Tired of the Mess--Success!

Do you remember when I wrote months ago about being Tired of the Mess? Well, it took a while, but I finally did something about it. That is the reason why I've been pretty much absent from my blog for the last couple of weeks. With picking and preserving garden produce, preparing for school to start this week and taming the mess, I haven't had time to sit and write (although I have lots of ideas in my head!).

I started on taming that mess back in February when I first wrote about it, but got discouraged when I needed help moving some things and couldn't get my husband to help. Then I thought I was going to be getting some new shelving units so I thought I would wait until I got those. When the time came to get them, we realized they wouldn't fit in the room because they were 8 ft tall and since our ceilings are only 8 ft tall, there was no way to stand them up. I got discouraged, again.

I kept wanting to do something, but with lack of time because of the garden, the miscarriage, etc., I was great at making excuses as to why I couldn't do anything. Then, two weeks ago, I had finally had enough. We had moved out our chest freezer so I had extra space and it was a rainy day and I knew I wanted it done before school started so I set to work. It took a total three days to get it to this point (the first day was a full day and then two half days after that).

Of course, when I first started, the room began to look worse and worse. I had to move piles of stuff out of the way so I could move things around. We ended up taking out three bags of trash and a box of items to be donated. Of course, just a week before I started on the office, I had two boxes of books that I pulled out to sell (I'm now down to one box!) so that was helpful. I still can't fit all our books nicely on the shelves we have so I need to do a little more work and I still have a few files and drawers to go through, but for the most part I am done. I am working slowly on those other items and need my husband to go through his book collection and downsize as he has more shelves of books than I do (the English major, book-loving, book-reading fiend!). I think if I can get his seven shelves of books down to even five, we'll be good (I only have two shelves, the girls have four, school books have four, and reference books have four).

We also discovered we have a lot more room with the new format even though we brought in a bookcase to replace the space the freezer took. The placement of the desk give me a better view of the house and girls' school desk at the same time.

Are you ready to see pictures?!

Here is the view of the office from the main house.

The bookshelves still need a little work.

The "School Zone". Books, supplies, etc.

Looking at this picture I realize I need to clear off my bulletin board some more!

The girls' school desks (the blue board folds down for a desk). We can't get that printer to work, so we will be getting rid of it.

These are the  bookshelves that still need to be downsized.