One of the things I like about our new house is that there is a room on the third floor that I have claimed as my own. I have an office! With a door that closes! Woo-woo!
When we moved, this coveted space became a wasteland for all of the post-move detritus. Boxes of books, holiday decor, old children’s clothes, my Stampin’ Up! stuff, and more boxes of books. There were piles of random electrical cords, computer attachments, and instruction manuals. A VCR/DVD combo unit took up residence alongside a bag full of totebags. Seriously, there was a big Nike gym bag full of assorted soft bags. In the middle of this melee was our “computer desk” and chair. I use the words computer desk lightly because in truth, it was just a table we scored at an office firesale many, many years ago. I mean, give me a board and two saw horses and I could fashion a better desk.
My goal has been to de-junk the office, get some real office furniture and truly make this place my own. It’s been a process, but I’m nearing the home stretch. I’ve gotten most, if not all of the boxes unpacked. Those that aren’t or can’t be until we can conjure up some more space in the attic have been artfully tucked into these little wall cut-outs in the room. When it came time to get those things off of the floor and out of sight, I was stacking boxes like I was playing Tetris.
I’ve got a for real desk that I put together myself:
Talk about a labor of love. You know that construction is going to be time consuming when you make a mental note that there are more pouches of screws than letters in the alphabet (anyone see packet PP?). And there was in fact a piece missing from the box that the chair was delivered in, but I haven’t fall out of it and it hasn’t fallen to pieces, so I’m calling this a win.
I scored some green accent lamps at Target, along with one of those 9-cube bookcases to house as many books as I can squeeze in there. There’s been some overflow, but for now, most are displayed and I can put my hands on what I’m looking for when I want to. Plus, the top of the bookcase makes for a great display shelf of some of my sorority paraphernalia. I think the last time it was displayed was probably when I crossed!
I also scoured through all kinds of Container Store and Hold Everything type of places until I found the right shade of green photo archival boxes. Once and for all, I went through all of my loose photos, even the ones dating back past high school, and categorized them. Opposite the wall-cut outs, there are some built in shelves. In went the photo storage boxes (strategically placed) amongst some camera equipment, some books, and Craig’s mini collection of die cast Porche 911’s. In my head, this is my office, but I deigned to give him a shelf so he feels included.
After all the DIY of the chair and the desk, the unpacking of books, the place was looking kind of crusty and dusty. So, I hauled the vacuum cleaner up the stairs and actually vacuumed. You know, the vac and I have an on again, off again relationship, so this is a big deal. Nothing beats seeing fresh vacuum tracks in the carpet, though, right? Ahhhh. . . the place is clean, airy, and ready for work. And I really enjoy coming up here and putting in some work, be it to edit some photos, work on a blog post, hide from the children.
It’s so nice and organized in here. It’s great, but I think I cleaned up too well. There are about half a dozen things I can’t find: my tripod, my extra camera bag, my box of poetry books (because sometimes I really want to read some Langston Hughes), my Modelogic portfolio. I have a sinking feeling that they’re tucked in some kind of suspended animation in one of those wall cut outs, way behind the remaining boxes of stuff. It’s going to take a stick of dynamite to move that stuff.
Maybe I don’t need those things right now, afterall. . . .