Organizing and purtying up the office

I would rather lick my kitchen floor than do paperwork (and that's saying a lot considering that it's the busiest room in the house and can get pretty disgusting). Looking at piles of bills, receipts, warranties, and other detritus that builds up on my desk makes me slightly ill every time I glance in that direction. Being that I'm more of an avoidance person than a just-do-it-now-and-get-it-over-with person, I know that I'll have to see a pile grow to dizzying heights before I'll finally roll up my sleeves and dive in. So I thought maybe I'd at least give myself something pretty to look at while I'm contemplating where to start my ascent to the top of the pile.

As much as I wanted to go buy a pretty, fabric-covered box or something like it, I've learned that I easily get buyer's remorse and am much happier when I can make it myself. Therefore, my current trash heap "in box" is just an empty file-pockets box. Functional, but totally uninspiring:



I decided I wanted to dress it up a bit, see if that would make me more willing to tackle the beast. I thought about wrapping paper, but all we have is Happy Birthday and Christmas paper. I'd really have to be in the mood for those, and they would only be really appropriate a couple days of the year. Then, when I was shopping for yarn at JoAnn's Fabrics, I found these scrapbook papers on sale for 16¢ each:




I simply cut them down to size and pasted them in and around the box:


You can tell I rushed, as the corners of the box are still peeking through, but I don't care. I'm just happy to have something purty to look at on my desk now. We'll see if it actually gets me to keep things orderly...

Oh, and I used an extra piece of the paper that I had cut off to make a sign for a box that I'm now keeping in the cabinet, out of sight. This is for papers I'm having to hold on to for one reason or another and just don't want to have to look at:




Just making that change inspired me to look around to see what else I could organize. I cut up some old food boxes and used them to organize my office supplies/junk drawers:

Wow, I've got a lot of pens!

Now I'm inspired to do even more! And most of it was stuff I already had lying around the house. I only shelled out 80¢ for the rest!

For more inspiring ideas, head on over to Rocks in My Dryer, which is what inspired me to do all this in the first place!