My work station
Come on in and visit my desk! Here is where you will find me blogging 2 or 3 times a week. However, I spend more time here than I care to admit, reading blogs, browsing the Internet, budgeting and paying bills. This is a little desk built into the kitchen, with a wall-hung pantry cupboard above. The drawers in the desk are the same 3 fearsome junk drawers I wrote about here.
My work top
I’ll walk you through my “stuff.” First, I use a 4-year-old HP laptop, which has been a loyal friend, even though it no longer shuts down properly and I need to leave it in standby mode. I could wipe the machine under my IT-Guy spouse’s guidance, but I haven’t got around to it yet. The sticker on it is a Wee Ninja, because in the Pirates vs Ninjas debate, I am definitely on the Ninja Team! I have a pair of Logitech USB speakers. The household landline phone has its recharging home here. I always keep a calculator in view because I hate switching windows on my laptop back and forth to access the Windows calculator (and I don’t want it “always on top”!)
Behind my laptop, on the wall is an inspiring picture (to remind me to get out of that box):
Who wants to be in a cat box?
Other stuff behind the laptop includes a working flashlight, a notepad, a pencil sharpener, and a pencil holder with pens, pencils, a Sharpie, scissors and a ruler. Next to that I keep envelopes of receipts: one for grocery receipts (for my ongoing grocery project) and two for date due slips from the library (which also allows me to track what I read this year). I have miscellaneous notes to myself written on scraps of paper: phone numbers, calculations, lists, etc.
On the right, I have a file organizer which is less organized than I would like. In there I have files on: meal planning, music lists, movie lists, budgeting, gardening, and volunteer work. The cat bookmark is from my sister-in-law Mel, who might like cats a little bit. The flag is a give-away from Canada Day celebrations! Behind the file organizer is an accordion file which contains: print copy of personal address book, printed directions to people’s homes (out of town), a detailed guide to our city’s recycling rules, a garbage/recycling day schedule, a list of places that take donations of clothes, books, etc., coupons, and a bunch of take-out menus which I don’t use!
The stack of papers contains: a phone book/Yellow Pages, a package of looseleaf paper, bills (new only), an elections/voting notice, and some receipts to be filed. I see that the Air Miles flyer expired September 20 so it has been removed, but the Bed Bath and Beyond coupon is still good! I have good intentions for going to the symphony in the upcoming year.
As you can see, I am reading The Correspondence Artist by Barbara Browning, which is off to a good start.
The notes next to the laptop on the left are work phone calls I need to catch up on at home 😦 and a few blog notes.
To the left of my desk: kitchen table, wine stash!
From my chair, if I look to my left, there is a baker’s rack with:
- jar candles
- cookbooks
- a thermometer (it was 20C inside and 15C outside when the photo was taken at 10:50 am)
- a separate netbook computer with good speakers, dedicated to music listening
- kitchen equipment (Dutch oven shown here), and
- 3 bottles of wine made by my parents
To the right of my desk: food prep area!
To my right is the kitchen food prep area, which I admit has been cleaned up since it is now between breakfast and lunch. Note the meal plan on the fridge! I am not going to circle around and show you the kitchen sink area 🙂 Or the cat food bowls, which are not very photogenic.
I used to blog at the kitchen table but I didn’t like having it cluttered all the time, so now it is kept clear for its intended purpose. I do still like being in the kitchen, because I am cooking or baking quite a bit of the time I’m home.
There might be a change in the works because Rom and I seem to have reached an agreement on home office space…stay tuned!
An Exacting Life 
great place to blog and work from. ALso a very interesting post. I wanted to put a desk in the kitchen when we renovate, dh not too keen though.
Gill
Sometimes I’m tempted to put in a bigger one, but then maybe my papers would take over the whole kitchen! I have a filing cabinet in another room where my household documents are stored.
Love that you don’t want it ‘always on top!” Who would! I use it a little, but less than I imagined as an engineer (and I freecycled the scientific calc ages ago when someone posted a wanted!)
Such an itty bitty desk – I say from my huge U shape work desk. One side is 18 days work of paperwork spread out (covers a whole length), with two ‘toaster’ rack of files and some binders. Then in th other U corner is my computer, to my left for ‘working on now’ (and occasionally the handbag), right is another toaster rack of more current (and more reachable stuff), with a blotter/jotter (for calls, reminders etc). Actually there’s a lot on my desk (which just goes to show, I was going to say yours looked busy and cluttery, but really, so is mine, such are desks!)
You should see my desk at work, LOL!
I often think I could do a bit of blogging in the kitchen while making our evening meal but don’t have a lap top so have to wait until after tea to go up to our home office. i am eager now to hear the sequel to this story…
I used to have a home office but I was sort of squeezed out by spouse and child!
I know the feeling!