As promised, I’m here with the full low down, the ins and outs, the whole kit and caboodle of the Martha Stewart storage furniture in my office.

We purchased these pieces a while back and I’ve spent the last two weeks (off and on) finally unpacking my last few boxes of office stuff and organizing every nook an cranny of my new storage furniture. I’m not an avid crafter or scrapbooker – so I don’t have piles of glue, stickers, and other crafty gadgets – which is probably what this furniture was intended for. Instead, I have things like greetings cards, paper, envelopes, a Sharpie collection, 3-ring binders, art prints, magazines, files, and a few “crafty things” here and there.

First up, we have this big guy – which consists of  two separate pieces (the Eight-Drawer Flat-File Cabinet and the Storage Hutch).

On the inside of the left door is a bulletin board. I’m planning on making a large inspiration board to go near my desk for graphic design and home decorating projects. That being the case, this hidden one is mainly for stuff on my wish list (like those awesome glasses at the top) and old family photos I like having around. On the opposite door, there’s a chalkboard. I really like the concept of having both, but for some reason, I can’t seem to get chalk to actually write on the board. It’s almost like the “chalkboard” is made from something smoother than chalkboard material. I looked over some product reviews, and it seems some people have had the same problem. No worries, though! We’ve got wet erase chalk markers! I’ve actually really enjoyed using them as a substitute for the usual dusty chalk.

Let’s start on the left side of the hutch… At the very top, I’ve got one of my favorite belongings – an antique camera my Uncle Jerry gave me when I was 17. I think it’s nice to have a few sentimental things mixed in with practical useful items. It makes whatever you’re doing easier on the eyes and more fun! Next to the camera is a small white and coral bowl that holds glue sticks and a hot glue gun. The next shelf down is my craft paint stash. The paint brush cup was a plain red pencil cup that I bought from Pottery Barn about four years ago. I painted it coral to go with the coral/blue/gray/white motif I’m working toward. On the bottom shelf are my three go-to binders for (almost) everything that goes on around the house, along with my utensil caddy turned Sharpie/pencil caddy (more on that here).

On the bottom, there are two sliding drawers. They’re nice to have so that I can corral all of my random odds and ends. The drawers slide all the way out, too, just in case I want to take the entire bin to another room for some reason. To make them even more functional, I added brackets (more on that here) to label what each one is holding. I love these because I can change the labels as my needs change. Right now, I’m using one for magazines I need to go through and the other for things I may want to frame or put on the big inspiration board when that goes up down the road.

Now, for the left side…

On the top shelf is a box where I keep all of our important receipts. When the box gets full, I just file them away. Easy peasy! I reused yet another pencil holder from Pottery Barn to hold my washi tape collection. I love using clear containers for stuff like this because it’s colorful and fun to look at. Next is a small collection of my favorite home design books, held up by my crazy easy DIY bookend. Then, I’ve got a box that holds all of my phone/camera/battery chargers, a shiny stapler and tape dispenser set and another favorite antique camera.

The next thing down is my favorite feature of this furniture: the flat-file drawers. I love, love, love these crazy deep drawers – 25 inches deep to be exact. Thanks to the dividers that came with the unit, there seems to be a place for everything.

In an effort to help keep things tidy and organized, I labeled each drawer with using my label maker. I can’t resist a labeling opportunity!

The depth comes in handy when storing our art prints and mailing supplies for the Etsy store. I love when it comes time to ship a print out and all I have to do is open the drawer labeled “Mailing Supplies” and there’s everything I need to put it together.

Now we have the smaller of the two storage pieces, the Craft Space Storage Cabinet. It’s not as deep as the other cabinet, but it still packs a big punch in the storage capacity department. With the exception of the bottom drawer, this is where I keep all of my paper goods and paper-related items — greeting cards, notepads, the printer, cardstock, envelopes, and so on.

I added more bracket labels to keep things organized in this piece, as well. The bins on the door are where I keep all of our greeting cards. If I ever have more than what fits in those bins, I have too many. Also adorned with bracket labels are the sliding trays inside. I have one tray for cardstock, one for envelopes, and one for “pretty paper scraps”. They are so convenient and they pull all the way out so I can take them wherever I’m working in the house. The large cubby is perfect for the printer. When I realized it fit, it was like a magic Disney moment! Now that we know this will be the permanent home of the printer, Greg is going to drill a small hole in the back of the cabinet for the wires. Under the printer are two baskets: one for printer ink and the other houses my totally normal collection of notepads and small notebooks. Actually, the collection used to be much larger. When I was in high-organization-mode last week, I pared down the collection to only what fits in the basket – with a little room for one or two new ones. Like with the greeting cards, if I have more than what fits in the basket, it’s too many and time to purge again. I have to have these rules for myself or you’d be seeing me on Hoarders next season. 

Lastly, under the cabinet are two drawers. In the top drawer, I keep larger paper products like contact paper, poster board (along with poster markers) and small blank canvases.

The bottom drawer isn’t 100% organized yet. It’s where I keep my little stamp collection as well as extra office supplies. I want to wait until it fills up a little more before I get the containers and dividers it needs.

Well, that about wraps up the current state of my office organization. It’s a work in progress, but truth be told, I’m loving every minute of it. Are you an organizing junkie too? Can I come organize your house when I’m finished with ours? ; )

Operation Organization is in full swing here in my office. As I type, I’m surrounded by stacks of papers waiting to be filed. My current desk has two large(ish) filing drawers, but I’m not going to be keeping this desk forever. Therefore, a new solution is in order. And until I find one, they are scattered on my desk like so…

Having all of these loose papers around is driving me crazy – which is why a trip to the store is in order for today. Nevertheless, I keep having to remind myself that organizing is a lot like sunburns… it always looks worse before it gets better. Over on the other side of the room, I’m just about finished organizing all of my “crafty stuff” in the cabinets. I’m planning on doing a “big reveal” post of the whole organized kit and caboodle next week – complete with the requested ins and outs of the Martha Stewart Craft furniture.

One of my favorite things about organizing is thinking outside the box. Finding things to repurpose makes my day. I picked up this metal utensil caddy from Target for $14. I love the combination of the gray metal finish on the outside and the shiny coral finish on the inside. It also rotates, which is a plus. At the time, I wasn’t completely sure what I was going to use it for, but I knew it had optimal organizational potential (wow, Greg’s vocabulary is rubbing off). When I got home, I remembered I had some chalkboard labels I’ve been wanting to use. I love these labels because you can write, erase, and write again. They also peel off really easily, so if you don’t get the label on there perfectly straight, you can peel it off and try again.

Put the two together, and you have a handy dandy and oh-so-cute utensil caddy for Sharpies and colored pencils. I used one section for black Sharpies (every household needs a good amount of these!), one for my collection of colored Sharpies, and the other for colored pencils.

Every time I see it sitting in the cabinet, all of it’s cute, colorful and labeled goodness makes me happy. I also like being able to just pick up the caddy and bring it to wherever I’m working in my office or around the house. Who knew an utensil caddy could be so useful?

So, how about you… Do you repurpose things for the sake of organization? Any tips/tricks to share?

Btw: Don’t forget to enter the $100 ErinCondren.com giveaway! 

I was up late last night organizing my office, top to bottom. It’s a work in progress but I’m hoping to be finished by this weekend. Pretty and functional organization takes time. Over the past few days, I’ve made many a trip to Staples. Mainly for the Martha Stewart Home Office line. It’s addicting. Truly and honestly addicting. Before the MS line debut at Staples, I could easily spend an hour in there pawing through the Sharpies, Post-It Notes, and notebooks. But now, oh brother! We won’t even go there.

One of my favorite new things are these adhesive metal bookplates. I used them on my “Right Hand” notebook (here) and the baking jars in the kitchen (here). Ever since, I can’t stop using them. They’re a great way to label your goods stylishly and effortlessly. I picked up five a few packs yesterday to dress up my office storage furniture (more about that here). A labeled office makes a happy office, right? The only problem was that the office furniture is white and I didn’t think the silver bookplates would really stand out much. So, I turned to the number one weapon in the DIYer’s arsenal: spray paint.

I ended up using chalkboard spray paint. I have plenty of it on hand right now (due to a weekend project coming up) and it has a great flat black finish, which is what I wanted, so it fit the bill. I kept the bookplates on their “sticker paper” and lightly spritzed 2 coats of paint. They are pretty small, so it didn’t take much paint at all. Some of the paint bubbled on the surrounding “sticker paper”, but everything stayed put on the bookplates themselves. Chalkboard spray paint dries really fast, so the entire process only took about 15 minutes, including drying time.

Insert a few labels I made on the computer and we’re good to go! I really love how the now flat black bookplates stand out on the white wood.

It’s exactly the look I was going for and now I’m even more giddy about getting this “Project: Office Organization” ball rolling.

Do you have any favorite organizing products? Are you addicted to the Martha Stewart Home Office collection too? You are definitely not alone.