A Place of My Own

We crave a tiny little space for ourselves- I think we all do it in some way. Perhaps that's why the idea of owning your own home is such a driver for so many people. We want a place that can be OURS. In working towards starting this business, I've come to understand this on so many, many levels.

I was chatting online with a friend of mine in England whose advice I always respect. Like me, he often needs a kick in the rear when motivation dies and when we're having a bad day, we know how to be supportive but also tell it like it is.

I made a comment about having so much to do yet and he replied, "There always is, and it never stops, but this is your business… your desk… your challenge."

And so it is.

My success, my failure, my dream. Whatever shall be will be mostly because of my own efforts. I'm a pretty resilient person and I can accept that there will be difficulties along the way, but I also am optimistic about things going really well if I keep working hard at it.

This working from home thing has it positives and negatives. For one thing, no one knows or cares that I'm wearing my blue socks with white reindeer and red stars on them and that I didn't get dressed until nearly 10 am this morning. But I can also go out during the day with my daughter, and then work later when she naps and at night. The balance is tricky though, especially right now when I have so many things to do and feel pulled in many directions. That is a down side. So is the fact that it can be hard to turn my brain off at bedtime enough that I can sleep. Reading something completely unrelated is vital to calming my speeding train of thought.

But back to my topic: a space of my own.

I work on a laptop, so due to uncomfortable dining chairs, I do like to sit in our overstuffed chairs much to the chagrin of my knees. But then again, I'm up and down so much that I stretch lots.

Still though, I needed a place to keep all my business stuff organized. I also needed a clean place that wasn't going to end up having jam spread all over it (like the dining table) and I also wanted to get all our personal papers in order too.

So I was industrious the other day and moved one of these comfy chairs (although they are horribly made and have the most awful goldish fabric that is ripping- the things that come from renting a furnished flat) into K's room and moved the Ikea desk in her room into the lounge (living room). Shifting the dining area a little and turning it to be at an angle to the corner it was in gave us a bit more room and space between it and the desk.

We have no money to buy furniture or organizational things, so I'm being creative at the moment. Instead of file folders for all our bills and stuff, I took our christmas cards and some small binder clips, slipped the sorted stacks of bills and other papers into the cards and then clipped the top or side to keep things from falling out. I'll probably keep doing this because instead of large file folders, the cards are neat and tidy. I'll probably buy some cheap non-holiday ones from our pound shop (ie. dollar store) later. There you go, your DIY tip for the day!

In any case, the results of my 3 hours of hard work is a neat and tidy work space that is mine. It may not be entirely devoted to my business, but nothing in this set-up will be really.

Here is my home "office" in all it's glory:

A piece of inspiration stuck to my white board with one of K's magnets...

A good notebook with a short version of my to-do list, purple pen (why not?) and my iPhone.