When the pandemic lockdown occurred in 2020, many people were suddenly faced with the challenge of creating a space to work from home. And IJS had many clients that needed our help to take on that challenge. Many already had what would be considered a home office but had never put a lot of thought into how it needed to be organized to be truly efficient on a daily basis. So, as usual, we went into each project with a fresh set of eyes, ears, and hands to declutter, purge, sort, and re-organize the actual desks where our clients would be spending many hours every day as well as other surfaces and closets.

 

But one client, in particular, was truly starting from scratch after combining 3 homes and moving into one from California to Colorado.

This is what the room and closet looked like when we arrived...

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During the decluttering part of the process, we always try to find a way to be amused to keep things somewhat “easy breezy”  and this one was no exception when we came across the collection of Carmex lip balm that were in several different bins and ziplocs...

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It was definitely a sign of someone who is obviously very busy and admittedly not very organized or she wouldn’t have needed to buy a new tube every time she couldn’t find one. #nojudgement...it just is what it is 😊

 

Within a few hours, we had cleared everything we could and reorganized the closet so everything was grouped by “like items” especially the pet supplies that needed to share space with other household items since there was really no other place in the house for them. The office supplies? Those were put in baskets on the shelves lining either side of the window.

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The laundry basket on the floor? That was filled with “homework” for the client to go through and determine what needed to be kept and properly filed once she got a small file cabinet vs. scanned and electronically archived or simply thrown out.

 

The changes in the closet were subtle but definitely made it possible to find everything easier.

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Biggest tips and takeaways?

 

• If you have a collection of a particular item like lip balm floating around your home but can never seem to find one when you really need it, our COCTC aka Chief of Chaos to Calm, Beth Blacker, has quite the collection of lip balm herself but she purposely keeps a stick/tube in several places that truly make sense for her day to day life including her go-to purse, car console, work tote, backpack for hiking and computer bag so at anytime she has easy access to one. Living in such an arrid climate like Colorado requires constant applications throughout the day so Beth’s system really works for her. But in order for a system to work like that for anyone, you have to be very intentional about it. Don’t grab one and not immediately put it back where it came from or you’ll end up without one when and where you really need it.

 

• If your home office does need to serve as a “multi-purpose” room, especially for storage purposes, create sections that are dedicated to like items in closets and drawers and label bins/baskets for easy identification. When bringing new purchases into the space be sure there will be room. If there is one thing the pandemic should have taught us all...DO NOT OVER-PURCHASE OUT OF FEAR. There is nothing in our lives that we need that desperately with the possible exception of toilet paper and even hoarding that was truly not necessary. 😄