Unstuffing

Mine is gray with black hardware. (bedbathandbeyond)

In our little Cape Cod, one of the bedrooms is downstairs, down the hall from the kitchen. This room has never been a bedroom, per se but, over the two decades we've lived in our home, it has been an office, a dumping ground for all things to be kept away from curious toddlers, and a playroom. As my daughter outgrew the need for a playroom, the space morphed into a man cave before transforming bit by bit into a family room.

Because I work from home, I often work in this room. I have an office, but it is small and, shall we say, overstuffed. Now that my daughter is in college, I’ve gotten into the habit of settling in back here after dinner so I can spend time with my husband, and I have not only made myself comfortable, but also carved out a space of my own.

Digging into my office and unstuffing it has been on my to-do list all summer, but has consistently gotten pushed aside by more time sensitive tasks. Meanwhile, little by little, in the interest of keeping the back room on the right side of tidiness, I’ve been finding (and purchasing) homes for the things I use on a regular basis. Yesterday, for example, I replaced a stool that was standing in for a table with a wicker unit that has a slightly smaller footprint (and more storage) and I bought a unit reminiscent of a mini library card catalog to store office supplies.

This morning, it occurred to me that most of the materials I use on a regular basis have not only taken up residence in the back room, but they fit into a fairly small place -- or several of them. This begs what is (now) a fairly obvious question.

What is all that stuff in the office?

Clearly, I'm overdue for some sorting. And I'm going to start with the maybes.

On a shelf that's tucked away to the far right of my desk, I have two file bins with binders in them. I know that the binders contain course materials so, since I'm on a course prep roll, I'm going to flip through them quickly, getting rid of whatever I don't need. Whatever remains will go into a box that I will close up, date, and store in the basement with a December "expiration date." Anything that's left in the box at the end of the semester goes. No more storing, no more sorting. Out the door.

As with any other project, getting started is the hard part. I'm hoping that a targeted approach that frees up storage space (once those binders are gone, the file bins are fair game) puts me at an advantage because I can sort and straighten almost simultaneously. In addition, I'm starting out by going through things that are relevant to what I'm working on now, so my brain is already primed to tackle the task.

At least that's what I hope.

I love the way the family room is coming together, but I also know that I'm using that space, in part, because it's more welcoming than my overstuffed office. I want to recapture the room I designated as my work space to make it as welcoming as it was before the detritus of teaching, writing and homeless items conspired to make it feel even smaller than it is.

Then, once it's restored to its previously cozy state, I'll have two places to work -- the family room, and my mom cave.