Functional Space

I have discovered that I don’t function well in a nonfunctional space. I’m one of those weird people that can’t cook if the kitchen is messy. If there are dishes still in the sink or on the counter, I have to wash them or put them in the dishwasher and empty the dish drainer before I can really focus on cooking. I jokingly tell the kids I have to clean it up so I can mess it up again. Tonight, since I was working on the desk and the kids were doing homework, I completely and totally put allllll the dishes I could fit in to the dishwasher, set it to Pots and Pans and hit Start. Thank the dear good Lord for dishwashers!

For the longest time because of unfortunate circumstances with part of our house that was “built to code” (or not) and is now unusable (we’re going to tear it down and do something else there this year) all of Drew’s music and recording stuff has been stuffed into the office/study along with desks and bookshelves. My desk actually went away to make room for it. So it’s really crowded in there and I have no desk. My business stuff is scattered here, there, and everywhere - display boxes and most show stuff in the study (tables and chairs live in the shed), spare catalogs and Lilla Looks stuffed in a duffle in an antique rocking chair, overflow inventory in a bag behind the couch, computer on the table by the big chair in the living room, random business-y stuff in the cabinet behind the couch, blank notecards and thank you cards in at least three different places. Blank labels under Drew’s recording desk, shipping stuff in a big basket behind the antique rocking chair, then there were things that didn’t have homes that lived in piles I’d just move from one place to another.... you get the idea. Disaster. I’d show you pictures, but you would be too appalled. And every time I tried to work on things I’d get overwhelmed with how scattered and nonfunctional it all was and ended up getting basically nothing done.

This month, that started to change. Thanks to Medicare changes making job changes necessary for me I’ve taken a part time job as an online SLP. That requires me to have a desk in a quiet space to do therapy from. So, I found a small desk with basically a side wall of shelves and ordered it, then set out to try to re-organize the study to make room for said desk. It was NOT easy, but I got it in there! There’s still a lot of stuff I have to go through and either store, donate, or throw away, but I have a functional desk! My shipping scale and printer have permanent homes, my spare catalogs and Lilla Looks are on one of the shelves where I can easily see how many we have left. I have a shelf just for cards. I also got a new cabinet with drawers AND shelves as a new bedside table, since I seem to do a lot of reading and writing in bed after every one else is asleep. It’s sort of office #2. Having all my books and notebooks and stuff piled up on the beside table was also completely nonfunctional and would cause me to just turn off the light and go to sleep rather than try to find what I wanted to work on. Functionality of my house is improving! It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

I can’t tell you how nice it is to have an actual desk to sit and work at and organize all the different things I’m working on. The rest of the house and space will come along eventually and I’m still trying to find a good spot to set up my light box for inventory photos so I can just leave it set up and ready to use. But still, this is a lot better than it was!

Come hang out with us in my online functional space - The OpalTurtle on Facebook! The conversation is fun, the hairstyles are pretty, and we have some silly games from time to time. And of course - ramblings! Come join us!