This is my office right now:
It doesn’t look organized, but it is. It’s organized two ways, and one is more effective than the other.
You see, the (1) clutter demands attention and for good reason: It’s important. Stuff I have to do. Stuff that, if I file it neatly away in the (2) three-ring to-do binder buried underneath all that mess, I will forget about and never do and screw up my life.
The goal is to not screw up my life.
But what about filing? you ask. Eh. Filing is for stuff you have to keep but rarely use: tax returns, vendor catalogs, vehicle and health and vet information. Stuff like that. If I had my ’druthers, I’d be able to stick it all in a file box like the one I keep my year’s tax receipts in after I’ve entered the bucket full of receipts into Quicken.
What about tossing? you ask. Yeah, what you’re looking at is after having ruthlessly tossed and shredded. Trust me, I get rid of whatever I can the minute I lay hands on it and determine it’s worthless to me.
So after ruthlessly tossing-and-shredding, and piling things on my desk in a way that will remind me of its importance, the best way I’ve discovered to not screw up my life and still stay clutter-free is to hang all the important stuff up on the wall.
This demands cork. Or steel/whiteboards magnets. Something. Just get it off my effing desk! I want elbow room and work space. Throw in some effective cord management.
Stylishly.
I want style.
Because there is no style here. I can stick pins in the sheetrock all day long and it’ll do the trick, but I want some style. Martha Stewart Living style. Only more realistic. And cheaper.
So what I’m working on in my organizational efforts is to find a stylish way to hang all my stuff on the walls where I can see it at a glance without boxing myself into a stylish but useless and expensive space.
But I can’t even decide on a paint color.
May 3rd, 2010 at 2:46 pm
You’re my hero. My desk is…well…not organized.
And I vote for red walls. Red inspires creativity.
May 3rd, 2010 at 3:23 pm
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May 4th, 2010 at 1:39 pm
Not sure Dude would go for red. I’m not sure *I* can go for red since I need a bright, bright workspace especially in the winter. It’s cold in that damned corner.
So it’ll be some shade of yellow or bright orange. Something very, very warm but not dark.
May 4th, 2010 at 5:06 pm
Dude is ok with whatever color you want for your cubespace.
May 7th, 2010 at 4:07 pm
I walked into a foyer that was painted a green that made me want to surround myself in it. Not cool like a sage, but vibrant and warm. Almost tropical. The wood work positively glowed and I just wanted to sit there forever. Then you can put corkboard up, frame it out with trim and I’ll make you pretty pretty pushpins that will make you smile evey time you look at them.
May 7th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
I chose a color!
I think.
It’s Valspar’s “Whipped Apricot,” although I’m going to get little sample cans of a whole bunch of things, paint some foamcore, stick it up on the walls, and see what I like.
May 7th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Can I still make you pushpins?
May 7th, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Of course! *weeps with joy*
I’ve seen some of your pushpins *want*
May 8th, 2010 at 7:03 am
Dude got a warm fuzzy feeling over the last exchange….but don’t tell anyone.
May 16th, 2010 at 6:27 am
I had similar problems and went this way:
I bought a cheap iron/steel shelf system (they sold three shelves together, basically a flat sheet that is bent around to form four edges) that lets you buy the shelves separately from the parts that hold the shelves together – those shelves already had holes around the edges to slot into the bearing parts. I then bought some long rectangular blocks of wood that I got cut to size at the building supplies store where I found those shelves, too. So for the magnet board near the entrance I have the longer side up and two longer pieces of wood, and for the two huge boards next to each other in my office directly over my desk I have the shorter side up and shorter blooks of wood.
Now I could have bought the shelves in a metal colour or I could have bought metallic colour afterwards, but the steel look was fine to me.
I screwed the two of the holes on each side to the blocks of wood, then made two holes right through the front of the wood for longer screws, which would be prescrewed into the walls. After that I painted the wood in my wall colour, because I still had some left.
Then I went on Etsy and bought some beautifuly chiyogami paper magnets like these ones
Migration. A Trio …. Or just used any old magnets I still had around ^^.
The shelves sort of stick out about 5 centimetres from the wall, so I also put small paintings or bits and pieces on top of the magnet board.
May 16th, 2010 at 10:23 am
Mmmm, yummy magnets. I think I could sweettalk Eva Gale into switching from pushpins to magnets.
OTOH, PIX!!! I want to see what you’re talking about!
Okay, well, I got the idea of a wall of steel sheeting from a pic I saw of a beader’s studio, where she had the little round containers with clear tops, and just stuck them to her walls. Well, I thought I had it bookmarked somewhere, but now I can’t find it.
In my search, I found magnetic paint. I’ve known this existed for a while, but none of the brands seemed to have a decent reputation for strength, and I didn’t think you could paint over it and retain the magnetization, but then I found this and one review said to use these, so I think that’s what I’m going to do.
Now I’m wondering how many coats of Whipped Apricot I’ll have to use, or if I should get a darker color to get nice coverage of the dark gray.
I’ll do one wall and see how I like it. If it works, I’ll do both walls of my office and the support pole.
I still want pix of yours, though!
May 16th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
Fair enough: Here are pix – this is nowhere near the size you’re obviously planning on, though ^^
http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=mywikdotdmm
This is the one next to the front door
http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=zmycyk3irni
This is a look at my office
http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=zmycyk3irni
This is a look at the way the screws are attached to the wall. And then I painted over the wood with my wall colour.
May 16th, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Oh, I really like those and yes, that’s what I was thinking, only flatter, but that makes little difference. The pix I was looking for (still can’t find ‘em!) had little frames around the sheet metal.
Yours might be a cheaper solution, cuz that magnet paint ain’t cheap.
May 16th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
Found it!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39337548@N04/sets/72157619571052236/
May 16th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Yes, that looks similar – joist panning simply seems to lie flat, but it’s basically just sheets of metal, much like my shelves. It’s certainly cheaper to buy metal sheets, you can always use special colour for metals if you don’t like the plain look ^^.
And because that shelf-set came with four shelves, I still have one to add, if I should need it.. Next to the PC for example ^^.