Claiming My Space...

I've done a couple of reorganizing projects this week that I want to share with you. Nothing major, and not a lot of work, but big results.

As a background, last Winter I decided to move my desk/computer from the sunroom to the laundry room. Anyone else would've loved to have had their "office" in the sunroom-- it's the biggest room in the house-- it has satellite TV and 3 walls filled with windows. The problem was that the room was well insulated and it got cold in the Winter. In order to keep the sunroom warm, I had to heat up the rest of the house to the point that I'd be dripping sweat if I walked to the kitchen, while the sunroom was marginally comfortable yet still a little chilly.

Moving my office to the laundry room came to be a great idea-- I put a space heater in there and I was able to heat up the small space to a comfortable temperature, and it really didn't matter if the rest of the house was a little chilly for a change. Spring came and I installed the water garden in the front yard, right in front of my new office window. It was nice to be able to keep an eye on the pond- watch the butterflies and hummingbirds that began to visit regularly. The only problem was the space-- it's a small room and besides the desk, there was also a washer and dryer, and a huge 6 drawer steel filing cabinet. The cabinet was about 5' high and 2' wide (you can see it in the background of the top picture here-- it's still sitting in the dining room!)

. It was taking up too much room- filled to the brim with things that I should've thrown away years ago.

I cleaned the cabinet out and removed it from the room last week. As luck would have it, my neighbor had a yard sale last weekend and I bought an Ikea shoe rack from her. It's meant to hold shoes, but it also doubles as a pretty nifty filing cabinet. The best part is that it's only 7" deep and 3' high. Replacing the big filing cabinet with the shoe rack was the smartest thing I've ever done-- my little office is suddenly a comfortable workspace.

Now-- what to do about the washer and dryer-- they're taking up a lot of room too-- I need my space!