Emptying the Old Office and Organizing the Stuff

So I'm not really sentimental about stuff- I have no problem donating or trashing things I don't need and really prefer to have a small number of well-organized things than a large number of stuff. Spouso, on the other hand, likes to keep everything. I'm not going to say it's all his fault, but we definitely have a lot of unnecessary stuff that got stashed in the office over the years since we moved in. In order to put the new kid's stuff in the room, all the old office stuff had to come out - so it was finally time to do deep clean.

Step 1. Move Permanent Non-Office Things to the Basement
The office has a huge closet, so we used it to store a lot of things that aren't office related. Some things, like camping tents and backpacks we definitely wanted to keep. Other things, like a painting easel that I somehow acquired in the last few years, I knew I could let go. So, the first step was to pull it all out of the closet, quickly sort out the keepers from the non-keepers. We moved the keepers down to the basement storage shelves and the non-keepers to goodwill. We still have access to this stuff, which is protected from the weather, but we don't need them taking up critical closet space.

Step 2. Find Permanent Homes for Keepsakes
In that process, we found a number of things that were definitely keepers that couldn't be stored in the basement because they were too important. For example, I hadn't touched my wedding dress since it was stashed in the office the day after the wedding (almost 2 years ago). I was sort of paralyzed by the question of whether or not I should sell it, so I couldn't even take it to be cleaned. Thankfully, my resourceful friend Molly found a company that would take the dress, clean it, box it, and ship it back to me for pretty cheap. Now the box is back and will easily fit in the top of a closet, or until I finally decide to sell it (or not).

wedding dress finally got cleaned

Similarly, R had kept a stack of newspapers from the last time his team won the world series, (before we met, btw) that were meant to be framed, but just sat around for years. He finally sorted through them, picked the page to frame, ordered a frame online, and put it together. Now the newspaper can actually go on a wall somewhere.

Lastly, we had a large pile of cards, notes, and other bits that Spouso had kept from the past few years. They were stored in files and piles, which wasn't great. So we bought a box for sentimental things to go, now they will all have a place and be easy to find.

Step 3. Photo Book
After my grandparents passed away last year, I was really struck by how many thousands of photos they had taken, but how few photos there were of the two of them. So I started a new initiative to not only take more pictures of people during the year, but to also make an annual photo book that covers all the major (and some minor) events of the year. In it, I include a sleeve to hold whatever loose photos and ticket stubs and whatnot we've accumulated from the year. So, during one snow day, I parked on the couch, sorted through all of our photos from 2014, pulled out the best from each month, and uploaded them to Shutterfly to make a small photo book. (Sidenote, I only take pictures of my house projects, and R only takes pictures of Wally the Cat. Trying to find anything else was difficult-- must try harder this year). When the book arrives, we will tuck the loose stuff in the sleeve.

Step 4. Sort through Office Supplies, Eliminate Waste
Once all the sentimental stuff was taken care of, it was time to attack the rest. I started taking one armful of office supplies at a time down to the living room to be sorted. We both had lots of leftovers from college and grad school, but hardly use most office supplies now.  We pulled out all the trash, and then started carefully downsizing the stuff that was still good but unnecessary. For example, we had 5 different boxes of thank you cards, but only send a handful a year (crap, now I feel like I should be sending more thank you cards).  So we recycled the cheaper ones and just kept a single box of the nicer ones. This was a slightly difficult process because a lot of the stuff was fine, it'll just never get used (like 100s of flash cards or 3 packages of resume paper), so we had to be really ruthless - only the stuff that would really get used got to stay. Then I bought a couple office organizers to keep the keepers well organized and easy to find.

Step 5. Organize Files
During that process, I found all of our files. It's funny how we moved in together years ago and got legally married almost 2 years ago, but I keep stumbling on different things that are still separated, relics of our single lives. We each had two different filing systems with totally separate files- even though the papers being filed usually applied to both of us (like bills from the vet or mortgage agreements). It meant that we had totally duplicated each other and were keeping 2 sets of everything. So, one night I took all of the files out, combined the similar ones, shredded the unnecessary ones, and moved them into new, well-labeled boxes. Now our files are slimmed down and better organized, and we are just slightly more married.

Step 6. Upgrade the Printer
We both really hated our printer, which was old and clunky, took up a lot of space, took forever to warm up, and had lots of trashy cables dangling all over the place. Since we actually do use the printer from time to time, we took this opportunity to get a new one that would be a bit smaller, have an internal paper tray that didn't need to be loaded for each use, and could be used via WiFi, so no ugly cables needed.

To make sure the WiFi would work in the new office, which is on the other side of the house from the router, we bought a wireless range extender. It was super easy to set up, roughly $30, and now we have full connectivity everywhere in the house. People with big houses that have spotty wifi (parents, I'm talking to you), you might want to consider getting one of these puppies.

Step 7. Get rid of old laptops
We both had old laptops from our college/grad school days that were totally nonfunctional and needed to go. We took some time getting all the useful stuff off of them, then wiping clean. We donated the newer one to Goodwill which has a nice program to refurbish them and give them to people who need them, but we dropped the older one off at the landfill to be properly trashed.

Step 8. Move to the Sleeping Porch.
Last but not least, (well, probably least), we moved everything out onto the sleeping porch. This gave us one last opportunity to downsize and sort, and gave us a sense of how much storage space the new office will really need. Now the old office, which can officially be renamed the Kid's Room, no longer feels like an office, is totally empty, and ready to be fixed up.

a much smaller pile of office supplies