My Home Needs Some OM

My sister-in-law, Maureen, has 3 young boys and is starting a real estate career. Her home office is in the addition where there is also a TV area and a mud room with access to the side door leading to the driveway. It is a very high traffic area. All three areas are prone to clutter. She really needed some help sorting, tossing and organizing to make the space work more efficiently.

EXIT CHAOS, ENTER CALM

Before

After

How we got there is the fun part!

The hutch was kind of a cluttered mess and it was broken. If memory serves, it had been broken for a few years!

Here we have the "table graveyard". This is where side tables, with no where else to go, come to get cluttered up.

I counted 40 coats on the hooks in the mudroom entry way. Shoes were scattered about just waiting to trip an ususpecting Aunt and there were miscellaneous things on the floor (ie. clothing to be altered??) and on the shelf that needed a more suitable home.




First let me say that the only things that were thrown out were trash and we filled one large trash bag with coats for GoodWill. Everything else that was there is still there.

I started with the desk. One of my first goals was to eliminate 2 of the 3 tables in the table graveyard. The best way to sort, toss and organize is to literally pull everything out and then put it all back. I emptied the contents of the hutch, the top of the desk, the drawers in the small file drawer, all three tables were cleared off and the top of the hutch was cleared off. Then I began to sort, toss and make piles of "to keep" items that I would put back in an organized fashion.

Maureen looked down at the floor, "I don't even know where to start" Just dig in.

I was in heaven! I knew where I wanted to go and I knew exactly how to get there. And the best part, I knew I could do it quickly and without spending one dime.

By cleaning off the top of the hutch and putting the printers there I eliminated 2 of the graveyard tables. While this location for the printers has turned out to be problamatic (Maureen is 5ft tall and the entire desk shakes when she prints), it served a key purpose during the initial phase of the process. The printers wil be moved to the table next to the desk and put one on the bottom shelf and one on the top.

Cords, cords, cords. When you use a laptop you can sometimes end up with a lot of cords on the desk. I did the best I could to push as many of them behind the laptop and I used tape to hold them in place. Maureen had drawings made by the children, and other papers taped to the back wall of the hutch. It was kind of a messy, haphazzard look so I took them down and will hang some inexpensive cork squares to create a pin board. I will also get some super cute push pins.

I pushed the 3 drawer chest under the desk as originally intended. It leaves less room for your feet but there is enough and it eliminates the extra room under the desk for clutter to grow. Plus, it gives the whole desk space a more tidy look.


The shelves inside the hutch got a good cleaning and organizing. Now Maureen can see what is up there. When I emptied the contents of the hutch I found a sonogram picture (her youngest is 6), the Holy Bible and, among other interesting things, a 10 year supply of pens and pencils.

This table makes a great place for the In Box and her working files. Unfortunately, since the printers are going to go there I have to find another place for the In Box and files. (On top of the tall file cabinet might work).

The TV viewing area was just fine but to make it look a little more cozy I borrowed pillows from the living room and moved the ottoman from against the wall by the door to the center. With 3 boys I am 100% sure that this does not look like this today but, oh well. We know it's possible. I am going to find some throw pillows at a discount store like HomeGoods so that the pillows can be returned to the living room.


In the mudroom I took everything down and out and sorted, tossed and organized.

I found the old trunk in the basement and brought it up to use for shoes and umbrellas. My favorite part about this is that Maureen can put a airfreshner inside to keep the stink at bay and when she has guests over she can just drop the lid to hide the shoes!

Time: 4 hours

Cost: Nothing but sweat

Materials: To be purchased $25-30 dollars

One thing that I have learned to do over time with my own stuff is to utilize what I already have. In Maureen's room, for instance, she had maybe 7-10 boxes of note cards each with just a few cards in them. I took one of the larger boxes and put all of the note cards together in it. The empty boxes were then used as dividers. The shoes in the mudroom needed to be contained. It wouldn't have been effective to put them in the closet because the kids need to be able to grab and go and we know that the shoes will rarely make it back into the closet. So, I walked around her house looking for a large basket or bucket or something that could house the shoes. In the basement was the trunk. Perfect! It was shoved under a work bench and was covered in dust. I asked her about it and if I could use it (assuming I could since it had clearly been forgotten). Presto! a home for the shoes.