Thursday, December 10, 2009

Get Organized - the After photos!


The office After shot

Wow, what a difference a couple of weeks and a lot of sorting out makes! The room feels empty without all that clutter and paper everywhere. 2 big sacks of shredded paper have left the building, not to mention all the recycling. I have made space in the filing cabinet for my business filing and I feel that I have made space in my life for it too.

In case you are mystified by a visual artist posting about organization, I have been taking Alyson Stanfield's Get Organized class. It's a class with artists in mind but I do not see why it would not be helpful to any type of home-based or small business. We all have tasks and calendars and filing to take care of!

I had one, huge a-ha! moment when I realized that my system of leaving things out as a visual reminder was not working for me. Yes, I remembered them - about 10 times a minute! I was distracted and harassed by all these visual reminders and couldn't focus on a single task until I had finished. I set up a big box in the hall closet to put stuff in - like cards, presents, party supplies - that I need, but not right now. It's amazing what a difference that makes to the floor space!

In case you don't remember just how bad it was, here (with huge embarrassment, I'd forgotten how bad it was) is the Before shot:


The office Before shot

I didn't even take a photograph of the corner where the bookcase stands, it was so messy! A week into the class my husband brought home the bookcase and I love it. My Read pile and my in-box are no longer over-flowing on my desk and supplies like scrap paper have a place.

Photos of the studio will be posted tomorrow. I haven't done as much organizing work in there but now I am motivated and tackling it one piece at a time.

7 comments:

  1. Being in the throes of overhauling my studio, I soooooo relate to the words you've written here! Bravo to you for tackling this and for making the changes necessary!

    It will be interesting to see how this affects your productivity.

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  2. Yehaw! I love seeing this. It looks like a great space, Caroline. When can I come over for tea?

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  3. Way to go Caroline! Now, if we can make sure to keep it up. I guess I had never really processed that all of our previous visual reminders were stressing us out. Seems logical now that I think about it and find it much more enjoyable to go into my office, as you do going into yours.
    Carol McIntyre

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  4. Good job! When I read your original post about embarking on this adventure, you inspired me. So I too went to work on my studio. My motivation was two-fold: recapturing space and sanity. It is amazing how clutter reduction and organization effects ones productivity.

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  5. Nice work, Caroline! What a great space you have. Now you can get in there and paint, paint, paint!

    Hannah Phelps

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  6. Thanks for sharing, your blog is worth reading, nice post. Keep it up.

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  7. Thank you all!

    Alyson, next time you're in Houston give me a call and tea will be waiting!

    I can't say the studio is perfect - the holidays are having a detrimental effect - but at least it's only on the surface and easily cleared up. I have some bad habits still to break (don't we all?!)

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