What I needed was already here

2009 was drawing to a close and I decided I needed a new beginning - a new year, a new decade. So I cleaned out my home office.

I hauled everything out into the family room - files, pens, papers, boxes, books. All but the furniture. I moved the desk near the window and the whole room opened up. It's beautiful!

But then I had a problem -  the two file cabinets I had at my desk just wouldn't fit. So I dived into the sorting. What a pile of paper! And what a blessing a computer is - so much storage in so little space.

I recycled, reduced and rearranged and ended up with just the set of working files I needed at my desk. But I still needed a place to put them. An under-the-desk file cabinet would be perfect. I looked online and then realized the cart I was using for office supplies has racks for hanging files. Voila! Problem solved.

As I continued sorting my stuff, the same thing happened over and over again - every time I had a need, I found I already had a solution. I just needed to look for it.

• The red notebook was too big to fit into the filebox. And there in the GoodWill pile was a smaller notebook that fit perfectly.
• The guest bed is in my office and we had a small bedside table for a lamp and clock. But with this new arrangement, the table just looked tiny. Sure enough, I found another table that fit the space better.
• Before, I was running out of space in my office, but by clearing out all the junk, I discovered I had plenty of space for the things I need to actually do my work.

Now, after a full car load to the recycling center and another to Good Will, I have a clean, spacious office. And far from feeling like I had to "make do," I feel so rich - everything I needed was already here!