It's a Simple Thing!™ "Office on Wheels"

I’m finally getting around to offering another It’s a Simple Thing!™ With any luck, I will be able to keep these coming for you.

For those who aren’t already aware, my past career was that of a residential organizer and this was born out of my own personal need for organization and not my innate ability to actually be organized. Over the years I learned how to develop natural systems and strategies for everyday actions and work within those systems. But you can’t just start using a system and be done, the system won’t necessarily always work. More often than not, systems need to change and evolve as your life changes as evolves. Take our office for example. We have an actual office right off our living room complete with a large desk that houses a computer, printer, supplies, etc. Back in the day, I needed this space to work as well as use it for personal family business. But along came baby #2 and holing up in a separate room to use the computer, pay a bill, make a phone call, etc. was no longer reasonable and ridiculously inconvenient. We found ourselves using the office less and less and eventually the only computer we used was a laptop. The only way I ever got to check e-mail or do anything on the computer in the year following Baby’s birth was by placing the laptop on a little folding table and going online while I was nursing! I became quite adept at e-mailing and web surfing one handed with a baby attached. Then eventually the laptop was used on the dining room table where I can fairly easily do computer work while the little guy happily plays nearby. But a computer is not the only office item I need to use on a regular basis as various supplies are necessary along with all the other fun “paperwork”. So, in case you’re not sure where I’m going with this the bottom line is that what used to have a place in the office was starting to pile up on the dining room table and suddenly our previous system became a non-system. Not to mention when papers would come in that required filing no one actually wanted to file them, let alone take the trip to the office to get to the filing cabinet. Receipts would pile up and other things that were being worked on simply sat in “piles”. Oh how I hate piles! So it became clear we needed a new system.

Enter this handy little item:

This is a rolling cabinet with a file drawer, two other drawers, racks on both sides, a removable caddy for the top with three small spaces and one large space, an open shelf and a pull out writing shelf. Basically it allows me to store my laptop when not in use, have a place for action items, pending, reference, files, receipts, and other items to be read. I’m currently keeping this in the kitchen/dining room area, but it’s easily tucked out of sight by simply rolling it into another room or even a closet. {Now, because I know I'll be asked I'll provide the info on this thing even though I'm not doing an official review or being compensated by the company. I hope they appreciate the free plug! If you're interested you can find this item here.}

This "office on wheels" cannot completely replace an entire office of course, but it comes close enough that the other items that are still needed (paper, supplies, etc.) can be stored elsewhere in a fairly small amount of space. We still have to go to the office to go pick up a print job, but we can at least print wirelessly through the laptop. I am loving this new system and I’m actually happy to not have an office because frankly, that just screams “work” and I’ve got plenty of that in various forms without an entire room taunting me with more!