New Year's Organizing Revolution!

A few of my favorite blogs are hosting a New Year's Organizing Revolution challenge. Every week for the month of January, they are going to focus on a particular room or area to organize and they want us all to get involved! Once the area is organized, we'll take a photo and link up to the challenge. Then all the photos will be voted on and there are prizes for those with the most votes!

Week one was Office/Desk Area and thank goodness, because mine was in BAD shape. My desk is pretty much the biggest clutter magnet in my entire house and so it looked like this:

So yeah, my desk was in severe need of organizing. There are some things I can't change due to budget and/or space restrictions. For example, my table needs a complete sanding and refinishing and the walls need to be painted. These are projects that will happen this year, but for now I just focused on getting the clutter under control.

I moved the black shelves over to where our family calender is, which is right behind my chair and on the other side other side of the entrance to the kitchen. I moved the side table over to where it SHOULD have been this entire time, right beside the couch, which is where the black shelving unit was. This posed a slight problem of where to put the printer, since it really couldn't be moved, but by moving my computer tower on to the floor under the table (good-bye pretty pink tower), I cleared enough space on the table for the printer. 

After clearing all the clutter away, I picked up a few new organizing tools from Target to make life a little easier and here is the result!

I bought a couple canvas bins to hold miscellaneous craft supplies. I was also happy to find cute little bin clips with erasable labels, so the pink one is Momma's craft stuff and the green one is for the kids. I put the computer paper and a few of our games on the top shelf and the bottom shelf is for my greeting card file and my paper file. 

I found that lamp at Target on clearance and since I didn't own any lamps at all, I decided it was probably a good investment. I really liked it because the shade is completely plain. I have plans to paint a chevron pattern on it, but I have to think about what colors I want it to be. The base is really shiny and reflective like chrome so I want to make sure it matches since I'm not sure I want to paint the base. The vase is a decorative glass pitcher that used to be brown and white basket weave, but I spray painted it silver at Christmas to put on my mantle (those flowers are also from my Christmas mantle.) I'll probably spray paint it again in the spring to something else. The picture is of me and my husband and it's sitting on my late father's Bible, which is one of my most treasured possessions. I actually thought I'd lost it years ago, but it was returned to me recently and I'm eternally grateful that it found its way back to me.

This desk organizer is perfect for holding all my pens, phone and odds and ends. That little shelf where I have my phone is supposed to be for sticky notes, but I don't use those so this works for me! I stuck the charger for my camera in there with the calculator and a few important papers right behind. Pins and other random little things fit neatly in the drawer and pens live in the back. Behind that, I have our memory jar and my clear nail polish, since I like putting it on my nails while I'm on the internet. That weird pink thing is my broken web cam but luckily the microphone still functions on it, so I keep it around!

Finally, I added a file holder to the wall beside my desk to corral all the stray papers that I end up with. The top folder is for coupons I need to file, fliers I have to look through and my shopping list notebook. The bottom file is for important papers that either need to be dealt with or filed away.

I feel a million times better having done this. I think it looks great and it's so much easier to find what I'm looking for. 

So if you think I did a good job, you should head over to Organizing Made Fun and vote for me! Voting starts on Friday and goes till Sunday. Check out all the other links as well and get some great ideas for your office or desk area.