Office Space

I had to take a day off from work. I told you last time that my energy level is currently below normal and yet it may be more that I simply want to focus on just one thing at a time right now. Well, maybe just a few things.

I needed to find out why my computer was so darned slow. (Now I know plus I'm informed I have a CD burner that I didn't even now I had!) I needed to do some stuff for my business. And I needed to do one more important thing.

As you already know, my office has been a constant source of aggravation because I want it neat. So yesterday I completed the 2nd round of purging and now I have only what I need - want - love in there, in a pile on the floor or in a box, waiting for me to get it a permanent home. Yesterday I also had to go to the store with my partner and get the puzzles swapped out for Valentine's Day so when I finished sorting the stuff in my office, I had an hour to spare before she showed up at the store. Off I went to the nearby HomeGoods and Target to see what kind of storage solutions were out there that might fit the bill.

Qualifications?
Has to be colorful.
Has to be fun for me to handle.
Has to be roomy.
Has to NOT be too expensive so I can get more than one of something.
Has to have at least 2 of one thing available so I can have a set.

HomeGoods has a lot of great, unique stuff but either it's too basket-y or the wrong color or too floral or simply costs more than I want to pay right now. I saw one potential that zipped. But I'm not sure yet about the actual depth of the cubbies in the bookcase so I have to get that first and measure the space. Those boxes may be too big. Plus it has major blue stripes in it (though it also has the other colors I want) so I'm not sure it will work. But that zipper is very enticing. Still, it has to be love at first sight AND fit the bill. This one is love but may not fit the bill so off to Target I went.

They must have been doing inventory because there were clerks in nearly every aisle beeping and booping and, frankly, getting in my way! I still had time before I had to go to MY store so I walked up and down thinking and looking and seeing potential but not quite it. You know, there are baskets all over the place really but you have to go everywhere to see them because they are not all in one place. I have watched enough HGTV to have it ingrained in me that you don't have to use something the way it was created to be used. I checked out the storage things in the kitchen section. I headed to the kids' section and the home section, the bathroom section and the fancier home section that sits all by itself at the back of the store enticing you with its luxurious display of worldly items. Zip. Annoyed, I started to wander back to pay for the one little drawer organizer I picked up when I looked down an aisle and saw more interesting green. (Why can't this stuff just all live together?)

Indeed there was more good-looking stuff and when hope was just about gone, I spotted this:



And it had a friend! But no price. I found a nearby scanner that blissfully informed me that this sweet canvas box in the pretty green color with the equally solid top was only $10. There were two more around in a light blue - there goes that blue again - but I opted for just the two for now because I knew what could live in them and I knew they would fit on those shelves no matter what size it was.

It's amazing how such a find can make a person happy but it does. I have to remind myself every now and again that, as my grandmother would have said, I get my love of this stuff honest. After all, I did plan to be an interior designer once upon a time. I could sit in a furniture store going through decorating mags with HGTV on in the background and NEVER grow tired. My idea of heaven on earth, for sure.

I took my weighty boxes, happily forfeited the twenty bucks and went off to meet my friend at the store. I won't go into details on that right now but we left there pretty invigorated too so yesterday was a very fruitful and satisfying day overall.

Those zippy boxes are still in my head though. There IS another HomeGoods one town over from where I work. They WERE very sturdy boxes. And pretty. And zippy. It wouldn't hurt to get just one, right?