As promised, here’s a clear rundown of how we organized the six new shelves and eight new drawers in our office, plus the storage in my floating desk and the filing/printer cabinet across the room. In short: where everything ended up and why.
Having so much additional storage—both open shelving and closed cabinets—has made a big difference. Let’s start on the left and walk through the new desk and bookcase wall.
Below are the animated GIFs John mentioned earlier, showing the bookcase to the left of his desk coming together:
And here’s the right-side bookcase filling up in fast motion:
Between both open-shelf sections we fit eight magazine storage boxes from Target to house press clippings and magazine features about our site and columns. Instead of stuffing these into random cabinets in the dining room buffet, they’re now neatly organized by year with labeled tabs—so finding any press item is quick and painless.
We also moved a stack of books out of the kitchen cabinets and added a few decorative storage boxes (the blue boxes are from Bed Bath & Beyond and the cream one from HomeGoods). These hold miscellaneous office supplies that we didn’t want cluttering our desktops.
Some of our product packaging and a few copies of our book—the English edition and the Korean edition—are displayed on the shelves. An office is a great place to showcase things you’ve made, and having a few copies and sample products on hand makes it easy to grab them for meetings.
We left a pretty stack of notebooks and post-its on an open shelf—too nice to hide—and created an “inbox” for magazine tear sheets that used to pile up on the kitchen table and couch. I file these into binders with clear sleeves eventually, but now they have a drop zone. One of our octopus hooks even doubles as a paperweight.
Some decorative items are actually functional in disguise: a spiky yellow HomeGoods vase stores extra chargers, headphones, and camera cords to keep tangled wires out of sight but within reach. A small zebra dish holds magnets for our magnetic frame wall, and a pink vase stores dry-erase markers. I also found a home for my yellow horse head bookends—they add color and hold up the books.
There are also purely decorative pieces because they make us happy: a slightly crooked little painting of our first house, a gift painting of our second house by a friend, and a charming replica of our fireplace made by Lisa. These personal touches give the office character without sacrificing storage function.
I added a small bee painting and a catalog tear-out reading “Squeeze the day” for a bit of office cheer. Nearby are our family yearbooks and a cup of Young House Love pencils in every color—nice visual reminders of projects and good memories.
While we sorted the shelves and drawers, our little one was happily playing at her small desk, making bead necklaces and keeping us company—proof that organization can be a family affair.
To the right of John’s desk we left two drawers empty for future needs—space to grow is the best feeling—and used one drawer for paint decks and another for sentimental magazines and catalogs we reference frequently.
The drawers to the left of John’s desk hold more office-focused items: two drawers contain design prototypes in development, the top open drawer holds tax materials (receipts, archived tax files, quarterly paperwork), and the bottom open drawer stores backup external hard drives, older notebooks we still consult, and a bag full of instruction manuals and warranties.
Our printer and file cabinet is also organized for workflow and storage. When closed it looks neat and compact, and when opened the top left holds paper and the camera case, the top right houses our wireless printer, and the bottom drawer stores all our active files.
My floating desk by the window, which we rescued for free on Craigslist, provides four additional drawers and a large work surface that I’m keeping intentionally clear. The top right drawer holds frequently used tools like scissors and a stapler; the right middle drawer stores stationery and thank-you cards. Two narrower drawers and a lower drawer are empty for future needs, and a left-side cabinet remains free—more breathing room = more joy.
So that’s the full where-it-all-went tour of our office: shelves, drawers, and cabinets assigned and organized. It took a while to find a permanent home for things like the stapler and receipts, but having a spot for everything is surprisingly satisfying.
There’s a rush that comes with getting everything in its place—a little addictive even, knowing the calm won’t last forever as things multiply. For now, I’m enjoying it.
Psst—Teddy’s eight-week photo is posted (we couldn’t resist that Spoonflower fabric).