(*For newcomers (hello and welcome!)  I designed this office when we built our house and the dutch door and table were both custom made.  The counters are all quartz (Caeserstone – Organic White).  The room is 15 1/2 by 12 feet and you can download my house paint colors here.  All other office sources will be shared at the end of the post!  Affiliate links used.)

I’m back!  Back with the rest of my office organization.  I know you’ve all been on pins and needles just waiting for part 2. ;)

Make sure to check out how I organized the first half of my office if you missed it!  Today we’re moving on to the cupboards and drawers on the right side of the room so settle in with some popcorn (or another preferred snack although I highly recommend popcorn) and here we go!

We ended the first part of the tour with this cupboard of half finished projects that I finally got organized and under control.

Here’s a look inside this section of lower cupboards and drawers..

Ok.  Before you decide that I’m a crazy hoarder let me tell you that this putting together this cupboard is quite possibly the smartest thing I’ve ever done to save my sanity and time.  These are toys/gifts for kids.  Some of them are gifts my own kids have received for birthdays and I’ve stashed them in here for a rainy day.  Some are gifts I’ve bought.  A couple of years ago both of my girls were participating in “secret sister” gift exchanges.  Ad for volleyball and El for dance.  Every time Ad had a volleyball game or El had a dance competition we were shopping for a little gift for a friend on the team.  Add that to the 3-6 birthday parties my 3 school-aged kids were going to each month and I felt like I was constantly having to shop for gifts.  I finally realized what a time suck it was becoming for me and got on-line and ordered a bunch of small gifts/toys.  Then I went to the grocery store and stocked up on candy, small gift cards, cute gift bags and tissue.  I put all of the wrapping supplies in our wrapping cupboard and all of the gifts in this cupboard and from then on every time one of the kids needed a gift for someone I told them to head to the office, pick something out and wrap it up!  LIFE SAVER.

To be honest we now politely decline some of the “secret friend” activities (my kids don’t mind at all!) and we only attend birthday parties for close friends.  It was just getting to be too much between the 3 kids and now that my girls are older and both so busy our family time on the weekend has to be prioritized or it doesn’t happen!

But when the kids DO need a gift.. we are ready. ;)

This top drawer used to hold files for all of my “inspiration” pages that I had torn out of magazines.  Decorating, organizing, home design.  I had a lot of torn out magazine pages!  After the holidays I dumped everything from this drawer out on to my floor and was planning on going through them to categorize/organize/file them all, but then I decided that I really didn’t need them anymore.  How often was I looking at my torn out magazine pages for inspiration?  They had been sitting in this drawer untouched for years.  Time to simplify!  And recycle.  So this drawer is currently empty. :)

Below the empty drawer is what’s left of my six years of teaching Elementary School.  I’ve recycled SO many things over the years and this is all I’m still hanging onto.  I’ve used a lot of my teaching materials with all 3 of my kids and these are things I still use or might use in the future with Kole.  He has always loved and played with the sack puppets. :)

Time for the cute little cubbies above the computer!  When I was designing this office I sketched out these 5 little drawers above the computer mostly to break things up and add some interest.  I didn’t really need them for storage and knew that drawers at that height weren’t practical anyway.  I just liked the way they looked.

So I decided to make the three middle “drawers” one pull down cubby and then have just one drawer on each side.  The side drawers are empty.

In the middle cubby I have these three baskets that hold computer screen cleaners, putty I use when I decorate, felt I use under furniture, and then of course.. more painters tape. :)

The cupboards above the little drawers hold books!  I’ve gone through our crazy book stash multiple times and just can’t part with these yet.  Although it looks like we have two copies of Wonder (not sure how that happened) so I might need to Marie Kondo this book situation yet again. ;)

Below the computer are two drawers full of organized school supplies.

One thing I allow myself to hoard just a tad.  Along with cute notepads.

And kids’ extra birthday gifts.

And throw pillows.

And peep toe booties.

Alright alright.. so I’m an organized hoarder.  Always room for improvement right?

When I’m ready and want to. ;)

Honestly though.. these types of drawers just make my day!  If I’m feeling down I can just open a drawer of perfectly lined up paperclips and bam.  Instant pick me up.

On to the next little section of cupboards!  These open cupboards at the top used to be a hot mess!  Kind of a dumping ground for all the things.  I cleaned them out and got rid of everything I wasn’t loving/using and now they are almost empty.  I have NO plans to fill them up anytime soon.

The wooden crates below I’ve shared before.  They hold more school supplies (told you they are a weakness!), command strips for hanging pictures, and camera manuals/computer programs I still use from time to time.

The lower drawers hold paper files.  Important papers for each of my kids and then things like medical forms, receipts, etc. I still want to hang on to for a while.

They also hold some of my older sentimental keepsakes.

Getting our paper under control was a HUGE project that I tackled last summer and I wrote a post all about it HERE if you missed it.  All of our finance/tax papers are in my husband’s office and I need to organize them better at some point but that involves his help which is why it hasn’t happened yet.  For some reason he doesn’t get as excited as I do about spending a weekend sorting, categorizing and organizing paper.

He’s a mystery to me.

;)

Next to the paper files is the drawer that holds my camera equipment/label maker drawer.  The only thing missing when I took this pic was my main Canon camera.  Because I was using it to take the pictures. :)

(My favorite camera/My favorite lens. *Linked because I get so many questions about what camera I use!)

There it is on the right.  Drawer complete. :)

The drawer underneath my camera holds our printer.  Nice to have it tucked out of the way!

Moving along to the tall cabinet on the right!  I shared this cabinet years ago because it was one of the first spaces I organized in our new home when we moved in.

My building books/notes/paint samples are on the top with paper and all of our craft supplies underneath.

This space has worked so well for us and has stayed organized through the years.  I straightened the paper for this picture but that’s it!  My kids know where everything is and they know where things go when it’s time to clean up.  I used to have something similar in a smaller kitchen cupboard in our previous house so think outside of the box if you need a craft set up for your kids and are short on space!

The only difference in this cupboard now compared to 5 years ago when we moved in is that these colorful files used to hold coloring and activity books and now they hold Algebra and Biology books.  I miss all things My Little Pony but love this stage with my kids too. :)  Circle of life!

Although I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of Algebra.  Or Biology.  My husband covers all Math/Science homework and I cover all English/Reading/History/creative project based homework.  Together we make a pretty smart student.. ha.

So that’s it for all of the organized drawers and cupboards in my office!  Those grey boxes on the counter have my girls’ names on them and are a place they can put papers (drawings, stories, etc.) they might want to keep that I file through later to put in their school boxes.  (I’ll share their school boxes at some point too!  They are still a work in progress.)

We also have the white file organizer on the wall with each of my 3 kids’ names where we set school papers they are currently working on, test notes they are currently studying, etc.

That’s it my friends!  How I’ve organized the entire office.  I so hope you enjoyed the tour!  Regardless of what your office space looks like right now (for years my “office” was in a small closet under our stairs!) I hope this post gives you a few ideas of how you can organize different things and create a space that works well for you and your family.

Having a set location for items that everyone knows about is key!

So is having lots of cute notepads.

And school supplies.

And throw pillows.

And peep toe booties.

But organize them well and get rid of everything else.

;)

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