eMoms at Home

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I haven’t talked much about my own home office, mostly because it has been under construction for a few months. For a while there, I was even breaking my own work at home rule by working in the living room with SpongeBob songs in the background. But that was at least better than working in this mess:

Like the footprints in the dust? I thought that was a nice touch.

Anyway, the office is near complete, and I am finally moved in. Check out my soon-to-be-spiffy new digs:

Once I moved in, I was immediately able to tune out the noise in the house - at the same time, by finally working at a real desk again in my own little cubby, my mind and body immediately knew it was time to get to work, and I focused more than ever before.

With renewed focus came also tons of energy. Which then started spilling over into other areas of organization:

• I spent many hours [way more than I care to admit to] cleaning out Outlook. I had well over 5000 emails (just from April!!) in various folders - including my deleted items. Thanks to inspiration from wonderful professional organizer Jessica Duquette, every single email is in its proper folder, or permanently deleted (as in, even gone from my deleted items *shudder*!).
• I have a beautiful new armoire in my kitchen - something I have wanted for months - because the cabinets simply couldn’t hold all of our stuff (and I keep my kitchen lean - I don’t spend enough time there to justify too much tupperware or rarely used gadgets!)
• I am making weekly commitments to tackle different areas or long-standing piles of stuff. Since we moved into our house less than a year ago, I’m totally guilty of sitting on unpacked boxes. Last week it was the garage and not allowing any dirty dishes in my sink for more than an hour. This week I am committing to completing the office bookcase and trim so that my workspace is fully complete.

Great lessons came from this experience for me - which started when the aforementioned Jessica turned me onto another professional organizer’s blog, Ariane Benefit’s Neat Living.

I’ve blogged about both of these wonderful and inspirational ladies before - but the impact of their work is finally coming to fruition in my business and life - and WOW. WHAT a difference!

Some key takeaway lessons learned - and my fave links from these Queens of the White Space:

• Clutter robs us of our energy - which is exactly the energy we need to run a productive and successful home based business
• Too much stuff distracts you from the present and keeps you attached to the past
• The stress of always having to look for something is enormous - and hurts the ones we love the most
• Read it more eloquently from the horse’s mouth:
• Ariane’s Clearing Clutter series - a must read (unless your home looks like Martha Stewart’s house on the cover of her magazine)
• Jessica’s 12 Strategies for (finally!) letting go of stuff you really don’t need

And I want to thank both of you for your wonderful blogs - and want to suggest that everyone subscribe to their feeds - Jessica and Ariane consistently write great articles that I am able to put to use on a consistent basis!

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Tags: Home Based Business, Productivity, Work At Home, Achievement, Goals, Pitfalls, Success Thinking, Work Life, Work Life Balance, Work Kids, Organization, Clutter, Organize,