Back in August when I reviewed several of the different Christmas organizing systems that are available online, I personally chose to follow the Christmas Organizing Express plan this year. One of the things that appealed to me about it was the concept of creating a Christmas organizing center, where I could keep everything I need to do my holiday preparations.
Of course, it took me forever to settle on how and where I was going to do it. What I finally realized is that I already had a center, but never use it. My desk. Now, we're all friends, right? Good. I feel like I can share with you that my desk was beyond disorganized. It was a clutter farm. Here's the before picture.
Most of the paper clutter is made up of school papers from my oldest daughter. If you've got kids in school, can we just marvel together at the sheer amount of paper that they bring home on a weekly basis? It's astounding. And I have a hard time knowing what I should keep and what I should let go.
So, what I did was I got out a trash bag (a kitchen-sized one) and I started sorting. I started with just the surface of my desk. I did end up keeping some of it, but the majority of it went into the trash, or as we used to say during my years working at the florist, "File 13." As in, "Where should I put this?" "Just put that in File 13."
After the paper was gone, I got a good look at what was left.
See? It looks better already. If I wasn't trying to create a Christmas organizing center then I would have left this alone. But since I wanted to give it a little Christmas vibe, I knew I had to add something.
It just so happens that I bought an 11"x17" White Christmas movie poster about ten years ago. I never framed it, so it stayed in its protective cover in the closet for years. I also had an LP of my favorite Christmas album, Evening in December, that my brother gave me several years ago. I decided that I would frame them and hang them over my desk, because those are two of my favorite Christmas traditions. (As you'll see in the little sidebar on the right.)
I was fortunate that Michael's was running a frame sale-- the frames were 40% off, and I had a coupon to take an additional 25% off of that. So I bought two frames for about $10. I also went to Target and bought a seagrass bulletin board. I put a couple of scented candles on my desk-- Spiced Cider and Leaves from Bath and Body Works. And voila! My Christmas organizing center is done.
On the left is my Christmas binder, and on the right are the Christmas magazines and catalogs that I've bought. I don't have anything stuck to the bulletin board yet, but that's okay. I'm not going to stick stuff up there just for the sake of doing it. When something is board-worthy, I'll know.
(By the way, the monitor on the left is not hooked up to anything. We need to buy a new tower for it. Just in case you were wondering why I had a monitor and a laptop on my desk.)
Of course, it took me forever to settle on how and where I was going to do it. What I finally realized is that I already had a center, but never use it. My desk. Now, we're all friends, right? Good. I feel like I can share with you that my desk was beyond disorganized. It was a clutter farm. Here's the before picture.
Most of the paper clutter is made up of school papers from my oldest daughter. If you've got kids in school, can we just marvel together at the sheer amount of paper that they bring home on a weekly basis? It's astounding. And I have a hard time knowing what I should keep and what I should let go.
So, what I did was I got out a trash bag (a kitchen-sized one) and I started sorting. I started with just the surface of my desk. I did end up keeping some of it, but the majority of it went into the trash, or as we used to say during my years working at the florist, "File 13." As in, "Where should I put this?" "Just put that in File 13."
After the paper was gone, I got a good look at what was left.
See? It looks better already. If I wasn't trying to create a Christmas organizing center then I would have left this alone. But since I wanted to give it a little Christmas vibe, I knew I had to add something.
It just so happens that I bought an 11"x17" White Christmas movie poster about ten years ago. I never framed it, so it stayed in its protective cover in the closet for years. I also had an LP of my favorite Christmas album, Evening in December, that my brother gave me several years ago. I decided that I would frame them and hang them over my desk, because those are two of my favorite Christmas traditions. (As you'll see in the little sidebar on the right.)
I was fortunate that Michael's was running a frame sale-- the frames were 40% off, and I had a coupon to take an additional 25% off of that. So I bought two frames for about $10. I also went to Target and bought a seagrass bulletin board. I put a couple of scented candles on my desk-- Spiced Cider and Leaves from Bath and Body Works. And voila! My Christmas organizing center is done.
On the left is my Christmas binder, and on the right are the Christmas magazines and catalogs that I've bought. I don't have anything stuck to the bulletin board yet, but that's okay. I'm not going to stick stuff up there just for the sake of doing it. When something is board-worthy, I'll know.
(By the way, the monitor on the left is not hooked up to anything. We need to buy a new tower for it. Just in case you were wondering why I had a monitor and a laptop on my desk.)
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