Husband here...
Wife, Esq. is being unreasonable again.
She wants to hire a designer--or an organization consultant--or a junk hauler--or SOMETHING to fix up our home office.
Those of you who have been to our house probably know that our office is something of a pit. No way around that. But there are a few pretty good reasons for it:
- It's the natural home for all the papers and random crap that go with running a household.
- I spend a lot of time in there, and I'm a slob.
- Wife, Esq. works in there occasionally, and she sinks to the least common denominator level of cleanliness.
- It's where everything gets shoved when we're cleaning up the rest of the house--it's like a magnet for entropy.
Out of those, I think numbers 2 and 4 are most important. I'm not likely to suddenly become neat and organized after 30+ years of the opposite, just because some random gay guy redesigns the room--this isn't HGTV, where organizational paradigms are changed in half an hour. And we're ALWAYS going to need a place to dump the mess when company is coming over...and I don't know where else that would be.
Wife, on the other hand, thinks that a consultant can fix everything. (I AM a consultant, so of course I know better than that.)
I've tried to compromise. Knoll and Steelcase both have some pretty nice, flexible cube systems that we could set up in the office, and we'd both have our own separate spaces. I could junk mine up; she could have hers as pristine as the driven snow. Design it right, and she never even has to SEE my cube. All that for only $5,000 or so. I can even design it myself.
But no, she won't even talk about it, or what she wants from the space, or what she wants a designer to do. She just wants me to be perfectly tidy. Realistically, it's not going to happen. My college roommate (and subsequent best man at the wedding) once threatened me with a makeshift flamethrower: "Clean--or BURN!!!" Even then, I only made a show of cleaning. I don't know what she thinks a designer can do to change me, that she or my old friend/roommate can't with their threats.
So, gentle readers, what shall we do? Waste money on a consultant who tells me to file/shred things promptly? Spend money on upgrading our furniture so we have essentially two separate offices in one room? Move Wife, Esq.'s office to the basement where it can be as neat as she wants?
Mommy, Esq. here: Only fair our readers get a glimpse into what I've been stressing about. Here are some photos I sent a few organizational consultants and designers of our home office. With our work demands we have to share this space and as Husband mentioned - it's been sinking to the lowest common denominator. I think a designer will help us come up with furniture and storage solutions (including redoing the closet with its naked bulb and falling down doors) - I don't have a firm idea of what I want so I'd like some options/guidance. It takes a lot to maintain a happy home and I feel that organization and cleanliness are part of that process.


