My Desk Makeover

Around sometime last week, I realized that I wasn't using my desk like a desk anymore. It had become my storage area. There were papers, books, cups, bags, and miscellaneous items cluttering the entire space. And since I have 3 shelves attached to the top of my desk, all of those were cluttered as well.

I began by clearing everything off each surface and determining what I wanted on my desk. I looked at every book, tested every marker, and sifted through every piece of stationary. Then I came up with a few organizational tips to save myself space that I'll share today. Please forgive the yellow lighting in my photos, that's just the way my light fixture makes things look in my room.

As you can see, everything is much cleaner. I can finally see my books if I want to read one and I can actually fit my laptop on my desk with space to spare. It's slightly embarrassing for me to look at the 'before' picture now, but that's what happens when things pile up, literally.

A big help for me was to take several school boxes full of markers, colored pencils, crayons, and stack them under my desk in a container just beneath my drawer. Without those boxes stacked up on my desk, I had room to take that space and get creative.

On my desk now: 5 jars full of utensils, small clear box of stationary and notepads, 3 writing books, rainbow container, coaster, my daily planner, and of course, my laptop. Something you might not notice in my 'before' photo is that I used to have a big sheet of clear plastic covering my desk. Since I got this desk when I was younger, the plastic covering was originally a protection so that I wouldn't mess up my nice wooden desk. Lately, it made the desk look dirty, and since I'm no longer a kid, it's the first thing that I took off.

Organizing my utensils was my favorite thing to do and I love the way it turned out. You can't tell from my 'before' photos because they are buried, but I had 2 big cups that were full of pens and highlighters mixed together. I liked the idea of separating them, and my mom found a vase and several jam jars that she had in her kitchen. They were perfect for the new clean look I was going for, but I also decided to add some color. So put some craft glue around the tops of the jars and then tied 2 pieces of matte ribbon twice around the top. I now have a vase for my scissors, and jam jars holding my paintbrushes, highlighters and permanent markers, pens, and pencils.

If blogs that feature home decor have taught me anything, it's that stacking books and putting them on display can be a decoration piece. I recently received these books and while I'm finishing them, it's fitting for me to have them right where I'll be writing.

The top shelves of my desk were mostly just cleared of everything so that the books could be seen. But that doesn't mean that I can't have some things on the shelves at all, just in the right places. I enjoy having my bible at the corner of my bottom shelf, stacked with a journal I got in Italy where I write inspiring quotes and bible verses, as well as a paper weight that belonged to Mennonites in the 70's. On the other end of the shelf, my family photo from a few years ago seemed necessary, since I think that a desk should have at least one personal photo on it.

My uncle has gifted me these Harry Potter figurines throughout the years, and I definitely wanted to keep these on my shelf. Seriously, who gets to have a bobble head Fluffy? Now with the rest of the clutter gone, I positioned them in front of my Harry Potter section. The Harry Potter reading figurine is honestly one of my favorite things in my entire room. And now it can finally be seen on my shelf.


What does your desk look like? What are your favorite organization tips for a desk?