Office Decluttering: Part 1
Anyone who's been to our house knows what a disaster our computer room is. It's become (one of the) defacto "junk rooms" in the house, a dumping ground for stuff that we "might need someday."
Over the years, we've made some aborted efforts to clean up in there, but it was just so overwhelming that we'd only get so far and then stop. The "decluttering" tended to consist only of restacking the piles a bit more neatly.
*sets foot down* No more! I resolved this year to do something about the clutter in the house, and the computer room seemed to be the best bang for the buck. So we bought some shelves from Ikea, and I started emptying the computer room.
First, some before photos.
This is a shot taken standing just inside the door, looking towards the window. Those are my monitors you can see on the right; our desks are back to back, so Plonq's desk is just off screen further to the right.
Here I stood just next to Plonq's desk to get a better shot of the existing bookshelf. Part of these shelves will be repurposed for storage in the dining room, while the rest will probably end up in the basement. Note the approximately 1000 CDs on the top shelves, and books and books and books. Also, the giant pile of stuff in front of the bookshelves.
Taken standing at the window, looking back towards the door. That's my computer. The giant dragon kite is staying, but will be dusted and probably hung higher. Note the Bernardin's box in the lower right.
Here's what the Bernardin's box is sitting on. This is the stacked and restacked piles I mentioned earlier from our previous attempts at organization. Lots of books.
Finally, a progress shot. This was taken about six hours in. Most of the books and CDs have been cleaned off, moved into the living room, and sorted. Today we took about (very rough guess) about 80 to 100 books to the church today as a donation for their book sale, and another 50 or so have been set aside for Value Village. I'm not done with the books, though: there are still some hiding behind the bookshelves. However, it looks much better already - provided that you don't too closely at the rest of the house.
Now that we're heading back to work tomorrow, I think we'll be about three days from having enough space to move the bookshelves in. We'll probably start putting them together this week.
Amusing: This was the sort of thing I kept finding. It's all in the garbage now.
Over the years, we've made some aborted efforts to clean up in there, but it was just so overwhelming that we'd only get so far and then stop. The "decluttering" tended to consist only of restacking the piles a bit more neatly.
*sets foot down* No more! I resolved this year to do something about the clutter in the house, and the computer room seemed to be the best bang for the buck. So we bought some shelves from Ikea, and I started emptying the computer room.
First, some before photos.
This is a shot taken standing just inside the door, looking towards the window. Those are my monitors you can see on the right; our desks are back to back, so Plonq's desk is just off screen further to the right.
Here I stood just next to Plonq's desk to get a better shot of the existing bookshelf. Part of these shelves will be repurposed for storage in the dining room, while the rest will probably end up in the basement. Note the approximately 1000 CDs on the top shelves, and books and books and books. Also, the giant pile of stuff in front of the bookshelves.
Taken standing at the window, looking back towards the door. That's my computer. The giant dragon kite is staying, but will be dusted and probably hung higher. Note the Bernardin's box in the lower right.
Here's what the Bernardin's box is sitting on. This is the stacked and restacked piles I mentioned earlier from our previous attempts at organization. Lots of books.
Finally, a progress shot. This was taken about six hours in. Most of the books and CDs have been cleaned off, moved into the living room, and sorted. Today we took about (very rough guess) about 80 to 100 books to the church today as a donation for their book sale, and another 50 or so have been set aside for Value Village. I'm not done with the books, though: there are still some hiding behind the bookshelves. However, it looks much better already - provided that you don't too closely at the rest of the house.
Now that we're heading back to work tomorrow, I think we'll be about three days from having enough space to move the bookshelves in. We'll probably start putting them together this week.
Amusing: This was the sort of thing I kept finding. It's all in the garbage now.