Back in October I moved into a house. It’s a darling little house with wood floors and heat registers and lovely character. The creaky wood floors make it impossible for my teenagers to sneak in late. The heat registers were quite warm and made for much better skin during the winter months since it’s filled with water. And the character in this house is so amazing that nearly everyone who comes for a visit exclaims, “Wow! This house has…so much…character!”
Since it was a busy time of year what with the school year under way I put off dealing with this quaint office space I now have. I was sure that I would need it to work but then found myself writing while sitting on the couch or sitting in the breakfast nook (It’s so cute! I have a breakfast nook! Just saying it makes it fun! Nook! Nook! Nook!) and so the home office began to be quite messy. Like this:
My own personal albatross is being very disorganized. It’s goes hand in hand with saving too many papers and making stacks out of baby pictures of my friends and not being able to throw away a Christmas card. Like ever.
Here’s what it looks like now:
Here is another view:
Part of my organization has come from the most awesome shredder EVER (see it? It’s over there on the left of the picture above). It’s so good that my friends have come over to use it because it shreds CD’s and credit cards. (Not that I know anything about shredding a credit card but it can do it if I ever need it to do so!) I’ve been purging myself of old crap that I used to be able to burn in the backyard but I can’t do that where I live now so the shredder is coming in handy.
Now, if I can only get my dating life in order.
There’s probably not a shredder big enough for relationships, is there?
Do you think you can stop by and organize the mess that I call a desk? Your space looks great – even the before picture puts my current desk to shame. Also who makes that shredder? I need one desperately.
You, my dear, are an inspiration! What a beautiful office. And I agree with the earlier commenter who said the before puts my office to shame. But you SAY you never throw anything away, and then you managed to do it, so I can do it, too, right?
In my firefox page your wall colour is exactly the same colour as your background of your blog. How very decorator of you.
If you are looking for a shredder for relationship problems you will need to call in a tree chipper but I am pretty sure it is against the law to chip someone even if he is a jerk. It is in Canada anyways.
I love a good purge. Maybe clearing any disorganization on the desk will lend itself to your dating life. Like through some sort of osmosis?
That relationship shredder gave me some bad pictures in my head.
Just after Grad school, I went through an awfully sad end to a relationship. I told my best friend that my strategy for getting over her was that I was going to remember the one time when I knew we were truly happy (and it was dumb little moment when we were walking somewhere together and had to wait for a loud train before we could cross the tracks and how we passed the time flirting so well that she nearly burst). I told him that that was the whole thing right there, the one “we’ll always have Paris” moment that you get in a relationship that worked, if even for a small time.
From that, he wrote a story of a man who had his ex-wife over for tea. He invented a tea room in his back yard where they would sit. It was a crazy thing made of boxes and beads and feathers. She thought he had really gone around the bend.
But really, it wasn’t a tea room. It was a disintegration machine. And just after the man poured the tea, he reached back and pulled a feathery cord and then both of them were suddenly compressed into that tiny little perfect spec that was their marriage.
So, you see why I don’t cotton to shredders. But if you need any big boxes or strings of broken beads. I’d be glad to help.
Being able to organize something so neatly feeds my soul; unfortunately my soul is starving right now…
Yes, tell us the shredder name, please. I’ve been using a cheap model that can only handle about 5 pages at once.
Renee – Trust me. I whined too much doing my own cleaning. You’d have to put up with that.
It’s made by Fellowes and the catalog number was PS-79Ci. It was the toughest shredder I could find. AND it comes with a safety feature if your fingers get too close! (That’s especially important if you have little ones about.)
Now, people…it was a mess. Piles and piles. And can you see the desk? It’s got bookends on either side and I was just storing crap there and shoving it in. (The desk, incidentally, came from Pier 1 after I coveted the one from Pottery Barn for thousands of dollars more.)
I love what Mrs. RW said. My soul feels better. Honestly. Cluttered life=cluttered soul and I’m giving it a good scrubbing.
Oh, and I didn’t paint that room to match my blog. It was kismet.
I love your office! And that wall color is fantastic. I’d love to go that bold, but that guy I married would never allow it. He thinks walls should be white, beige or ecru. I should just put my foot down. Or do it when he’s gone on his next fishing trip.
I was all set to post a comment about how your before picture didn’t look that bad, and then I read Dana’s comment and had to laugh. I’ve repainted more than one room when my husband has been out of town–enough times that he’d actually come to expect it!
It has been six months since I have read your blog, and it felt like catching up with an old friend. I can see the past six months have been monumental for you. It is a peculiar human trait that when we are having troubles we think we are the only ones. It gives me encouragement to see that you are moving through your troubled waters and heading for a better tomorrow. I think I need to get a shredder…..a really big one. Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could have a life shredder? A place to dispose of all the things in our life that no longer have relevance, that are just cluttering our minds and our hearts……..
We have a shredder that is awesome. Problem is, we have to keep it unplugged because we have all these kids and I wouldn’t want them to get their fingers in it or something. Because I am LAZY, I rarely plug the thing in and use it. So now I have a mess that looks like your before pictures. I may need to plug it in and have a shredding party. I bet that would feel great.
Your office looks great!
just dropping by to give some blog love to Northern IL friend. Hope you have a blast a BlogHer.
Too bad there isn’t a picture of all the crap that got moved out of the office onto the dining room table where it will remain for god-knows-how-long. Just saying.