Organizationally Yours

So in this companion to Office L my client once again cleared and w**ded until the room could return to its original purpose. After the walls are painted we will mount the TV that is on the floor. Just now in arranging these photos for posting it occurs to me that we should switch the big desk and file cabinet in this room to the office (see office L) and put the little desk in the guest room. My client only needs one desk, but it should be the larger one as guests won’t need much desk space. And it won’t be convenient to do paperwork in this room if guests are occupying it. Once again I don’t have a ‘before’ picture from across the room because I couldn’t get there. And again (!) I forgot to open the closet door for the ‘after’. And yes, it is organized. My industrious client had already w**ded her formal hanging clothes earlier in the year!

This is a second visit to this apartment. In an earlier session the client and I worked on getting unpacked and moved in. We attended to most of the spaces well enough, but with the bedroom, as I noted in the post, we really didn’t have the time to finish up and w**d thoroughly. And organizing is all about finishing. If w**ding isn’t finished, then one ends up with too much stuff = too much to maintain = doesn’t stay organized. And if there isn’t time to thoroughly sort, then items don’t have identified homes and every space devolves into another miscellaneous drawer or j***y pile. But as the client lives in Manhattan we have to pick our battles during my short business trips there. In an earlier post you can read my confidence that this dedicated client would finish this project. So, I was proud but not surprised when I was called on to revisit this bedroom. And I was delighted but not shocked to discover that my client had already done a wonderful job of w**ding and sorting much of it before I got there! You can see the post-its on those beautifully sorted drawers to keep them straight until the categories sink into long term memory. At the end of the post you can see that my client, thoughtfully looking at her space and inventory, even organized the drawers in the vanity to a fare-thee-well! It is both tedious and labor intensive to sort smaller items like jewelry and make-up, but as these pictures prove, my client stuck with it until the job was not just done, but very well done indeed.

This guest bedroom had become an easy dumping ground for interim storage. But unfortunately guests were arriving soon. Much of the contents of the boxes –many unseen under the bed and in the closet -were papers. Paper sorting is brutal, and though my client was committed and a trooper, we just did not have the time to sort them all before company was due. We did however make a good start, and transferred much of what wasn’t sorted to the office (keep things where you use them). We also emptied out several drawers, under the bed, and the closet, so that guests will now have a way to unpack and stow their luggage. Thanks to my client’s hard work the room is now restful, functional and ready for entertaining out of town visitors!

These pictures were not taken with the intent of using them as ‘before and afters’, but as I just got an email from a teacher asking for advice on organizing her work space, I am posting them in the hope that they will prove helpful.
I received the first two pictures in this series from another teacher along with a plea for advice on how to organize the non-clothing side of the closet for the unpacked teaching supplies scattered across the floor in a room she was setting up as a designated home office. I suggested getting everything off the floor and onto the empty closet shelves sorting as much as possible by putting ‘like with like’. This worked pretty well as you can see from the third picture she sent. The floor is clear and the stuff is stowed. As I was due to arrive in a few days, we determined that I would help with the rest then.
Upon arriving our first order of business was to measure the closet and shelving. We also perused the inventory and then set out to buy –cheaply at discount and dollar stores- a variety of containers that we thought might work. We held onto receipts as we knew we would be making some returns. Back at the home office we used the bins to containerize the various toys, craft supplies, and ‘manipulatives’ that she uses in her work. Cheap clear lidless shoe boxes were sufficient to contain most of the above. This closet also holds the family’s back up office supplies, so that was containerized as well.
Next we assembled a desk she had ordered and at my urging she purchased a file cabinet to place next to it. In the fourth and final picture you see what the closet looks like after we added the containers and removed the papers. All of her personal and work papers now live upright in the file cabinet along with any ‘paper-sized’ office supplies –folders, binders, computer templates for labels, etc. The only papers left in the supply closet are printer paper and construction paper which we stored efficiently and accessibly on stacking trays. Teaching supplies have been separated (where size allows) towards the bottom of the closet using the bottom shelves and a shoe rack which we bought and assembled for the purpose. The family office supplies are clustered towards the middle where it will be easy for her husband and other family members to see and reach them. This visibility along with our clear boxes, boldly labelled, will prevent the family from repurchasing items they already own.
This home was very organized, but teachers have a special challenge –their generosity leads them to purchase, on their own dime, items they might use in their classrooms, which they then have to store. And their profession is one of the last to rely heavily on paper. These are large organizational burdens that sometimes require a little extra help. As they are doing the work of angels, it has been my pleasure and honor to have so many of them among my clientele.