My home office before and after

Making my Home Office Back in to a Refuge

Before we had children, my home office was my refuge. It was a corner of the house that was just for me, full of beautiful stationary and perfectly organised. Over the years since the children have come along, other things seem to have crept in. Toys in the cupboard, a heated aired to dry the endless laundry and a whole bookcase of children’s picture books. Once I started running Mum2mum Market Nearly New Sales even more things have arrived in there. An urn, the 15 clothes rails I hire out, foam mats for the sale’s play area plus thousands of flyers. These are both my own and those of business who advertise at the sales so need to be stored carefully.

Storage and Sitting ComfortablyComfy chair

One of my goals for January was to turn the room back in to my refuge. It’s important that the space works for me and meet the needs of both my businesses. I tend to work on my iPad most of the time so ta ther than having a desk chair I decided to have something more comfy. I went with an IKEA chair that I used for breastfeeding.  Next I cleared out all the toys, some to other rooms, some to the loft and some to be sold at a Mum2mum Market! This meant there was much more space to store the bigger items in the cupboard rather than having them out at the time.

Focussing on my Goals

The other thing I was keen to have was a way to visually see the goals I was working towards. I looked at lots of different types of noticeboard but eventually decided to go with a plain magnetic whiteboard. It gives me the flexibility to have both annual and monthly goals written on it plus the option to attach images.

I’ve even managed to clear out all the children’s picture books and use a small bookcase to store all of my lovely business related books. This means that the living room book shelves look much tidier and the children have their books in their own rooms.

Now that my home office looks so lovely I am determined to keep it that way. I’ll have to be ever vigilant against toys and other household paraphernalia sneaking back in but hopefully that’ll be easier now that the children are a bit older.

Tidy desk