Shelving by The Container Store & Elfa

I spent part of the day at The Container Store making yet another blueprint of the shelves I am buying for my office and making the big purchase. It's going to look something like what you see above with the shelves a little wider and with my own desk at the base.

After mulling this over in my head for several weeks, here's what I came to realize. I should make it exactly what I need, not just go halfway or so basic that I'm not pleased with it. I ended up changing my plan, for the third time, significantly to allow the printer to sit on an extended shelf, below the left side of my desk. This means the printer will out of sight from the entrance to the room but still very accessible to me sitting at my desk. Love that! This means I had to move my desk about 20 inches farther from the wall, which was not my original desire. But it really works. Later on I will probably add a little drawer under the printer for recycling or paper storage.

With excellent guidance from The Man and Will (awesome Elfa designer at Container Store Westfield CC) I choose to make the shelves a little wider to accommodate more stuff. I also decided that it was time to retire the 20" deep 13" screen TV/VCR from 1998 and get a 3/4" deep one at a steal of a deal. That allows me to lose an entire piece of furniture from my floorspace that the old TV/VCR sat on. The new TV will fit onto one of the shelves easily with the DVD and DTV box. We also created a magazine storage shelf, a shelf for bigger books and thought through everything I needed from the space. The best part is that it's easy to install and I can easily take it with me if I move.

We ended up with something vastly different that I had originally imagined, but so much more personalized. I learned a good lesson today about doing my homework and doing something right the first time. How often we try to go cheap with a project and in the end spend much more than if we'd just done it right the first time. Or we're just unhappy with it from the start or six months later throw it out for something else. I'm trying to be a little smarter, do things right the first time so life is a little simpler, and spend my money more wisely by making smart, sometimes more expensive, longer-lasting investments.

Being more organized is definitely going to help me be more productive too. Since my home workspace is my office, I spend a lot of time there and it will be wonderful to have it feel like me and at the same time be organized, stylish, and peaceful. Once I get these shelves up (tomorrow?) and get my computer back from the computer hospital (soon? pretty please) I will really be in business. I took great before photos of the emtpy workspace a few weeks ago and I'll show you the whole project soon. Happy Tuesday!

photo from The Container Store