tip time! verticalize (is that a word?)

what is the number-one thing you can do to make a difference in your home office?

contain, contain, contain . . . home offices often get bogged down with all manner of mail and bills and school work and kids art. it becomes impossible to find anything. a great way to get it under control (and still have a work surface) is to create vertical piles by using standing magazine holders. label one for each member of the household and toss in paper that applies to that person: the current little league schedule (toss last season in the recycle bin), the book club choices, the address list you've been meaning to enter into your computer. this gives everything an easy to find home (and you'll probably be able to get rid of lots of stuff along the way). later, when you're on the hunt for sydney's birthday list just pull down her magazine file and search one pile in one place.

don't forget . . . while it may be tempting to choose a different color box for each person, your best bet is to keep all of your containers in the same color family. this will reduce visual clutter in your tidy new office. (see post from september 8, 2007 for more on this idea)

where in the world are the sprucegirls?

last week we completed a home office. here's a look at a little piece of the project . . .

the challenge here was that there was virtually no hidden storage. that meant no place to hide office supplies or software or electronica. (the good news for us was that this client did not have a huge paper problem. she actually had a pretty reasonable amount but needed help with systems to keep track of it.)

enter the boxes . . . our solution here was to use all manner of boxes and holders. the magazine files hold paper and, you guessed it, magazines. the document boxes hold more paper, memorabilia and photos. the larger boxes stacked like a pyramid hold office and craft supplies. the client's files are now stashed away in file boxes. the key to all of this is that while the boxes come in all shapes and sizes, the color and feel are unified. this ensured that we weren't substituting one source of clutter for another.

the "after" picture also shows a complete lack of clutter on the shelves. the "before" situation meant that to get a book out, you probably had to move a photo or tchotchke. it's usually fine to do that because the book is desirable and worth taking the extra step for. putting it away, on the other hand, is a whole other story. nobody wants to move the photo or piece of tchotch to put the book away so . . . it doesn't happen. we lightened the load here in terms of these small items and found other places (like a window sill) to put the client's favorites.