Office Tidy After the Holidays
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Less Messin Minutes. I'm Jenny, your gentle guide to Tiny Doable Decluttering. Each episode we tackle one small thing together, a drawer, a shelf, a bag, and I walk you through what I'm doing in real time. No pressure, no perfection. Just a few minutes that help your home feel lighter. So grab something to tidy or just listen along and let's make a little progress together.
Okay?
My home office tends to become a dumping ground, and so today I'm gonna tackle it. Now, before I even start this project, I am gonna just scan the room and make a bit of a game plan in my, in my head for how I want to approach this. Um, so anytime I do a declutter project in a room, in a space, the first thing I'm gonna do is tackle [00:01:00] any obvious trash or recycling, things like that.
So I'm gonna do that first. Um, there's also a lot of things in this room that don't belong here. So the next thing I'm gonna do after trash is I'm gonna gather up the things that don't belong in the office and put them to the side. I may group them by the room or the area that they do belong in, or I may just put 'em in a pile I don't know yet.
and then I will be left with the things that do belong in the office, and then I'll tackle each of those. So, I'm gonna get started. So I did, I have been working on decluttering the office here and there, um, over the past couple days. So I do have a lot of the obvious trash out, but there is some recycling that I put to the side.
So I will go ahead and gather that.
[00:02:00] Okay. I did find a couple pieces of trash, so that's good.
I have a bunch of Popsicle sticks that are just like all over. Somebody was doing an art project, did you believe? And somehow the Popsicle sticks ended up in the office.
Okay. And then I do have a. stack of papers and kind of some miscellaneous things that ended up on the floor, and I bet there's some recycling in there. So I'm just gonna have a look.
Found a bit more trash.
So as I look through this small stack of papers, I want you to know that I'm not looking for things like any like reference papers or action papers. I am strictly looking for the easy things that I know that I don't need and can [00:03:00] recycle.
Okay. Have a small stack of papers that can be recycled. So that was fruitful. I'm glad I did that. And I can just add those to my recycle bin.
okay, so now it looks like I've gotten all of the obvious, uh, trash and the recycling that I've seen so far out. So I'm gonna go ahead and move on to the next step. That I created for myself, which is to take everything that doesn't belong here in this office and put it to the side so that I'm only looking at the things that belong.
Um, there's a closet in the basement that I keep a lot of my organizing supplies, extra things like that in. So I've got some things that need to go to the basement. So I think I am just gonna. Kind of break things down by where they go, because I don't think it's gonna take me that much time.
Okay. I've got a purse and I [00:04:00] keep my extra purses that I'm not using at the moment in the basement as well. So I'm gonna add that to my basement stack.
I've got some extra gift boxes for wrapping gifts that go in my gift wrap container that is currently under the couch in the living room. So that'll need to go to the basement. But for now, um, I'll make a little living room pile. I found another stack of papers that I can already tell is going to be.
Much more cumbersome and require more of my intention. So I am not going to even give that the once over. Right now, I'm just gonna make a stack of papers to go through later.
Okay. I have some cleaning products like, um, uh, like a Swiffer and then a duster type thing. Go in the living room closet, so I'll put that with living room [00:05:00] stuff.
A roll of wrapping paper that was extra.
You know how when you. Buy furniture that needs to be put together. Like if you buy something from ikea, I buy a lot of Ikea pieces, things from Target, stuff like that. And it always, you have the, all the pieces, and then sometimes there's extra pieces. I have a box, um, of just all those extra type pieces, which honestly probably someday will be a declutter project, um, for this, this podcast.
But for right now, everything lives in a clear bin. Um, in the basement, but right now that bin is up here, so I'll add that to my basement pile.
Okay. Got a few more things for the living room.
Again, just going through and looking at all the things and picking out what doesn't belong and putting [00:06:00] it in its temporary home before it goes where it really lives. Okay. Have a. Christmas gift that wasn't, that I didn't need, need to return it to Target.
So that's an action type item. I'm gonna just put that on my desk for the time being.
We were fortunate to, take a trip out west over the summer and we hit quite a few national parks on our way home, and so we bought posters from each of the parks. So I've slowly been getting them or putting them in frames, but now I have all the poster containers and then the, the posters that haven't been framed yet, so I'm gonna have to find a place for those.
Currently they're just living in a bag in the office, so I kind of just put that off to the side.
Okay. I had started a. Small, um, pile of things that I'm [00:07:00] donating and then things just got piled on top of it, so I'm kind of unearthing that stuff now.
So I'll make a new two donate pile and try to get that outta the house as soon as possible.
Ugh, I have some random remotes. I have no idea what these go to. That is so frustrating. I do have a container that has like a. Cords and extension cords and remotes. it's in the office closet right here, so I can put those away. Of course, right now I have the office closet door blocked with uh, other things that leave the room, so I'll have to wait on that for a few minutes, but that's okay 'cause it's something that stays in this room anyway.
Okay, now I have a couple of, pieces of clothing. One thing that needs to be taken to the tailor needs to be repaired, [00:08:00] and then, um, a soccer uniform. And I'm pretty sure it was supposed to be turned back in weeks ago.
So we'll try to take care of that once school is back in session from the break. so again, action items I'm gonna put with the socks. All right, and now I'm gonna start a bathroom pile 'cause I've got some things that go into the bathroom. So now I've got. A living room pile, a basement pile, and a donate pile and a bathroom pile.
Any papers that I'm coming across, I'm just adding to my paper pile.
Okay. So I think that I now have everything that doesn't belong in here. Um, I have everything kind of out of the way. In a [00:09:00] separate, like in their respective piles,
oh, here's something else that can be donated, and then something else for the living room.
Okay, and then I have two random boxes that don't belong in here. For random containers. Let's just take a look and see what we have.
One is hair stuff and it is like, uh, headbands, a shower cap, some bandanas, hair clips. but here's the thing, it is all organized by type. I mean it's all hair stuff and it has a lid. And I am simply gonna put that lid on it, add it to the base, uh, the bathroom pile, and I'm gonna take it into the bathroom.
I'm not even gonna deal with it tonight. We're [00:10:00] focused on just getting the office tidied, not worrying about, um, going through certain things that are here that don't belong in here, I should say.
Okay. And then I have this bag of like, I don't know, there's uh, two combs and a hairbrush. I don't even know whose these are. I think this is stuff I needed to ask my kids about. A random baseball, a little speaker. oh, this is the cord to my mop, my electric mop thing. That's great. I've been looking for that.
so I am going to put those things. Minus the cord back in. So the baseball, the little desk clock, and the hairbrush and combs. I'm gonna put those back in this bin and then I will ask the kids about it in the next day or so and try to get that cleaned out. now. I'm going to tackle the things [00:11:00] that are left.
So I have a couple boxes of papers and things, that I think I had in the office closet, so I'm clearly gonna need to clear out this space. So that I can get into the office closet. So I'm gonna shuffle some things around here for a second
and I'm just gonna put these boxes, they were living in the closet. Um, I'm gonna put them back for now because. My goal, I'm gonna end up going through all of this stuff, but right now my goal is just to get the office back under control. It's not to tidy every little thing or go through every, every box and see what it is.
I just want some peace in here,
some empty box.
[00:12:00] All right, since I've got the office closet open, I'll go ahead and put those remotes away.
Cords and remotes will definitely be another task. I do. Cords are difficult though for me because, um, and maybe for a lot of people, because I don't know at this point what a lot of these cords go to. I'm sure they're to old laptops that we had old gadgets. I, and I don't understand all the difference between what is A-U-S-B-C and a.
Us, I don't know, A, B, c, what, whatever they are. Um, I don't understand the differences. It's very confusing to me, came across a few more pieces of paper, so I'm just adding those to my paper pile.
I've got some other cords. Holy moly. What do these things even go to?
I have no idea. No idea. Um, but [00:13:00] I guess that I can go ahead and just put them in my cord box not knowing, and then one day we'll go through it and figure it out.
Oh, something else for the bathroom pile. It's good.
Okay, so the floor is actually looking really good. Um, I've got a couple other containers that I need to see what is in them to make sure it's stuff that actually belongs in the office.
Okay. One is a box of supplies, office supplies. And the other is a box of papers that I need to sort through. I think it's probably things that need to be filed. Again, not dealing with that tonight. So I'm just gonna put the boxes where they live and call it good.
[00:14:00] Okay. Just realized that I've got some things on my printer, uh, that I was kind of treating like a extra shelf, so I need to go through that stuff. It's mainly papers. oh, actually it's just a few pieces of paper that I need to look through, and then it's a whole thing of card stock. Um, so I need to find a home for card stack.
I don't really wanna mix it up with my regular printer paper. I'm gonna see if there's room for it in the office closet.
Actually, there is.
Perfect. Now that has a home.
Okay. And then here's where it gets a little bit difficult because. What I have left is the stuff that, um, it's not, it's not the easy stuff 'cause we did that already. So it's now the stuff that I really have to make a decision about, like, where's it gonna [00:15:00] live? What am I keeping? to make it look a little less intimidating, I'm gonna move the paper pile off to the side.
okay. I have a couple pieces of, I have like a picture frame thing that really doesn't need to be in here. A book that just needs to go on the bookcase. Um, a cord. See this is A-U-S-B-C to Mag Save thing. I guess this is a cord for my extra cord for my laptop, so I'll put that in the box.
Okay, the close and then the item that needs to be returned to target. The action items. I'm gonna put off to the side. Something else for the bathroom.
My book, I'll just add to the bookshelf the other books.
I think I just got a splinter from one of those Popsicle sticks.
Um, a thing of ink. [00:16:00] I just had to replace my ink cartridges in my printer. and I wanna take a picture of this ink before I take it for recycling so that I know what I need to rebuy or add to my cart. Maybe I'll just go ahead and add it to my cart so it's already there.
Okay. I was gonna ask my kids about these Popsicle sticks, but I don't need to. I I'm sure it's, we're fine. I'm, I'm tossing them.
Oh, um, one more thing I'm gonna take to the basement to put in the, um, the closet with the organizing supplies
and then. A box that, um, I'll use for wrapping presents next year. I'm not gonna put it in my, like the gif wrap container 'cause it's too big. It's actually a box from something that I had bought. We just use boxes, regular boxes, um, that are indecent shapes to wrap presents with. So I will put that, in the basement.
I have a cabinet that those things go [00:17:00] into.
Okay, so this for the most part is done. I've got the stuff that goes to the living room. I've got the stuff that goes to the basement. I'm gonna take a picture of the ink or put it in my cart. Either way, um, I've got the pile of paper that I still need to go through the small box of like things that have those hair brushes and the baseball that I need to ask my kids about.
Um, the little picture frame that. I dunno what I'm gonna do with that actually. Oh, you know what? I'm gonna, I might just use it in here. So we visited the USS midway while we were on our trip and it might, I was gonna put this little postcard in a frame, but maybe I'll just put it, um, on this now. It doesn't fit, it doesn't work there.
Nevermind. I don't know, but this frame thing does [00:18:00] not need to be in the office, so, I may donate it. Actually, I'm just gonna put it in my donate pile.
I may end up pulling it back out, but for now it's in the donate pile.
Okay. So really the only couple things that I need to work through still minus the paper pile. I have to figure out where this container, um, where this bag of the National Park posters is gonna live, um, until I get the rest of them framed. And then I have a backpack. I am not currently using, so that needs to go into the basement, but it's got some things in there that I'm gonna have to clean out first.
So I'll put that to the side ' cause that'll be something that I have to do. but otherwise, this room is, is in good shape now. I am so relieved it's in good shape for now. Again, this room tends to become a dumping ground, [00:19:00] but I'm gonna try my best to, really keep it tidy. It got so much worse over the holidays just because it's always a dumping ground, but with the holidays, I just threw a ton of stuff in here, so, um, so I'm glad I took this time to get this cleaned up.
and if you took some time today to declutter along with me, whether you worked, um, in your home office or in another space in your home, um, I would love to hear about it. You can always reach me at Jenny JEN [email protected].
Thanks for joining me for today's small declutter. If you enjoyed our time together, I would love for you to follow the podcast so you never miss a little momentum boost. And if you'd like to learn more about me, you can check out my website, savvy spaces organizing.com. Until next time, my friend, take a breath, take a [00:20:00] small step, and take good care of yourself.
