Space: My Final Frontier

This post promises to be ultra-geeky… that’s your warning. ;)

For the last year or so I have been on the hunt for the perfect desk. Since I began working from home in 2005, I have been using an old, beat-up metal desk as my workspace. It was so horrible I refused to move any of my stuff into it except for a few pencils, mobile phone accessories and my checkbook in the top drawer. The rest lay scattered on a nearby credenza. The desk had previously belonged to my parents who used it as a spare desk in my dad’s dental office and was later passed to my oldest daughter who used it for a couple years before handing it over to me covered in girly stickers with glitter spilling out the bottom drawers. I kid you not. It was a wreck.

Not only was the desk in not-so-great shape physically, but it was small. It was meant to be a student desk – just large enough for a few books and papers. Not a printer, and inbox, a laptop, speakers, phone chargers, digital camera accessories and more. So for two years I squished myself and my gear into this teensy tiny space every day and tried to be as productive as possible. I put a two-drawer metal filing cabinet next to me which added some extra storage space and a few more square inches of surface to pile more of my stuff.

Underneath the desk was a snake pit of tangled cords to computer gear, chargers, speakers and all kinds of other gadgets. Just unplugging the laptop was a challenge in itself. My sub-woofer sat right under my feet and I lived in fear of accidentally kicking it or slamming my chair into it. My backup drive also lived on the floor under the desk and every time I needed to plug it in I had to get on my hands and knees to hunt for it. I hated my workspace. Loved my job. Hated the space.

So I began planning what my ideal desk would be like. No joke – I had some very specific requirements. Everything had to fit neatly on the surface, within arms length. Cords had to be mostly hidden and I envisioned a power strip at desktop level for easy unplugging of my mobile devices. There had to be enough space to keep the printer tray open at all times, stocked with paper and room to move my optical mouse without bumping my cup of tea. Ideally I preferred my tea be on the left side.

My biggest challenge was that the majority of desks are designed for right-handed people. I am one of those mixed-up people that use both hands equally but I have general left or right preferences for certain activities. When it comes to my workspace, I like my pen and paper on the right, but my current papers, inbox, phone and cup of tea on the left. Most desks are either perfectly symmetrical or have the majority of space on the right hand side as if the left arm doesn’t even exist. I hate that. So I figured I had to find something symmetrical, but I wasn’t letting that limit my options. Desks these days can be configured to just about any combination you can think of so I figured it would be an easy task to find the perfect desk.

I was wrong.

I started with the obvious, checking online shops and big box stores to see if anything looked remotely close. I visited several office and furniture stores locally, trying to talk myself into making one of their display models work, but ultimately it was never quite right. I followed Lifehackers “Coolest Workspace Contest” with much interest, gathering ideas and making notes on what would work for me. For a year I kept searching. I had mental pictures. I had measurements. I was armed with a list of the way it HAD to be. It was the perfect desk or nothing. I was hard core. Would I ever find it?

About a month ago, my husband and I went furniture shopping for our family room. While browsing through a store over an hour from home, I rounded the corner into the office section and there it was…. A beautiful honey oak desk with a matching filing cabinet. Would it work for me? I started measuring and picturing where everything would go.

The most important thing to me is that I could fit my speakers on the desk top without stacking one on the printer and that my sub-woofer wouldn’t have to sit on the floor. Yeah – seriously – it’s all about the music for me. “Hi my name is Gretchen and I’m an iTunes addict.” Just take a look at this photo…I had to move to my husband’s desk for a day and a half until the movers brought in the new desk…notice the tangle of cords and lack of foot space I endured just so I could setup my speakers for a few hours. ;)

My new desk would need to have plenty of footspace and storage for my techie books, CDs, DVDs and my assortment of gadget accessories. Room to set a plate and a cup would be necessary, too, since I eat lunch at my desk everyday (hold the lectures about too much time at my desk – I do walk my dog after lunch every day just to get out of the house). Room to write and spread papers out would also be a plus. The more I looked at this particular desk, the more I knew that it was the right one. So we bought it.

And then I had to wait for it. For three long, LONG weeks I waited for them to deliver it. At the same time we bought the desk, we also bought several other pieces of furniture. When delivery day arrived I was ready. The old desk had made its way to the thrift store and all my stuff was stacked neatly in piles on the office floor awaiting its new home. The delivery guys tortured me to no end as they moved each piece of furniture off the truck one by one. Everything but the desk, which they brought in last. Go figure.

Once they had it in place, I began the process of moving in to my new workspace. First I started with the speakers, of course, positioning them in perfect symmetry with the sub-woofer stacked on the shelf below. I carefully threaded the cables up through the pre-drilled holes, tucking the excess behind the wooden panels so they were out of site. I placed the power strip right on top of the desk behind my laptop just as I planned so all of my gadgets were now within arms reach of unplugging (see photo). Next came the printer – shoved off in the far right corner where it was accessible but out of my way. I left the paper tray OPEN and filled it up with paper for the first time ever. :D

All of the little gadgets like my video camera, daily calendar, headphones, remote, etc. went back on the organizer that now fits neatly on shelf above the laptop within easy reach, freeing up one extra paper tray for my inbox. My mobile computer bag which normally sat in front of the old filing cabinet now has a place of its own in the cabinet to my right and the tray meant to house a keyboard is now being used to either sit my lunch on or spread out paperwork. Everything has a place and I still have room left over! Best of all, my cup of tea is on the left. ;)

Amazing how much better you feel with a little breathing room. ;) Now I’m on the prowl for the perfect chair…