Local Author Pens Book of Practical Baby Feeding Tips

The reporter came to the house a few weeks ago to interview me about the book.  It was the first time I’ve ever done an interview like that, but she was great so I felt really relaxed through the whole thing.  She also complimented me on how well-spoken I was, which of course made me feel good!  I guess after years of writing online I’ve gotten pretty good at expressing myself, though I still feel like I bumble along and make mistakes.

Anyways, scans of the article below.  I’m thrilled!

Oh!  Go ahead and Get Your Copy of First Bites and Beyond

Well, perfection may not happen – but you can be a productive, efficient and happy work at home mom, or WAHM. In fact, this website is dedicated to helping you get there. But why would you want to work from home?

Most of us look for a home based business for moms because we want to be home with our children. Face it, the picture the world paints of the confident career woman with vibrant, intelligent kids in the best daycares and private schools doesn’t often happen. More often than not it’s a frazzled, overworked mom trying to balance home, career, and kids.

Being a WAHM is not all roses, of course, and you’ll meet plenty of challenges on your way to the goal of a prosperous business, but you can create a life that works for you and your family rather than one that revolves around a job you rush in to do for somebody else.

What are some opportunities for moms to work at home?

You probably know many of the standard jobs – opportunities to do catalog sales or party plans, medical transcription, freelancing, and other jobs moms have traditionally held.

These jobs are all OK. They can be a great opportunity for you to get out of the “work force” and into an opportunity you’re building for yourself.

But they still have a major flaw – they require you to be there, and on someone else’s clock. You have to be ready to make deliveries and schedule parties when somebody else says they need you. You’re at the mercy of the doctors or offices that need transcription services now. And freelancers and wahm web designers often have deadlines established by clients. You’re not free to use your time as you see fit. You still have to fit your life around your work.

What’s the Solution for WAHM Mums?

There’s a lot that goes into success in a mom’s home businss – but I think the most important factor of success is choosing the right opportunity. And the right opportunity is choosing a business you can build that will work without you.

I’ve been a WAHM for five years now, and I have found that this mindset – creating a business that works without you is not an easy one to grasp. We tend to feel that we’re pretty important people!

But think about it – you want the freedom to be with your children, to care for your home, and enjoy adventures with your family. You don’t want to be chained to the desk – not even the desk in your home office.

Even if you own your own business, if you’re stuck at your desk day after day you own a job… not a business. Moms need a business – something that brings in money for them without a lot of work on their part. You need to be managing your business, not working in it.

I really enjoy design. I like to design the graphics for my web pages, so I often do. But I realize that if it would give me more time with my kids, it would be best for me to have somebody else produce the graphics.

The Best Way for Moms to Work From Home

The best way for moms to work from home is building a web-based business. There are other ways – I know of effecient call centers and other businesses that only require a couple of weeks from their owners. But a web-based business is an easy way for a WAHM to “jump in” to the business world.

You can build your website yourself at first, then put systems in place that will keep your website moving up and into the world on its own steam. It will make money while you sleep, while you take your kids to the beach, or while you take them to visit another country!

The web is 24/7 – and it keeps trucking while you live your life (away from the computer).

Check out the free WAHM Masters Course to get more detailed information on how and why the web works for moms:

1. Your Mind Does Reflect Your Environment

You’ve probably heard the saying that a clean desk reflects a clean mind. And you’ve probably heard most people say that’s ridiculous. They claim it doesn’t matter how cluttered their desk or their home is – they can still function just fine. What most people don’t realize is just how much better they would function if they didn’t have all the clutter!

So the first tip for getting organized is really just how much smoothly life will run once you are organized. Organizing your home, your desk, and your work will spill over into all facets of your life.

2. Learn to say NO

You can’t do everything. Don’t even try. You can’t be everything to everybody all the time. You will never get control of your home or your life if you’re trying to balance everything.

One of my biggest problems is trying to be there for my children 24/7. I feel like being a work-at-home mom obligates me to being “right there” for everything they need. The reality is, I do my kids no favors by letting them interrupt me constantly. My projects pile up, started but never finished. My temper gets shorter, and shorter, and shorter. My kids get more and more selfish. It doesn’t work.

Learn to say “no” to things you really don’t have time for – and then you’ll have time for what matters. Learn to reserve blocks of time when they’re really needed. Teach your kids that you’re going to take 20 minutes of uninterrupted time to sort files. Or you’re going to take 60 minutes to write. Set a kitchen timer so they can see the minutes counting down.

Take time to be with your family, too – just for them. Don’t think about work. Just enjoy those hours that belong to the family.

3. Work in Bite-Sized Chunks

I am a huge fan of bite-sized organizing because it really works. Are you overwhelmed with your file cabinet? I know that I was overwhelmed with mine. How about that room that’s just been collecting junk for a few years?

Set a timer – 15 minutes is a good start. 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 45 minutes. Set it for whatever you think you can stand. Then do the work. Get in an work until the timer goes off. If you keep this up for a week or so you’ll be amazed at just how much you’re able to get done. It’s like magic!

4. Stop Assigning Emotional Value to Things

OK – I’ll admit that I have a few stuffed animals sitting beside my bed that I assign emotional value to. And yes, I still have my baby blanket tucked among my things. But assigning emotional value to everything just gets you in trouble.

If you have things around the house that you just don’t need just get rid of them! You can take pictures of some things (those hideous dishes Aunt Hilda gave you – you’d never use them but she was such a dear, sweet woman!) – take a picture, put it in an album, and let go of the clutter.

5. Be Ruthless

My husband and I differ on clutter control policies. He would rather keep things around “just in case” they’re needed one day. I would rather make room in my home to, well, walk…

I’ve had a policy of being pretty ruthless with clutter for the past several years. So far I can think of one thing I gave away that I later wished I hadn’t. ONE thing (a pan for my kitchen – which I replaced with a much nicer model :p)

If you’re not using it, don’t keep it. If you think you may use it in the next six months, store it away in a labeled box. If it hasn’t been retrieved by the date on the box, give it away.

6. Have a Collections Department

If you’re organizing your entire house (or even just one room) you should have place that can serve as “collections.” Take everything that does not belong in the room you’re cleaning and put it in the collections location.

After you finish every other room in your house, go back and start processing the collections room – move things to where they belong, trash them, or finally have the courage to give them away.

7. An Ounce of Prevention

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Go through your mail when you get it. Immediately throw away junk mail. Have a time set aside every day or every week when you go through the rest of your paperwork. An “in basket” somewhere in your house is great for this. Just grab the basket and go through it – file things that need to be filed, or take action on those things that require you something from you.

I used to be able to go through my in basket once a week. Now, however, my business is really taking off and a lot more paperwork is coming in. So I’m making time to quickly go through things in the evening – before they get overwhelming.

If you have other items (hobby equipment, winter gear, etc.) that tends to pile up make it a policy to “do it now” – in other words, put it away. Right away!

8. How Long?

Look up the regulations and recommendations given by your government, accounting, legal, and tax professionals to determine how long you should keep certain documents. If you need to keep documents long term, but don’t use them regularly, package them neatly in “banker’s boxes” and store then in the attic or the basement.

Making a date to purge your files regularly will keep things manageable. It will also keep you from putting off filing papers because you can’t fit anything else in

9. Think “Where Will I Use This?”

You can’t always do this – but it’s ideal to store something where you use it. If you use your scrapbooking supplies on the kitchen table try to find a cabinet or closet near the table to store your supplies. This makes it easier to get to them, and it makes it a lot easier to put away.

10. Just Do It!

It takes some time to get organized. You need to weed out things you don’t actually use – ruthlessly! It takes work to develop the habit of keeping your workplace and home neat. But once you do these things, life will go much more smoothly. You’ll find what you need, when you need it. You won’t face piles of “stuff” everywhere. And you’ll be able to truly enjoy your space.

The organization you do at your desk, in your office, and at home spills over into the rest of your life, making you feel more efficient, productive, and at peace.

Choosing a Topic

Nobody wants a website that’s set for failure before it even begins. That’s why choosing a topic is crucial for your site. If you’re hoping to create a hobby page that you don’t really care if you make money off of or not, go ahead and build it around whatever strikes your fancy. But you need to put a little more planning into your topic for a profitable site.

Using the right tools is key. You’ll find out if there’s a good demand for your idea, and yes, if there’s a healthy competition. Competition is a good thing – it means that there’s a market for your idea, and that means income for you. Good tools will give you the chance to survey demand, competition, and income possibilities for your topic.

Choose a Host

I know I just said the technical can wait, but I’d be cheating you out of important information if I didn’t tell you how to choose a host. The “web hosting company” you choose is important. They provide the physical computer space where your website will live. There are lots and lots of options out there, some of which are very inexpensive. Be careful though, the saying “you get what you pay for” is just as true in the online business world as it is in the offline world.

Look for a host that offers not just rock-solid servers to keep your website running 24/7, but good customer support and plenty of other features to help your site stand out from the competition.

Buy a Domain Name

You’ve chosen your topic and selected your host, so now you need to spend some time brainstorming so you can buy a domain name. Some of the best hosts offer your domain registration free as part of your hosting package.

The domain name is important – it’s the name you see in the address bar of your web browser. It essentially becomes your websites “brand name” and it should be considered carefully.

Creating Content

Like I said above, the content of your site is your site’s main asset and most important factor. Good content is what will attract all your customers – the search engines, your visitors, and even advertisers.

It’s important to create high-quality, targeted content. As you build your site you’ll learn to make content that’s focused not just on your site’s topic, but on the exact terms and phrases that people are searching for online. This creates an interesting, informative site your visitors are likely to stay on and trust. Visitor trust is an essential factor in your bank account’s bottom line.

Blogging

A powerful way to add content to your site is by blogging, but it’s not the only way you should create content. A well-rounded, complete website with a blog supporting it is your best bet. The main content of your site provides the “basics” of your topic for your visitors, while you blog keeps them up-to-date with the industry or hobby, gives you a platform for personal opinions, or just offers a place for you to put those subjects you feel are related to your site but you can’t fit anywhere else.

Traffic

Traffic is extremely important to your site. After all, your site isn’t doing much if there are no visitors coming to read your content, click on your ads, and follow your product recommendations. You could say that traffic is the lifeblood of your site.

You don’t want just any traffic, though. You want targeted traffic – visitors who are looking for your content and your solutions (ads you have on your site, products you recommend, etc.) Getting traffic is not hard but it does some strategy and a little work

Making Money

Everyone always wants to know about the money – and I’ve already hinted at it above. You need to have high quality content that visitors find valuable and that builds their trust. Then you can “presell” them – which is how you go about making money. You build strong content, get good targeted traffic, then they trust you and click your ads or a link to go buy a product you’ve recommended (and you make a commission). The money will flow naturally from your site – if you follow the right blueprint.

Adsense

Making money with Adsense is a hot topic, too. There are many different models you can follow for an Adsense site, but I recommend you stick with a high-quality content site. Adsense fits into it like a glove. You create good information for your visitors, and Google places relevant ads on your page. Then your visitors click through and you keep a portion of the ad costs!

It should not be hard to set goals. It does require thought and effort, but it’s not hard. You may need to set aside several hours or even a whole day to think about things and start solidifying some goals.

Start when you have some time to think. It’s good to begin by thinking about where you are in your life. This isn’t really the time to think about your regrets and mistakes – or where you could have been if you hadn’t made those mistakes. This is the time to think just about where you are now. It’s a time to “take stock of the situation.”

Now that you’ve considered your situation, think about how you’d like to change that. Where would you like to be in your life next year? How about five years from now? What about ten years from now? Just brainstorm some things you’d like to have. What kind of money do you want to be making? What kind of job do you want? Would you like to travel somewhere in that time? What is your home or family like?

Just write several of your goals down now. It’s good to include some short term ones and some long term ones. You can include concrete goals like “I want to live in a four bedroom home in my favorite neighborhood.” You may also want to include some like “I am a happy person” which are not quite so concrete.

Now pick out a few goals that you really want to focus on. If you’re unsure about things you can just start with a few. Do pick some that are more short term along with a long term one or two.

It’s time to plan out your goals. Look at your goal and “work backwards.” Think about what will need to happen for you to achieve that goal. I recommend you think about three months, or ninety days in the future. Where do you need to be, three months from now, to be on-target for that goal?

What knowledge will you need to have? What steps will you need to have taken? Write these things down under your goal. Now think about what it will take to get to that point? Make a list of actionable steps. “Actionable” means it’s something you can actually do that will get you one step closer to your goal.

It’s OK if these steps are “easy” in the beginning. They may involve simple research. For instance, if you want to own a four bedroom home within the next two years, you may start your goal planning by listing “research how mortgages work” as an action step.

This “information gathering stage” is often a first step for goals, and it’s a good thing to start with. It gives you a pretty easy way to cross something off your list as “accomplished” and know that you’re making real progress.

There will be steps beyond research, however. You may know what they are right away. Sometimes you’ll need to do your research and knowledge gathering before you know what you need to do next. That’s OK too. Just come back to your goal sheet when you’ve finished your research.

Reviewing your goals every four weeks or so is a good idea. Breaking them into 4-week chunks of action steps makes it easy to accomplish your steps and stick with your goal. It also allows you to modify your plan as you work through it and learn things you didn’t know about before.

Sit down and think about your goals, then develop your action steps. These steps will be the plan that takes you from where you are now to where you’d like to be – one leap forward at a time.

I’ll admit that one of my biggest pet peeves is people implying that you somehow need to put your own life on hold when you have kids.

Don’t get me wrong – things are going to change. If you’ve been out on the town every night and you have a child, chances are that’s going to change. There will be, and should be, differences in your life.

But the idea that you somehow stop growing and developing as a person while you’re parenting is dead wrong. Personal development “gurus” make it sound like you need to spend intense times focused only on your own growth to become a better person.

I’ve often heard “I give some time to my family, some time to my work, and I always get time for myself.” They say things like “I need a weekend retreat” or “I require an several hours a week to myself” or “I need to spend time intensively focused on my own development.”

The implication is that all of those “special times” take place away from the kids – away from your responsibilities for and with your family.

Let me just say “get real.” That just doesn’t happen for moms. If it does, it often ends up being a more hollow experience than you thought. You get stressed because you need that “me time.” If you don’t get it you’re, you’re not a nice person because you’re so stressed out about not getting a break, or not having time to yourself. You get irritated, grumpy, maybe even angry – which is exactly what you don’t want.

Personal development gurus may have the luxury of a wife or nanny to take care of their kids while they’re off discovering who they are and how they can become better for the kids they’ve left behind. But chances are, you don’t have that luxury.

Guess what? You’re the lucky one. That’s right. You, plain old Mom (or Dad) have the upper hand.

Why? It’s because you’re growing while you’re living life. The reason you want to become a better person is to make your life better, and most likely, to make yourself a better person for your children.

We want our children to look at us and see somebody worth modeling. We want them to see us feeling confident, happy, even joyful. We want them to see us work through problems calmly and decisively.

What we don’t want is to make them think they need to run away to solve a problem – or that they need to spend sulky, moody introspective time to grow as people. Even if you don’t need to be moody or introspective during your “away time,” it’s much better to show children that personal growth can happen in the midst of family life.

I think there’s a big myth out there – a myth that we need to “get away” and that if you don’t get away, there’s something unhealthy going on. Most women are told that they’re being unhealthy if they don’t desire to be away from their small children. I know that even my own parents have told me that they worry that I never “get a break” because I’m not away from my kids very often.

I disagree – my kids do have an early bedtime, which I think benefits them and me. It keeps them rested and energetic (maybe that’s not a good thing ;p) – and it gives me “kid free” time every night. But I don’t need to shuffle my kids off to school or daycare to have some time alone. Do I sometimes wish I could shuffle them off and have some peace? I sure do. But do I really need that? No.

So what’s the bottom line? The bottom line is you can grow and develop as a person during the course of your real life – while you’re really busy with your kids and family. In fact, they give you infinite amounts of practice at being just the kind of person you want to be.

There will be times when you want some quiet moments to think about how you’re doing, to develop goals, or just to enjoy some quiet. You want to be able to read some books and have time for writing. All of that is natural, and you will find time to do all of that. Many moms find that getting up earlier than the kids works really well – they have still, quiet time in the morning before the thunder of little feet begins.

But on the whole, you can rest assured that you’ll be growing, learning, and rebuilding yourself into the person you want to be while you’re raising your kids.

You don’t need a vacation from life to create a better life. Decide who you want to be and start living as that person right now, today, with kids in tow.

What happened? I promise I didn’t just totally slack off. In fact, I worked really, really hard. Two major things happened…

First, I realized I’d “bitten off way more than I could chew.” Trying to write all those articles for my sites and for article marketing was just too much on top of everything else.

Secondly, I finished my first major information product and got it launched – a book about feeding babies. You can check that out here: First Bites and Beyond.

So I completely bombed my 30 day challenge. But like all failures, it wasn’t really a total fail. In fact, it was an excellent experience and I learned so much from it. I just came off of a big product release and working really, really hard almost around the clock. And guess what…

…I’m raring to go for more!

Bring it On

That’s right, I’m excited! My launch went pretty well – many lessons and income coming in (always a good thing).

But one thing I have learning big, big, big time is that systems work. That’s right – having a system for doing tasks in my business makes that task so much easier. So my next goal is to really work out several systems for streamlining the tasks I need to do in my business.

I haven’t really set another “30 day challenge” but I have set several goals ranging from 30-90 days and they incorporate my challenge.

To begin with I’m going to be setting up some basic systems for creating content, writing articles, dealing with social media, managing business money, etc. Then I’ll dive into those systems and tweak them to get them working for me. I’ll continue to use the systems I’ve already put in place (for product creation, launching products, and keeping my family fed and house clean!).

I also plan to get quite a few distribution articles ready to go out. So right now I’m working on building the systems that will carry me (hopefully fairly smoothly) to my goals. I’m tired but excited. I’ve grown so much and there’s so much left to grow. Summer is a great time because I have more time to devote to my business before getting back to the day-to-day homeschooling with the kids. So I’m excited to get the systems developed now… “the plan” in place… and really take off going smoothly through the rest of the year.

Napoleon Hill said something along the lines of “every failure is the seed of an equivalent or greater success.” Mr. Hill had it right – because I’ve already started growing big things

It’s good to know that no matter how much I think “I have it all together” or how much I think I’ve got it all planned out, something is always going to come up to let me know I don’t. Hah! This could be a source of frustration, but in reality I think it’s a good thing. I don’t ever end up feeling that I’m really superior to anybody or anything because, well, I’m just as human as the next gal.

But I do feel really good about the first week of my challenge. I got a lot written. Not quite as much as I’d planned, but I learned a lot along the way. I was able to get caught up on quite a few things that I wanted to do related to article marketing, which was great.

I also found out that it’s really very hard for me to sit down and write articles for my sites in the afternoon. I usually think “I’ll write that in the afternoon” because I have a larger chunk of time (1 hour to 1.5 hours) that I’m able to work while the kids play. But the reality that I’m finding is I don’t really do well writing then.

I have near constant interruptions from one child or another, I need to make sure they’ve cleaned up before Scott comes home (at least, I really try to). I need to get supper started. That time ends up getting eaten away and it’s just not condusive to writing longer articles out. Shorter articles for article marketing are do-able at that time.

It really comes down to needing to write articles for my sites in the morning. After the kids go to bed I generally can’t write because Scott will put on a DVD that I get interested in – or I’m just tired and couldn’t write well if I wanted to. Life as a mom is tiring! So I need to get up in the early morning when I have a lot of peace, no distractions, and I’m not as tired.

Then I can use my afternoon and evening time for things that don’t require the intense focus of writing, such as posting the articles, submitting the articles for marketing, catching up on emails, etc.

The hardest balance to find is “what can I do while I’m distracted” and “what do I need to do without distraction.” Sometimes it feels like I really need to do everything without distraction… but that is not my life. My life is busy, with four kids to teach raise and a husband to help – my business comes after those things and that sometimes means fitting it in around everything.

With summer and warmer weather starting I have hope of more uninterrupted time because the kids will play outside longer – though I have to pray Galen keeps taking good naps.

Otherwise, it looks like early morning writing is still my best bet for staying on target with the challenge.

I’ve had some other insights come to me while working, too, including figuring out how to get past a big block with writing for one of my sites – but I will get to those when I do further updates, as this post has gotten long enough!

If your house feels way out of order don’t stop reading – sometimes I feel like my home is falling apart around me, and sometimes I feel lost, confused, and even like a failure. But it’s important not to let feelings like that get to you. Getting things under control and bringing order and peace back to your home should be your goal.

Developing a routine for your day is probably the first and most important thing. I cover that in an article series for you. Setting goals is a good first step – I’ve written a useful way to think about setting goals.

After you’ve gotten your goals down you can get into the practical aspect of setting a schedule/routine up. Putting gentle rhythm into your routine is also important – it keeps things from feeling rigid.

It’s also good to figure out when lists will help you – and when they won’t.

Overall you’ll find considering your vision as a mother to be helpful to tackling life.

I talk some about organizing in the articles above. Learning to do bite sized organizing and how to tackle a tough room are important skills to pick up.

Many times you’re going to feel overwhelmed see how (and why) motherhood and the 2nd law of thermodynamics are so deeply related (and just how that can help you)!

If you feel utterly worn out I’ve written an extensive article on mothering while exhausted – you may glean some ideas from it!

One of my biggest goals has been to get the house organized before the baby comes. I used it as an example in an article on how to set goals because it was something I’ve been working with actively. I’m really pleased to say that most of my organizing is done and I have worked steadily on my goal! Breaking it into small, bite-sized chunks really helped – I was able to stay motivated and it fit into my busy schedule.

I found that most of my rooms were pretty straightforward when I actually started to work on them. Even my upstairs landing – where I kept tossing everything that didn’t go in rooms I organized before it – went pretty quickly under a few days of intense work.

Then I got to our office. And I realized what a tough room really is. We have so much “stuff” that goes in the office. And I do so much work in here. Not only work on my website, but I also keep track of all of our family paperwork, our accounting, and many, many books in different categories.

There’s a lot of computer equipment in the office that either needs to be kept or won’t be parted with. Computer CDs, music CDs, and did I mention books? Office supplies were everywhere and never where I needed them.

I was overwhelmed.

Finding a Starting Point

The first thing I did was figure out what worked in the office and what didn’t work. The places our computers are at work well. I get a very good view of both the front and side yards from my desk, and I’m next to Scott’s desk. I like that in the evenings. I had an inbox system started next to my desk that works well for me.

But other than that pretty much everything was a mess! The files were horrible and they were far away from me. That was not convinient at all because I use the files frequently while I take care of our family’s paperworks and business. There was computer paraphernalia *everywhere*, huge totes in the closet which were mostly empty, and our audio CDs were in the closet which annoyed Scott.

After I figured out just what worked and what didn’t, I was able to pick out a starting point – try and get the files closer to me.

Working out Solutions

Our office space is not terribly big and my desk is really quite small. We’re planning to get me a slightly larger one when our budget allows, but for now it’s not the highest priority. Since I have a small working space I’d been using the closet as part of my work area. Those huge totes that were half-empty served as a surface for me to keep my inbox system on.

Upon looking at our filing cabinet – which is two drawers high with each drawer holding two rows of files – I realized it could fit neatly into the small closet space. We went ahead and moved that. I took the few things out of the big totes and took them outside. Later Scott put them into the shed so we can take them to his mom, who can use them.

Getting this first step done helped me feel a lot better. The next obvious thing was figuring out what to do with all the computer equipment I’d just put on the floor. We already had a drawer unit with some things it. I went through that, cleaning it out, and was able to get most of the computer equipment neatly inside. I liked that because it was all together and all out of sight! Some of the bigger cables and old floppy disk cases (which Scott needs to keep) went to the top of the closet.

Realizing we Needed More

This was the first room I encountered where I realized we would have to make some bigger purchases. I’d purchased a couple of small containers for the kitchen and one for the bathroom after getting done with those – but they were small and a few dollars each (a few dollars made a big difference!)

But the office needed bigger solutions. One will be a slightly larger desk for me (one that actually has a keyboard shelf!!!). But that one can wait. We did need something to go where we’d moved the file cabinet from – because the printer now had no place to go! We decided upon a heavy-duty utility shelf. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it’s very functional and sturdy.

Scott set that up and fit it between the wall and the kids’ “office desk” where they can “work” while I do my work. We were able to fit the printer and scanner onto a shelf with enough room to open the scanner fully. The next shelf comfortably holds all those CDs Scott wanted out of the closet. The top shelf has some tapes and assorted things that just needed storage room.

I was able to get all the computer software CDs gathered up and put into an empty file folder box, which fit well on the bottom shelf along with some paper products. The shelf directly under the printer holds another file box which contains extra, empty files, and has room for some of the children’s supplies as well.

This shelf was a big purchase for us but helped a lot.

All of my cleaning inspired Scott to somewhat clean his desk (I’m not touching it!) He had a wire “in-basket” that I put on top of the file cabinet next to my desk. Then we purchased a small metal shelf (meant to go on an existing shelf or surface). I put that on the file cabinet too.

I found a small, pretty wicker basket at Goodwill to hold cables and small electronic things I use frequently (digital camera and cables, a calculator, webcam, my iPod, etc.) I put that on the little shelf along with a medium sized container to hold my office supplies – tape, stapler, scissors, super glue, etc. I also had a little room on there to put a container for holding pencils and pens.

I put magazines and products I’m currently reviewing in the space under the shelf.

After these few purchases (and finds) I suddenly had an office that was working much better!

The last thing I did was organize our files and books. The files took a long time and a lot of work – I may make another post about working on files! Books I moved and shifted around some and ended up with more room for books than I’d started with.

End Result

The office was the absolute toughest room I encountered. The only room that has come close is the laundry room because it holds such an assortment of stuff (and Scott has things in there that I have no clue what they are and don’t want to mess with them without his help :p).

It was a room where I realized we truly did need to make some purchases, and I had to go to absolute “square 1″ and figure out where to start. Hopefully sharing just how I did that will help you figure out that even if a room looks really tough, it can probably be organized to work effectively.

When I sit down to take care of business or family matters all that I need is within arms reach of me (unless for some reason I actually need all the computer paraphernalia we have in those drawers across the room). I’m able to get my work done much more quickly and efficiently, even with a small space for my office.

This entire experience of organizing the house has been very nice for me because I’ve been able to figure out how make our relatively small home work well for us. There are some things I still can’t figure out (where are we going to put that china cabinet……) but for the most part I’ve been really pleased with how I’ve been able to make space – and make space that works for our family