Yes, you read that right. Currently, my office is housed in my closet. Let me explain.
As I just said, I needed to set up a home office when I came home to work, and I needed to do it for cheap. I managed to do it cheaply ($126, not including those pens I love) but no matter how much furniture you have, you’ve got to have a place to put it all.
Luckily for my husband and I, we live in a three-bedroom house with no children, which means we have our bedroom, my bedroom, and my hubby’s bedroom. Unfortunately, my bedroom also doubles as the guest bedroom and storage room, which means we have a twin bed in there and boxes of stuff piled everywhere. In this mess, I was forced to carve out enough room for me and all of my office equipment (desk, printer, bookcase, and filing cabinet.)
I was sure my cause was lost.
As I began studying the room, trying to make mental adjustments (well, if I just move that entire stack of boxes from here to there, and then stack that on top of this) I realized that there was one aspect of the room that I really wasn’t using: The closet. An average-sized closet, it had two sliding doors on a track at the top, and after easily removing those doors, I realized that I had a real gold mine there. A shelf ran across the top that I could put bins on for items that I want on hand but don’t use every day. Originally a closet for a child, there were hooks that ran around the inside of the closet about level with my torso, which I could see great possibilities for. I ended up using them to hold items by hanging (I hang my zip drive on a chain over one of the hooks) and also hold up items by setting them on top of the hooks (I have the corkboard my sister gave me propped up on top of three hooks.)
I grabbed a measuring tape and measured the closet. My desk fit, with room to spare. Just enough room, in fact, to place my TV/printer stand, allowing me to put my printer directly to my left, and well within reach. Bingo!
I placed the small bookcase that came free with my desk to my right, where I have stored extra paper, a radio, random junk, and, oh yeah, books. Above the bookshelf on the wall is the whiteboard I bought, putting my corkboard and whiteboard well within reach at all times.
Above this little cozy den, I have some beautiful lilac silky fabric hanging in a swag, helping my efficient corner gain some beauty in the process. The entire room is decorated in shades of purple, so this helps me tie this office in with the rest of the room. Of course, this room is also so full of stuff, all of the random papers and junk up on my corkboard probably helps “tie” my office in better than the purple swag, but I like to fool myself into thinking that someday, this room is going to be beautiful and presentable.
Hey, we can all dream.
Have you ever parked an office into a tight spot, or have other ideas on how to tackle this problem? Leave ’em below or e-mail me at Hava L {at} Families dot com. Thanks for reading!