SPRING CLEANING & ORGANIZING THE HOME OFFICE

After clearing out & organizing my home textiles, the spring cleaning fling grew feverishly in the office. It was so gorgeous out this weekend - I opened up the windows and in let the fresh, crisp air and natural light. The natural light revealed one of my biggest fears - DUST... everywhere. So I took my own advice (and advice I've learned through the years) to apply it to the office.It was worse before it got better, because Saturday morning I thought I'd do two spaces - the Yoga Room and the Office. I emptied what little contents were in the yoga room, moved everything, dusted surfaces (including wall corners and base boards), used Resolve and a brush to loosen dirt & refresh the carpet, vacuumed, and put everything back. Hesitently, I took a deep breath and dove into purging the office of ALL its contents...

The not so calm & the storm.

A bit of the yoga room in office while cleaning it.

After taking a deep breath - unloaded office into the hall.



I didn't want to dump the office into the refreshed yoga space, so I used the hall and stairs to stack everything. I even had the hubs remove the (uncomfortable & eight year old chair) from the office to donate. We had been searching for a comfortable - but stylish chair and I finally found a good deal on line Saturday morning. From all the hours I spent in the chair last year - I think my blogger butt wore it out, not to mentioned I nearly killed my left elbow from all the leaning on the arm I do (and the arms were NOT padded). We regularly turn in ink cartridges to Staples, which the hubs was able to put towards a $200 chair I found on sale for $99. He built it Saturday night. My butt & elbow thank him =)

All clear and ready for dusting!

Tried moving bookcases around, but not happy with it - so moved them back.

Since the shelves were cleared, and I needed to move book cases to clean behind them, I tried to reposition the book cases in the space. I'd like a smaller desk, but that's not going to happen right now, so I tried the bookcases in different places around it. Thank God for furniture slides!! Even after I had cleaned and brought most things back into the space, I wasn't happy with the look - it felt too dark and heavy (not very Spring!) so Sunday morning I moved the cases back the way they were.

August 2010 - left

March 2011 - right

The white vase on the left (August) has since been

moved downstairs in the living room.



Same books in the same space only color blocked - and the rest in white boxes,

helped give the shelves a cleaner look.

What helped to give the shelves a different look was using some white storage boxes I picked on Friday at Ikea (with the thankful use of a Gift Card!). Saturday night I sat on the living room rug and built them. I love my books, as well as love the look of a library, but it was feeling a little too busy. To help refresh the look without losing the storage space of the shelves themselves, I selected only blue, green, or white books to display. All the others went onto the white storage boxes (which is fine - I know what's in them If I need it). To further help create the look of less clutter, I turned around the existing black magazine holders, and picked up a few more white, also Friday at Ikea.

Furniture Slides saves your rug (and back) when moving

furniture (even if furniture is loaded) on carpet.

Moved the bookcase...

And then moved it back.

White storage boxes helped organize magazines

and helped lighten the look of my (22 yr. old) black bookcases.

(Now I just need to "Make Like Martha" and label them.)

More donations have accumulated in the garage from my spring fling in the office, along with two bags of trash (hence the fling - lol) and some newspapers & magazines to be recycled. It already just "feels" so much better in the space. I feel more organized and will be better prepared to take on new projects. More pics revealing the refreshed Spring office to be posted shortly. Please stay tuned...

How was your weekend?

How is your Spring Cleaning coming along?

LINKING POST TO:

Purge Party - Hello Home!

Sunday Showcase - Under The Table and Dreaming

Metamorphosis Monday - Between Naps On The Porch

Project Parade - The DIY Showoff

Motivate Me Monday - Keep It Simple