My New Office

A week or two ago I decided that the playroom in the basement, which the boys no longer use, would make a great office for myself. My desk sat in an open space at the bottom of the stairs from the first floor. Also sharing the space is our second fridge and a tread mill (which really does get used, if sporadically.) Shelves and an armoir (in which I keep office stuff) contributed to the claustrophobia. Taking over the playroom would almost double my space.

My idea to put nothing in my new office that I did not want permanently (like the barn red old wood shelves) was quickly dashed for two reasons. The first was everything would not fit in my old office space and the second was I actually needed the shelf space and it wouldn't be until after New Years before I could even think of shopping for new stuff. So now began the giant puzzle of moving furniture from the toy room (an air hockey table, a different set of barn red shelving, various toys and games) to my space and vice versa. And of course, shelves and desks and cabinets cannot be moved with stuff in or on them. My basement looked like everything had exploded, paper and notebooks and dismantled air hockey table parts and books and toys and various semi completed projects everywhere. Mostly on the floor. (Remember, moving everything, so no available surface areas except the floor and the occasional chair.) Only the guest room and bath were spared and only because my sister and her children arrive the day after Christmas (Yay!) and would need them.

I have finally arrived at the point where I have most of the stuff I need in my office actually in my office. Everything else is in the space it will live in. Except the stuff I just remembered that is sitting outside the guest room. Oh, and a bookshelf with the small tv and dvd player. And another small cabinet that I can't decide about. And there might be some other stuff I threw in the storage room. I guess I'll be moving all that later today.

Anyway, when that part is done I feel Phase One will have been completed. Phase Two then begins. Phase Two means going through all the boxes of paper and things that I have stacked in their respective spaces. All the items on the floor (and occasional chair) I just threw into boxes and laundry baskets to sort out later. The bad news is I have a double digit number of boxes and baskets in my office, the good news is I only have to go through it one container at a time. I'm also expecting to get rid of a lot of stuff in Phase Two. (Some stuff has already gone to Goodwill and been thrown out, but that was just the screamingly obvious. Toys for the 5-9 year old crowd (boys are now 13 and 15), books I read and hated, old zoo magazines I was going to read.) Now I have to really look at everything. (If anyone has a good way to tackle this part of the project I'm open to ideas. The main idea is to keep the office functional while sorting through chaos. Leave a comment. Please!!) This phase could take anywhere from a few weeks to several years.

Phase Three will be more fun. The room needs painting due to lots of scuff marks on the walls and a few holes where some pictures hung. Then I have some pictures to get framed and hung and a dog bed (for Piper, of course) to get and a comfy chair for the corner, shelves to replace the red monstrosity and who knows what all. I'll see when I get there.

For those of you who would like to see pictures of this mess, you will be disappointed. I do have some pride.

Later.