My Home Office Makeover – Before

I was inspired to makeover my own home office, despite the disruption that would ensue, after completing a number of office organizing projects and witnessing first-hand the impact the newly organized space had on my clients’ state of mind and productivity. Work began on this project in January. As I would need to focus on my home office organizing project in my spare time, my hope was that it would be completed by early spring. I am very pleased to say that the project is right on schedule and that I will be sharing my home office organizing “after” pictures next month.

Overview

My home office takes up about a quarter of the space in our den. As this is a shared space, it has always been essential that the office and its contents stay contained. This has become more of a challenge as my business has grown and the volume of paperwork, books, supplies and equipment have increased proportionately.

I applied some basic project management tactics when working out my game plan for this office organizing project. I began by clearly defining the objective for organizing my home office, which was to have more space at the desk, a filing cabinet for my active and reference files, and to re-organize the storage closet in the den so that it could better accommodate my supplies and file archive. Next it was time to identify the tasks that needed to be done and to assign a deadline for completing them. Once my plan was in place, it was off to the races.

Before

• Workspace at the desk was so cramped with 2 computers and printer/storage rack that the printer shot documents out at me if I forgot to pull out the paper tray prior to printing!
• All my papers, to-do list and action files were in plain sight so it was necessary to keep all orderly.
• The closet was originally configured for clothing so everything was in piles on floor. I needed to replace rods with shelves.
• The club chair needed to be removed to make room for a lateral file cabinet. This was challenging as it didn’t fit easily through the doorway. (We applied my husband’s motto….When all else fails, use a larger sledge hammer to remove it from the room.)
• All files were kept in archive boxes stacked on floor of the closet. I got my daily workout moving them whenever I needed to file or access a specific folder.
• My tax returns were filed in accordion folders, sorted by year. These didn’t stack neatly and were constantly falling over, making access to other items on the shelf difficult.
• Small office supplies were stored in cabinets right behind the desk chair so I had difficulty accessing them when seated at the desk.