Museum Quality Office

March 12, 2015 — art, disorder, museum quality, office, organizing

I know why I love museums. They contain great art and beauty not for sale. Taking in an exhibition is different from going to a gallery opening with a possibility of purchasing something to take home.  Botanical gardens and flower conservatories are even more attractive because they are maintained in ways I could never do at home.  The extravagance of collections on display to the public makes me very happy.  I never mind paying a fee to tour a museum because I know the expense for the establishment goes far beyond what they can collect at the door.  Volunteers, donors, patrons and members keep the bills paid and the events continuing.  Plans are made years in advance to show collections and feature artists at special opening galas.  What does this have to do with my regular life at home?

In December I cleared out my bedroom, giving my closet an extreme make over.  I jettisoned mass quantities of clothing to make my surroundings both pleasant and well-organized. This purge of possessions has proven to be very satisfying and easy to maintain.  I am not tempted to over fill my space with objects or delay dusting.  I feel great about my five star hotel style bedroom.  We bought a new bed, new covers and pillows which add to the comfort.  I am sure I don’t miss all the clothes I gave away, and am still loaded with wardrobe items for all occaisions.

I have turned my attention to my office now.  I started to look for something recently and found many useless things stuffed into my office closet.  I began to eliminate, file, move, and generally tidy up my work space finding art, art supplies, sewing, fabric, patterns, and all manner of buttons, remnants and sequin trim.  I also have stored both framed and unfinished art I have created by stuffing it into spaces on the bookshelf.  The place is a mess, but it will not require as much work to reform as my clothing did.  I finished my taxes today and feel I need to do this organizing task. I don’t honestly need to keep papers all over my desk while I organize taxes, but I seem to do that each year.  Now there is no excuse.  Next week I will have a clearly organized office that reflects my highly organized life.  I believe that the space can create more order or more disorder all by itself.  If I have a tiny pile of mail it becomes a big pile just because there is a place to stick envelopes I don’t want to open at the moment.  I will turn this tide of unruly ownership of items into a fabulous collection of art and art supplies that would thrill any muse.  I want to be able to find, use, then easily store everything in its place, just as Maria Montessori wants me to do.  It would have been too shocking to show before and after shots of my clothes, but I am showing you the disgraceful state of my belongings now.  I will impress you next week with the spanking new space.  I am acting in time before they find me and put my office closet on one of those hoarder shows.  Wish me luck on my new museum quality office.

closet in question

closet in question