Making Our Space Work : Process

I had never considered indulging in professional help for planning and organizing our home or office spaces – we have small spaces, tight resources, little spare time. I’m skilled at painting, assembling, organizing and making spaces useful. But in our Curious Jane office, we were overwhelmed with supplies and clutter, and we were at a loss of time and ideas to make our space work. We took a bold step and engaged the services of a professional organizer. Well it was quick, easy and fun! The changes made an immense improvements and absolutely fit our small budget.

A few weeks ago, I had met Elizabeth Dahmen who recently launched her own business – Make Space – in organizing office and home spaces.  She visited our office (a small, simple, light-filled space with plenty of potential) and itched to transform it. We started with a short planning session – she assessed how we were currently using the space, asked a few key questions, and took lots of measurements.

I had three needs – in order of priority: large visual display of information, organization of supplies, easy transformation from a work space to a project space.

Liz divided the space into three zones – wall sections for visual information, a spacious work area occupying the largest portion of the footprint, and an open storage system for our many and multiplying supply bins. She sketched some ideas and offered a couple options for shelving. We had clear constraints – a small space, tight budget, short time frame and specific needs – and came to a quick decision on the sketches. The beauty was in the details. The final plan made the most of the space and, with a few swift strokes, she turned our workspace into exactly what we needed it to be. She made it work.

Liz armed me with an Ikea supply list; it included the aisle and bin numbers for all of the items and indicated that everything was in stock. By taking the “Return and Exchanges” elevator straight to the supply aisles, Livvy Grace and I bypassed the showroom floor and labrynthine market place. I dropped off Livvy Grace in the play area and had 30 minutes on the clock. I filled one, two, three large carts. Hefting the items was the easiest part. Packing the car was quite tricky and unloading everything into the office was downright exhausting. By the time we made it to Lowe’s for the paint, I was losing my composure. We worked fast. I selected an array of colors and paint types, and Livvy Grace selected a 3-foot Ponytail Palm for her bedroom (well-deserved).

We set our work weekend and recruited helpers. For the wall sections, we used chalkboard paint (our camp ‘war board’), magnetic paint (to pin up project ideas) and dry erase paint (our calendar and timeline), as well as blues and greens to add color to the space.

By concentrating areas for information in the front, and areas for storage in the back, Liz cleared the main portion of the room so that the work area became spacious and uncluttered. Carefully taking into account the dimensions of our existing supply bins, she planned floor to ceiling shelving that started in the back alcove and wrapped around the far wall. She incorporated hooks, sliding drawers, and colorful benches as a seating / storage solution. Saturday we painted and Sunday we assembled Ikea shelving. Sunday was definitely the beast of the two work-days, but by the end of the afternoon, all the shelves were up and the bins in place.

The space feels hugely different and immensely useful. And – an unexpected surprise – I had a wonderful time working on it! Liz and everyone who joined to help were completely delightful. We pushed a little, pulled a little – for example, I’m stubborn about not using painter’s tape or other ‘time-consuming’ (read: necessary) prep – and easily fell into a comfortable working pattern.

The bulk of the work is finished, but we do have a few more key improvements – ranging from touching up trim, to adding a few fun splashes of color, to swapping out our stodgy dark desks for ones that better match our style and flow. When we renovated our website, I was excited and proud to direct people there whenever chatting about our programs. Now that we have renovated the office, I am equally as excited to share it – with our office workers, after-school teachers, interviewees, families and workshop participants. I can’t wait to share the final photos!