Thanks Talley, it is good to know I am not alone. It drives me crazy when I do spend hours cleaning, only to have DH come home and move something centimeters. Or I haven't touched something all day, and he will come home and move it. AAARRGH. Just leave it alone!!! Now to the office. I do have a good 2 drawer filing cabinet I think we got from an office that was moving, but it is full! Although I am sure it needs to be cleaned out. Right now we have a corner computer desk that has really no storage. Everything is on the top of the desk, cubbies, in baskets, paper, paper everywhere! I do research for a coupon website and am the secretary for the music boosters at the high school, so there is a lot of paper. Just need a better filing system. I do have in the closet a cabinet that right now houses lots of craft stuff that I haven't used in forever. I am thinking about taking that out, cleaning it out and repurposing it. Maybe paint and a little molding, a cork board on the front, baskets and labels inside... I need a real desk with drawers to put stuff away. I have 4 different rolly carts with different size drawers for various and sundry things. One holds kids school supplies I try to always have on hand so there is no running to the store in the middle of the night! Buy them in Aug/Sept when they are cheap! Then I have all my fabric, I make flannel rag quilts for friends then use the scraps to make blankies for preemies. Have lots of flannel remnants, need to get that in line. Ok, now I am stressing, just need to concentrate on one thing at a time. Today it is the paper work on the floor. Once I can get through that it won't be so bad. Thanks again, Laura

Interesting thoughts -- we could all improve on paperwork storage in our homes. Two things I think I'm doing well that differ from the above mentioned Script, and someone else might find some ideas in my methods: Taxes. Yes, like Script, I am scrupulous about maintaining records for my taxes. About a dozen years ago I went to the office supply and bought two big boxes of BRIGHT GREEN folders (green like money). I labeled them Taxes 2000 ... Taxes 2001 ... Taxes 2002 ... Taxes 2003 ... and so on. Given my family's typical lifespan, I made enough green folders to take me to age 110 -- probably more than I'll need, but I'm ready! They're all stored in my file cabinet, taking up very little space. Now when I receive anything tax-related -- a charitable receipt, an end-of-the-year bank statement, whatever -- I have a place to file it. In April, I have a place to file a copy of my taxes, and I can go back and see previous tax years. For the rest of my life, this system is in place. Death folder. Ours is a notebook. Two identical notebooks, actually, since we have two children. Our girls are young adults now, but they've never dealt with an estate -- even if they don't open it 'til they're old, it'll be useful to them. It contains a lot of stuff: - A personal letter to the two of them - A list of our wishes about funeral and items we'd like donated to various family members or charities - A list of things they must do immediately; it starts with going to our house and taking possession of the dog, but it also includes small details like canceling our voting registration and destroying any medicines in the house. At every turn this list includes addresses and phone numbers, including the lawyer we suggest for probate, the funeral home our family's always used, and family members who should be contacted. - A copy our will; they know what's in it -- everything split between the two of them - A list of our financial assets -- bank accounts, investments, insurance, deeds/maps of real estate ... when our youngest became a legal adult, we made the two girls co-beneficiaries of every account; note that this was done before either was married, so our two kids -- not future son-in-laws -- will own these items. - A list of the bills we pay each month -- electricity, phone, even the guy who cuts our grass. - Official copies of our birth certificates, our marriage certificates, and the girls' birth certificates -- they might not be needed, but the girls won't have to scramble to find them - A flashdrive with all of the above in digital format plus photographs that might be useful in putting together the funeral Our rule: We keep two years of tax returns in the notebooks ... the reason being that someday an accountant will file our final estate tax return, and he or she will want our last two years of returns -- so every April we pull out the notebook, discard one old return and insert the newest ... so our rule is that every April we look over the notebook and update anything that's changed. For example, last year we changed bank accounts, and someday we hope to add items concerning grandchildren to the book. Our girls know that the notebooks are stored in the safe, and they know where the key to the safe is hidden, and they know it's labeled with a misleading name so that a thief wouldn't look at it twice. Last thought on this notebook: Though this project took us the better part of a year --- we kept remembering one more thing, one more thing that really should be included -- we didn't find it difficult emotionally. I suspect that if we were older and/or one of us were in poor health, it might've been different.

You've got two categories: the stuff being brought home for keeps, and the stuff that is homework, that has to circulate back. For the first, you have to consider whether to keep. The teacher gets through the day, and the kids often (not always) learn by doing things with paper, and once the projects have served both those functions, those papers will have served the purpose they are in the world for and can go. There are precious little artworks or journal pages in there that really express your children and that you may want to keep, but most can go. Problem is, I could never really distinguish when I was in the thick of it coming home - I had to wait a few years, or at least to year end. Your best friend, in my opinion: plastic boxes. Just pry open the lid, slip in this week's batch, close and forget for now. The boxes don't have to live in the hallway - the kids could put their stack of paper in their cubbies, or in those wall files, and it could be transferred once a week to their box - in the basement or something. The inevitable homework that accidentally gets mixed in with the keeping stuff can be easily retrieved. The wrought iron wall files will look like he(( stuffed, but maybe if you empty them once a week you'll enjoy them nonetheless. Jannie: gotta love it - mine's 19, and I am sure I have stuff of similar vintage. KarinL

Hi Dizzy, I used to have to zone out also when I was sitting especially in the early afternoon, but no longer since I have been standing. There are a lot of articles now on using standing desks. Here is one. http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/04/confirmed-he-who-sits-the-most-dies-the-soonest/256101/ We actually have five monitors (four high resolution) on our electric desks at work with two computers, probably 12+k equipment when it was purchased. The desks were additionally 3k each. All those prices have come down significantly in the last 5 years. I raise and lower the desks every day without problem. Of course you have to use some common sense in setup with cord management. The old defunct Mayline digital drafting table was $150 on craigslist but the electric rise still works. We changed out the nonworking digitizer top for a wood table top, also purchased from craigslist ($100 for the table, we discarded the legs) . The mayline tables are angled but we had the metal supports shaved so that the table top is now horizontal. It goes up and down very smoothly. I would personally hesitate to sink so much money into extensive cabinetry for an office that I would spend most of my life in without taking care of safety and health. However I understand that you have limitations. Best wishes whatever you decide and hopefully someone will chime in on the layout.