The rest of the office

The closet solution is holding up well and we are still putting things away there and keeping the rest of the house relatively toy free, so I call that a success (even if we're only talking about a couple of weeks). The room, however, is far from done. With no desk and no seating except one very random desk chair, it doesn't really have a purpose except storage of things (file cabinet, yarn trunk, etc.):

Our Container Store organizer suggested using Elfa along the wall to create a sort of versatile desk space, something like this crafting area from the below catalog picture:

Using Elfa in a similar way would mean we could have drawers and shelves below, a surface top at whatever level we want (we were thinking of doing a standing desk, for example), shelving up above, and have it all be customizable and changeable. In particular, she suggested, to use the above catalog picture as an example, of doing a split surface top, so that one could be an adult height and one could be lowered when toddler starts wanting to craft in there or do homework, to create a second, lower desk space alongside the higher one. Drawers, shelves, etc. can all shift around to compensate.

Here was the plan she created, for the wall currently occupied by the china-cabinet looking shelving unit with doors and the desk chair:

We like it, but we don't love it. It does keep all the equipment off of the floor and above the baseboard heater, so that is nice. It does provide a decent amount of storage and desk space. It does not, however, look nice. A simple fact of these systems, as you can see from our closet photos and the catalog picture above is that it just is not very attractive. Closet organization? You bet! Centerpiece of a room? Ehhhhhh, maybe not. There's a reason that we used the Elfa skeleton for the living room but stained wood for the shelving ourselves and used a completely different system for the cupboards below. We actually wanted it to look nice.

So we think that in the end this is not the way to go. While amazingly functional, it is a little too functional for us. The plan for now is to clear out the china cabinet of books, magazines, and binders from college. Then buy a very simple standing height desk that is just 4 legs and a surface, to go along that wall exactly where the Elfa system would be. We plan to put toy boxes, along the lines of those blue lego boxes (see top photo) and other modular pieces below. It's not hugely elegant but we can pick whatever kind of simple desk we want and balance design and function. If we go 100% functional (read: ugly) then at least it won't be a $500 system. 

That's the plan at least. We surprised ourselves by finding no good solutions at our good old standby, Ikea. So if nothing easy surfaces, I can imagine going the Elfa route. Either way though, we plan to empty out the cabinet and get rid of it to free up space along the wall and then go from there.

A Thing of Beauty

The boxes were unpacked...The mess got worse before it got better. But in the end, we have a closet.

Elfa was indeed easy to install, as we remembered from when we did the living room. Small details, however, seemed pointlessly cheap, especially considering how much the whole system cost. For example, we have shelf liners, but they were not pre-cut for our shelves (they pre-cut other things, like the horizontal and vertical tracks). So I had to try to trim them with scissor and an x-acto knife but couldn't really get them precise enough to lay flat without over-cutting.

The cover for the top track also needs to be trimmed, and the top of the drawers need to be stuck on with (literally) tiny squares of double-sided tape. These things all could use improving.

However, the closet it done and already in use! We also coincidentally inherited a cute rainbow set of drawers from family, and my toddler loves both and is eager to put things away (I'm sure this will fade, but I'll take it for as long as it lasts).

We have the door of the closet set up with a hanging area and a deep container for crafts.

Inside the closet - shelves, drawers, and a hanging rack (for now I've just got some smocks and a halloween costume there, alongside the drawers).

We haven't decided what to put on the top shelves so obviously out of reach of the toddler (and to a large extent out of our reach as well without a step-stool). So there's more space once we figure out what to do with it.

The real question - did it work? Are we more organized? Well, there's certainly no guarantee that we'll continue to put things back into the closet, but at least a space exists for toys where it did not previously. I think this before and after puts how far we've come into perspective (keeping in mind that it got way worse in the weeks leading up to the new closet while I decided it was futile to keep obsessively stacking things just to free up floor space, knowing a solution was in sight).

The office last week:

 The office today:

There's plenty more to do, along the main wall, as well as some additional big storage boxes we need for legos and other things, but hey, there's a floor now.