Originally published October 29, 2015
Ever start nesting out of the blue? You know what I’m talking about. There’s nothing actually wrong with your surroundings, and you feel a compulsion to change it anyway? I’ve been wrestling with a few interior design and decorating ideas since moving into my current home three years ago. Last year, I enlisted the services of an interior design enthusiast, and finally, this year started moving on some initiatives around my home offices. Here’s how three forces – two of nature, one of technology – helped inspire the changes I’ve made at long last.
First, there is my interior designer/decorator extraordinaire friend. She visited my space a year ago and asked me very pointed and thought-provoking questions I hadn’t considered before seeking her out. My thoughts raced for days after that visit, and then life happened. She has since gotten her own apartment, and the style and creative vision I accused her of having is evident in what she’s done with it so far. She visited my offices a second time earlier this year, and I met with her on her turf earlier this month. Our conversations always result in me examining what I can do next with different areas of my home.
Next, there were a few simple words from another friend who, also earlier this year and around the same time as the interior guru, moved from a house into an apartment. In the process, she shed a lot of dead weight that wouldn’t fit into her much smaller quarters, and I wound up with a dining room set and (yet another) L-shape workcenter that changed the way I live at home. No exaggeration. One piece of clumsy furniture. Life changing. She has also seen my place and often comments with suggestions. Most recently, she suggested creating more spaces that are different from one another. She meant fewer home office spaces.
Finally, an idea popped into my head Monday or Tuesday night: what if I took the L-workcenter from my second floor middle room – my strictly business office – and butted it against the new one in my den, creating a megadesk to end all megadesks? Could it be done in the already tight half-basement that was already serving multiple purposes in a limited space? That’s the question that was hemming me up when I happened upon the HGTV show “Small Space, Big Style” on Netflix. I watched the first few episodes on Tuesday night. Question answered and inspiration provided.
By Wednesday night, I must have seen too much because my energy topped out. I was brimming with it. I took apart the desk and moved it in sections to the basement. (The surfaces were too wide to go down the narrow basement steps, even on an angle, so I walked them outside, around to the basement door, and into the basement that way.) And here’s where my interior guru yells at me for doing all this without any help.
Once the second desk was set up and three other surfaces (read: tables) were rearranged for maximum use, safety, and comfort, I retired to bed, only to toss and turn all night. Sleep escaped me, and it wasn’t stress. It was pure adrenaline. After a tiring day at work on Thursday, I plotted to move all the filing cabinets from the former-office-now-potential-walk-in-closet to the basement closet. So last night I went to work reorganizing the basement closet and creating significant space that I wanted in there anyway. Turned out the cabinets wouldn’t all fit down there – because of another sleepless night, I tried by moving one down there instead of measuring first, as a sensible person might do – so none of them get to go there. And they’ll be fine where they are for now. Plus, the basement closet has more usable space now.
A tough lesson I’m learning, as each phase of my home and home office transformation takes shape, is to find some balance between high, creative energy and patience to focus on one area at a time. Unfortunately, at least one of my sources of inspiration stimulates the energy while preaching patience. Who or what inspires your compulsions to change your environment? Share in comments below.