I’ll open this post with a couple of questions —
if you live in a multi-floor house, is your office area downstairs or upstairs?
and where do you spend the majority of your day (upstairs/downstairs)?
I love having a laptop, and I use it all day long – but I don’t use it for uploading/editing photos or paying bills or keeping up with our business stuff. All of that is upstairs in our office on my desktop. It’s easier to do it all in one place, because my filing cabinet/printer/etc is right there.
mine is the desk on the right
It’s in a big, huge room, which is AWESOME, but it’s at the back of our upstairs, and I just can’t feasibly go in there while Emma’s awake. I guess I could set her up some toys, but she likes to have space to run around and drag things, and there’s just not room for that up there right now.
Trust me, I’ve tried to let her play in there, but I just don’t have the time to kid-proof that room — and it’s impossible to get anything done when she’s in there.
Also, I’d have to go downstairs every time she wanted a snack or drink.
The thing is, I have pretty much 2 hours a day to do all of my deskwork, because the only time I have alone is when Emma naps.
I’ve also lost bills and important paperwork because it’ll come in our mail, I’ll put it in a pile to take upstairs, but then it never makes it upstairs. Or a bill doesn’t get paid in time because it’s stuck in the middle of a huge pile of things to take upstairs.
Also, my calendar program is on my desktop — I can’t move it to my laptop because I had to pay for it, and it’s too CPU-intensive for my netbook.
Honestly, I’ve tried several different ways of keeping everything straight, but nothing seems to work. Every month, I’m running around like a madman trying to get the bills paid in time, keep up with my calendar, etc.
So I was thinking about moving MY desk/office downstairs. I really don’t know how feasible this is, but I think it could work. My “job” is to be a mom while also keeping our house in shape, and since I do the mom thing downstairs, it would only make sense to have the housekeeping stuff downstairs as well, so I can do it all at once.
I know those of you who know me are thinking, “Oh, you’re just bored and want to move things around.” But it’s not that. I am just NOT getting things done.
Even if I do get to go upstairs to upload/edit pictures while she naps, I have to run downstairs to switch out the laundry, clean up the kitchen, get a drink, etc. It’s constantly up and down when I could just be downstairs doing it all.
Obviously, Ken is going to be highly annoyed at me for moving things around yet once again. I do this a lot. I’ve moved my sewing stuff around at least 5 times. I move Emma’s stuff around at least once a month. It drives him CRAZY. And I know that I normally do it because I’m bored or OCD about moving things around.
But I really think this could be a good move for me.
The problem we have is space. It definitely will not fit into our living room — E and I spend all day in here, and there just isn’t room for a desk/computer/filing cabinet in here.
Plus, my desk is huge. I guess I could move the smaller brown one down here, but I LOVE my desk.
Anyway, I’m thinking that it would probably go in the front room.
I could Craigslist the green sofa. I’ve had it ever since I lived on my own, and it doesn’t get used at all — except by the dogs. I’ve hesitated getting rid of it, because it’s going to be a huge pain to clean the dog hair off/out of it. But I could. AND that would be a little extra cash.
So then I’d probably move the piano that’s in front of the window over to where the sofa is and then put the desk in front of the window so I could look out over the neighborhood. Then, I could be the woman that everyone calls to find out what’s going on while they’re at work!! Just kidding.
I just don’t want to get everything downstairs and then decide that I would like it better upstairs.
I welcome your thoughts and opinions!
edited to add: I know we have, like, two rooms in our whole house painted, but that’s going to hopefully be one of our summer projects when Ken’s not teaching.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you’d probably enjoy having your desk/computer downstairs (and probably be more productive) where you spend the majority of your time but if it’s a pain to move everything then you might want to try something like a basket/bin to keep your stuff (bills, paperwork). This basket can be used to stash the things you need to take upstairs so they don’t get lost. Good luck!
kh says: I tried that but then kept forgetting to take the basket upstairs. See, if I’m going upstairs, I either have Emma or laundry in my arms. Or I’m on a mission and I forget to grab the bills/paperwork on my way up. And there’s really no room to put a “mail center” at the bottom of the stairs because Emma’s play kitchen is there. I think I’ve convinced Ken to go ahead and help me move. I hope it works!!
Make the move!
It would be easier to have everything on the floor you are on the most. We have a ranch style home and I love it. I only wish we had a basement.
kh says: My husband doesn’t like you anymore. ;)
I’ve got it…………. move in a double wide like us- and then everything’s pretty much all in one place. I can go from my desk to my bed in one swoop. (:
Bills paid- time to crash. Whoop- there I am!! (:
Love you sis! You know I gotta’ mess w/ ya’! In all seriousness- I have a set program for bills. When the mail comes- dump the junk- put the rest on my desk. Then every Monday night- I go through it- sort it- pay what’s due w/ my online banking (swwwwwweeeeet)- and file the rest to be paid next week. Then I file the paid stubs etc… in the filing cabinet which is in our “dining room”- although we never eat in there. (: I think wherever you put your desk— a firm plan in place is the most important. Get something- stick with it- and don’t waiver. I know that’s hard to do– but it works. As Emma gets older and more self-sufficient- it gets a little easier, too.
kh says: I agree, Chad. I think that if I can just get a system in place where I don’t have everything in 2 places, then it’ll help me get more organized. So when you gonna come up and help us move all this stuff? ;)
Right away when I started ready you blog- my first thought was the sitting room. – it would be perfect – then have a little sitting chillaxing area upstairs!
kh says: I can’t believe you just said chillaxing! :)
We *never* use our office. It’s totally wasted space. It just doesn’t work for our lifestyle to have a separate room for all that stuff. We’re actually going to do a bunch of changes as we get the house painted over the next few months. So I’ll be following your lead!
kh says: I can’t wait to see what all you guys do!!