Organizing a NYC Home Office After The Movers Have Left

Life happens and makes what should be a relatively straightforward task into a complex one. Moving from one NYC apartment to another while a major disruption is typically a process with a definitive start/end date.  This wasn’t the case for my client.  She was moving from a studio apartment into a 2 bedroom apartment.  With the additional space, she should have been able to move-in, get settled and start the next chapter of her life in very short order.  However, this wasn’t the way the move unfolded and 2 months after the actual moving day, her NYC home office needed organizing as it still was not a functional space. Between having to sort through and eliminate the clutter left behind by the former occupant (who is a family member) and find homes for all of the items unpacked by well-meaning friends, there had been little time to home office set up and organizing.

At this point, my client sought my assistance.  We chose to focus our efforts on her home office as she not only would have an organized space within which to work but also a small haven within the apartment that was orderly and completely functional.

When we first tackled the space, it contained 2 desks, a drawing table, 5 bookcases, 3 chests, a wardrobe, a sofa, and numerous boxes still to be unpacked.  As the space was overly cluttered, we chose to begin by creating a haven in the middle of it for the drawing table. Our plan of attack included the following steps:

1. Clearing the space around the drawing table so that it could be utilized.
2. Re-positioning the table for greater privacy so that distractions could be minimized.
3. Placing a small desk adjacent to table so that there would be an additional work surface for frequently used pens, pencils and storage for other supplies.
4. Ensuring that there was sufficient lighting for the work area.
5. Unpacking and sorting the less frequently used supplies and positioning them (at least for the time being) on a book shelf next to the table.

Once this area was set, I gave my NYC client some  home office organizing “homework” to complete in preparation for our next meeting.  She needed to remove all clothing, shoes and other personal items that belonged in the bedroom and sort/file/shred paperwork that we had found while unpacking the office supplies.  As soon as these tasks were completed, we could identify furniture that could be removed and finish unpacking the remaining home office related items.