at them all the time.
I’d also get a slightly smaller (more like 8.5 x 11) calendar that can be hung on that small wall space so that it’s entirely off the surface of the desk. Then get some sleeker, more modern desktop organizers to conceal whatever you do need to keep on top of your desk—some writing utensils, whatever paperwork is currently in rotation, etc. The less translucent the organizers are, the less cluttered the desktop will seem. If you’re good at staying neat and consistently using the same categories (X type of stuff goes in this place, Y type goes here), you won’t miss the visual cues that translucence allows for. (Ideas: this or this.)
Good luck!
June 21st, 2007 at 6:26 am
You have clear space on your desk. Looks workable to me. Why can’t you use it?
June 21st, 2007 at 10:01 am
I totally understand this dilemma; I have the exact same one. I am writing from the couch right now! For some reason my home office space just isn’t as appealing to me as I’d like. And since it’s always easier to help someone else out…
1) Get a good, comfortable chair. I know the exercise ball is a cool thing, but surely you don’t want to sit on that all the time or you wouldn’t be on the couch.
2) Get the calendars off the desk. You need something to hang them up in front of your face if you need to see them at all times — maybe you need to move the desk to an actual wall instead of a half-wall?
June 21st, 2007 at 11:35 am
Better lighting might help, as well. If there’s a window you can move the desk near, that will provide a much more inviting area to work in.
Can the charging station go on the floor? What about pretty containers for pens, etc., and a rack for papers?
I agree that the half-wall might not be the best, either. A whole wall allows you space for your calendars and you could put up a corkboard or something else where you could tack up inspirational items or snapshots. It looks as if your desk was an afterthought in this space; kind of like it was crammed in. Is the problem your desk, or is it that you don’t want to work in this area?
June 21st, 2007 at 11:42 am
Mary and Tasha are right, I’ve been pondering moving my desk to the opposite wall. You can sort of tell in the first photo, but it’s a tiny sloped corner that my desk is in. My apartment is a granny unit, so it’s the roof of the garage.
What sort of chair goes with the desk? I don’t really/can’t afford those nifty rolly chairs that are so synonymous with offices.
To answer Tasha’s questions, I don’t really want to work there. The only source of light comes from my bedroom (no space in there for the desk) and the skylights. It’s not a very creative environment, but then again I’m not really sure what other blogger desks look like.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:33 am
You should see my home office space, yours looks good. My kids like to take over mine and it becomes a disaster. being a computer person the best advise I can give is to get one of those all in one Printers that has a scanner built in and scan in all your documents. Easier to find and gets rid of a lot of clutter. Once you get in the habit of scanning in everything you will find it no big deal.