Julie Barrett is a freelance writer and photographer based in Plano, TX.

Update on the office organization front

Fresh when it gets here from Julie Barrett
Monday, October 5, 2009


Slow progress is ... slow.

Today's job involved clearing off the credenza and rearranging a small portion of my desk.

The credenza took forever as I discovered some items had slipped down behind and the only way I could get them out was to move the massive piece of furniture. This required partially unloading it and bringing in the heavy duty dolly to move it a whopping two inches from the wall so I could reach down and retrieve the items. Then I had to put everything back.

Much more dusting ensued.

Best cheapskate moment: I saved a trip to IKEA (and $30) by digging around in the garage until I found a monitor stand that I knew had to be out there. It's a big, heavy-duty oak thing from back in those not-so-ancient days when we had heavy CRT displays. I'm repurposing it to elevate the printer above the cable box. My other plan was to purchase a Billy bookcase extension shelf - one I could reuse on my shelving units if no longer needed it for the printer.

Money spent so far: Less than $30. I picked up two storage boxes at Staples for a buck, thanks to my ink rebate check. Today I picked up some smaller bins for cheap. Yesterday I bought a large mouse mat to go inside the keyboard tray where my tablet lives. Technically, it's not an organization item, but I need it to keep the tablet from sliding around on the tray. I also found an ugly charging station on clearance at Target last week. I'll re-cover it. It's perfect for my phone and camera battery chargers. I've missed having a cradle from back when I had a PDA, and this will give me the ability to see the phone on my desk and notice missed calls. All in all, some good deals.

I'm challenging myself to do this with as little expenditure as possible. No, I'm not on more of a budget than usual. I'd like to try to get rid of some things rather than finding new ways to store it all. With that in mind, we cleared out a portion of the closet on Friday and took it down to the electronics recycling event on Saturday. I took a couple of boxes of books down to sell at Half Price. I didn't get much, but they'll recycle what they can't resell.

There is still stuff I need to store, such as my teetering pile of discs for all the software I have installed on my system. I'm also working on a "hot" file I can keep on the desk. Through all these reorganizations I've discovered I'm a tactile person and I have to have my work out where I can see it. I consider this to be a breakthrough, especially if I can adopt a system and make it work.

And I did all that work today while reeling from my flu shot. Yes, I finally felt up to getting it done, and I thought I might as well extend the Monday misery by getting jabbed in the arm. I'll be fine. Sometimes I'm a little achy on shot day, though.

Well, it's off to bed for me. Tomorrow I go back to attacking the home office.

If I'm not back in three days, call a search party.

Tags:

Filed under: Life            

 

Comments are closed






Search the Journal:

  

Search Tags:




Events and Appearances:
Looks like I don't have any events on the horizon. Would you like me to attend yours? Contact me!
All