Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Perfection? Hardly!

When I enter someone's home or office for the first time, there's usually a slightly awkward period where they are apologizing for the mess, etc. I mean, a professional organizer must live in a Fortress of Tidyness, right? Hardly! It's not about perfection, people. It's about doing the best you can.

So, to illustrate my point, I thought I would share the reality of my home office. I share the space with my husband (we'll call him The Book Baron, or BB for short.) We in fact share a great T-shaped desk that was concepted by BB and put together with help from my very handy father. BB is a highly intelligent, creative individual. And I'm sure you can guess, I'm quite the opposite. Measured, anal, and a bit uptight. That leads to very different ideal workspaces.



BB's side of the office on a "good" day - complete with an extra/unused pair of computer speakers, his slippers, mail on the floor, and his jar of Flintstone's vitamins.


My side of the office...Real Simples all happily tucked in. Hey...who left that glass there?

The truth is, we've done our best to co-exist in our space and remain sensitive to each others' organizational preferences. I try to offer up gentle suggestions and bins from Staples, and BB tries to keep his piles contained to his side of the office. I figure as long as I don't become overbearing and chase him with the shredder and label maker, and he doesn't put any critical bills under a stack of expired coupons from Bob's Stores, then we're going to make it. Though I can turn around a client's messy office in a heartbeat, it's always tougher when you are working with your own spouse.

But when it gets too overwhelming, I retreat to the sanctuary of my delightful magnetic spice rack, metal containers all labeled and in a row on the fridge:



Sometimes a little perfection goes a long way.


******
Update: 9:30 pm
The BB loads his dirty glass into the dishwasher. I guess passive-aggressive blogging pays off.


3 comments:

Mary said...

Welcome to blogger-land! It's comforting to know that even a professional organizer has challenges in their office.

Anonymous said...

I can totally relate to your office dilemma. My spouse and I share a space, too, and have very different organizational styles. I love the T desk solution. Perhaps if we had a larger room, we could implement that. For now, we have one desk and lots of individual piles....

Michelle said...

Nice work Wendy! I'll definitely be checking it out frequently.