Before and After: Office

Christmas came early this year and both of the children napped this afternoon, so I got to do last minute things and take the after pictures! So here they are. There are MANY pictures, mainly because there were so many areas that needed working on, and because it wasn't just the office that had to be done.

Because of the nature of our home, pretty much all of our rooms, save the kitchen and bathroom, are multi-purpose rooms. Which also meant they were multi chapter rooms when reading the organizing book. At first when I started I was really hard on myself because everything was taking so long, but with two rooms now looking really nice I am so happy that I stuck with it.

In the spirit of full disclosure, there are still little things that need to be done, and I will state those tasks with the pictures. My main focus was getting the office done, but it trickled out to the dining room and the living room as well, so there are minor things that still need to be done that pertain to those two rooms.

Here we go!!

Before: Bookshelves




After: Bookshelves





Before: Desk area



After: Desk area

Everything that was in the desk drawers has been filed, dumped or re-purposed. The drawers are now used to store all of my craft supplies :)



Before: New computer area

To make room for my treadmill, I had to get rid of the desk. Which was really a blessing in disguise because for me, any open desk space is a place for papers to collect. So I used this hutch in the dining room as our new computer station.


After: New computer area

There is just enough room to house the bills that need to be paid, and the pouch they go in when they are paid. Everything else gets filed in my newly organized filing cabinets!


Inside the hutch. The bottom shelf is full of stuff we have to take to the cottage (batteries, candles, flashlights etc) so that shelf hasn't been completed yet because our cabin isn't finished yet. What was originally in this hutch was all of my corning-ware, which I have now stored in the storage space in the dining bench, with the ones I use the most now in the kitchen.




Before: Filing Cabinet

Ok, so I didn't think to take pictures of inside the filing cabinet, but this is what the area around it looked like. This was what took me the longest to do, getting all the papers organized and filed correctly. To start I had to go through all the files and dump the papers I didn't need, and then re label and organize the files and papers left over.


After: Filing cabinet

Not much difference, but trust me, the insides look pretty, lol


Before: Bike area

No, we never used the bike, lol.


After: Bike area

I'm happy to report that I have been using the bike every other day for the past two weeks, and the treadmill on the days that I don't use the bike. I just sit or walk, gazing lovingly at my newly cleaned room. Well, actually, until yesterday there were still piles of books and magazines lying around, but you get the picture.


Well, that's it! I'm pretty proud of myself, even if it took me two and a half months, lol. It was well worth the wait. The pictures are from odd angles because the room is an L shape, but I hope they show all the work that went in to the room.

The one thing I learned from this room? I hate paper, I love my books, and there are many things I enjoy doing that I totally forgot about, probably because of the mess. Ok, that is three things. And there are more now that I thought about it, but those are the most important.

Thanks for looking! I'll be back later this week to tell you what the next room is going to be!

Marina