Mission: Organization

Mission: Organization's purpose is to bring order to clutter and chaos in the homes and lives of the familes featured on the show. Each episode starts with a "Before" section, where we get a tour of the messy room with the show's host, Gail O'Neill, and the home owners. Then a professional organizer comes in to help them clean the room out (which usually includes a lot of sorting, purging, and general cleaning), and then brings in organization tools and furniture, and brings the homeowner's things back in. The host then returns to look at the beautiful and organized new space.

The shows I've seen have done a variety of rooms from sewing rooms to garages, to family rooms, to bedrooms - pretty much any room that you can mess up - they can organize it!

Did I mention they worked on sewing rooms? There are like 6 different episodes on the schedule right now for craft rooms/sewing rooms - they are just naturally messy rooms, I guess. Makes me feel better since mine is a DISASTER! I've got yarn, fabric, supplies everywhere, in addition to a chair to sit in, a dresser, a wardrobe, and a desk for storage, and a computer (since my designs are all saved on the computer). I should be recording all of these and studying them!!

This shot is sort of an overview of my office area. It takes up about 2/3rds of the family room, which runs the length of the basement. It consists of a large "U" made out of 3 desks. I have designated different zones for different work functions that I may be doing while in my office.
This next shot is a close-up of desk #1, which is my shipping center and kitchenette. The mini-fridge keeps a stock of Diet Pepsi Jazz's cold for me to grab while I work, and the microwave is very handy for making popcorn. I store shipping supplies and inventory in this location.
This shot is the desk #2 at the base of the "U", and serves as the billing center, and additional storage space. I have a filing box with slots for each day of the month where I can put bills that are due, and reminders for myself. Ignore the shoes under the desk *LOL*.

Finally, this is the main desk where I do the majority of my work. It is a large "L" shaped desk with a hutch in the center, providing for lots of storage space. On the left side, is my HP all-in-one scanner, copier, fax machine (which I just learned how to use as a fax machine - it helps to have it plugged into the phone line). On the right side is my regular day-to-day printer. You can see I also have a set of plastic storage drawers on the right side of the desk, as well as a wire basket system under the left side, for even more storage. My filing cabinet JUST fits under the desk, and so I have it tucked away under the far left side (you can sort of see it through my big cozy office chair). I of course have several Teddy Bears on top of the hutch to keep me company while I work. Assembling this big desk as part of my office was one of the last major projects my husband did before he died. I think of it as sort of his last gift me to me. I have plenty of overhead lighting for the whole area. What you probably can't see in the pictues is that behind desk #1 is a wardrobe cabinet, a storeroom, and a closet that I also use for my business. The wardrobe provides storage for Priority Mail boxes, paper and labels, in addition to filing space for my postal receipts. The storeroom holds more priority mail supplies, packing peanuts, and my long-term inventory of trading card supplies and bubble mailers. I keep only a short term supply of both in desk #1 so its easily accessible in the main office as I process orders. The closet has built-in shelving (thanks to my husband again) which I use for storage of my marketing supplies that I purchase from Vistaprint. I have brochures, business cards, magnets, and probably more that I've gotten about :)

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MY GOAL: To get this office organized and more functional, utilizing all of the storage space & supplies I've collected so that I can keep it clean and tidy when I'm not using it. I'm also hoping that I will be able to keep up with my filing and find it easier to find things by organizing this space. I want to get rid of the clutter, and the items that don't belong here (like the shoes), and making it a more functional workspace so I can be as efficient as possible when in it. This is where I spend the majority of my time along with my sewing room. It needs work too - should I show you? Probably not - its REALLY bad

Stay tuned for pictures of the office after its incredible transformation into a functional, organized workspace.

And knock on wood that I can pull it off!!!

I picked up some great tips from Sylvia about Organizing My Clutter that will also be useful in my project - so thanks Sylvia from http://www.tamethechaos.com! I also signed up for Clutterbugs free tips about organizing, so hopefully they'll be another great tool in my project : visit http://www.organizeclutterbugs.com/index.html to request your own copy!

Here is one tip I picked up: Turn your clutter into productivity. This is a bathroom toilet paper holder that I mounted on my Shipping desk, and it now dispenses Priority Mail stickers for when I'm using non-Priority Mail boxes.