There is a place in every room where you just tend to leave things down. True?
I know that happens in our house and I am pretty sure it happens in your house too.
But the Printer Unit in my Study really is not the place I think that should happen but that is exactly what has been happening.
I think it was because it was the place that had shelves that were not so full of things - well to start with!
Then it just seemed like there was space there so something (and everything) could just be set down there until I had time to put it away or indeed decided where it should go.
Hence it became one big mess.
The only way to do the job properly was the usual Sandra method of
"take everything out and only put back what needs to go there"
But Fred calls it
"take everything out and make a mess somewhere else"
Well what else can you do until you have decided where all the "stuff" will go?
So I cleared the shelves and left only 3 things:
- the printer on the bottom shelf
- my containers for various sizes of laminating pouches on the second shelf up
- the A3 laminator on the middle shelf
The printer goes on the bottom shelf with plenty of room above it for the back feed tray and also a better position for lifting out unto the floor when needing to get at the connections and plugs.
The second shelf up is a pull out shelf and I keep the laminating pouches there handy for use with the laminator just above on the middle shelf.
I love the containers I have for the pouches because they hold the different sizes (except for A3 but what could hold A3 size?) and they sit on top of each other taking up less space.
They were a good buy but now I don't remember where I got them.
There are three containers
The first is A4 size so holds the A4 pouches and then there are two A5 size, one for the A5 pouches and one for the A6 and A7 and business card size pouches.
At the moment I have run out of the A5 size which explains why one is empty.
These two smaller trays sit on top of the larger one
supported by the shape of the sides of the larger tray.
It is very handy to grab the pouches as I need them and just lift the front top tray to get at the A4 ones in the bottom tray.
So these were the essentials for the printer unit.
Then the decisions had to be made about what other things I should keep on the other shelves.
The most obvious thing would be to have anything else that I would normally want to use with the printer at close to it so immediately you would think of paper
but
I already use the two Ikea drawer units immediately to the right of this unit for all my paper and card and I see no reason to change this because there is a drawer for each type of paper and card so that is all well organized.
All I had to do with it was tidy up the top of it to make it neater - easy job.
So what should go on the other shelves in the Printer Unit?
Well I decided that I should consider how to make the best use of the space.
Firstly I knew that would not be to store my A3 white, black & coloured cardstock because that could mean losing out on the height allowance of the shelves by putting in something large and flat.
In the end I decided it would be best to store my various boxes some with old greeting cards, some with note paper & cards and some with more miscellaneous items. These are boxes which I will not be lifting out and in too often so it doesn't matter that some are on top of others but look how well they fill up the two top shelves - good use of space here.
Then I remembered something else which definitely should be kept in the unit and these are the new ink cartridges for the printer so I grabbed an old small black box I had kept (knowing it was good and sturdy and would come in handy for something) and put the cartridges in it and placed it at the back left corner of the middle shelf behind the laminator.
Another item that made sense to be in the unit because of it's height and what it is used for was the Photo Negative Scanner so I placed it at the back right corner of the middle shelf again behind the laminator.
I have a small metal case which came with a shaver or something for my husband a couple of years ago and I decided straight away when I saw it that it would be ideal for keeping things to do with my phone and mp3 player and bluetooth gadget and charging leads so it was put back on to the shelf beside the laminator pouches where it had been previously so not much change there.
Well with the printer unit and the drawer units done I thought I might as well finish off with the metal & wicker shelf unit that stands to the left.
This is now the place for most of my other books that I need to read and then after that decide to give away or keep - they are in the wooden crates with the chalkboard fronts.
The other nice boxes and files are for
- my recipes,
- greeting cards for use throughout the year,
- old letters
- A4 Overhead Projector Song Sheets for when we are working with the Kids Club in the school.
Did you notice the little bit of decoration I had hanging on the printer unit?
Well it is back again - it is a heart and I love Hearts and it is dark red which ties in with other decorative things in the Study. Plus I love that old "Home is where the Heart is" phrase.
And now
I am pleased with the difference in looks and the better organisation of the unit and the shelves.
compared to the before
This was more Housework than Funwork this time and more housework to come very soon with the sorting out of the other stuff that had been left on the printer shelves in the past
but
then eventually it will be more Fun because I will take some time to read my old letters and look at the old cards and enjoy memories with a nice cup of coffee on several occasions yet to come.
This project also brings another project to my mind
How to imaginatively keep old greeting cards - might need a bit of research time on Pinterest for that!
But for now this job is finished and the pull down door can be closed on it when we want to but if it remains this well organised we won't need to try to hide it.
So another part of the Study has been overhauled and organised but we still have many more parts to tackle.
For the other parts of the Study already overhauled and organised click below
An Organised Craft Armoire
Organised Bookcases
For More Posts on Organising please click below
Organising