I spend quite a few hours a week in our little home office. And it was looking quite chaotic the past few weeks as I turned a blind eye in order to finish projects. It felt refreshing to declutter the boys’ room and desk space that I decided to do the same in here. In fact, I think I’m now going to go through every room in our house, one by one, and rethink them.

Questions I’m asking myself:

• How does this space make me feel? (happy and calm or chaotic and disorganized?)
• What do I love most about this space?
• What pieces do we not use or love?
• How could it be more functional?
• What things can be removed?

Here are some blurry before photos. You can tell I was in a hurry because my camera settings were wrong! I’m still confident you can see how cluttered the space was though — furniture I moved to make room for Christmas trees, LEGO my son wants to sell on eBay, soccer gear …

This space obviously made me feel disorganized and unmotivated to do my best work. I still loved the desks side by side and ocean photos with lights above. The obvious piece that was not working was this large wardrobe that was made more for hanging clothes than shelving items and had a broken door.

Of course one space always leads to another. I liked the idea of the books in the reading nook, but truthfully the books were usually in disarray and sometimes the all the colors are distracting. I use a lot of these books for my faith posts too. So it would be handy to have them here.

You can watch the YouTube video to see how I got this done even though we had eye doctor appointments, soccer tournaments and Sunday school!

I took everything out of the room except our desks and a set of drawers. Everything! It really helped to visualize would could be instead of continuing in the mindset: “Well, we can make this work.” I really believe we should LOVE our spaces and enjoy being in them, not just “deal” with them. It doesn’t have to be expensive. A lot of times it’s just eliminating things!

With each piece, I asked if I would buy it again? Does it belong in this happy space. And most things were a no. I ripped apart the wardrobe and took it to the curb. As well as the well-worn (read: gross) rug. Boxes and LEGO and tables needed a new home too. In fact, I’m taking a nice load of home decor to donation this week. We just need less to live simply.

As soon as I put the Ikea bookshelves against this wall I knew I’d love it! All of our books fit here in one place. I dusted and cleaned everything, then put the books back according to category. Well, there are really only four categories for us: theology (me), wine and food (Marcello) and kids books.

I chose to display these treasured vintage books from my grandparents.

These Micke desks from Ikea have been with us for a decade now! The minimal design works with every style. The chairs are also from Ikea, but I’m thinking of updating those soon to something more ergonomical.

This is not the most beautiful corner of our house, but because all the elements (printer, file cabinet, dresser and robot vacuum) are white, I think it’s ok. I’m not a big fan of lots of small pieces of furniture because it can look cluttered, but this is the solution right now!

And the art is a simple DIY project: I just rolled black paint onto canvas!

I never know whether to leave lights on or off for photos, but this room only has one window, so I love having lots of lighting options that give a cozy glow.

And finally, I still love this sea and sky mural from Amazon. It’s peel and stick and acts as a giant piece of calming art.

That’s all for this room. Now the reading nook is missing it’s rug and shelves, so I’ll have to work on that empty space when the tree comes down! I’m thinking faux fireplace …

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