My New ARTHaven–Order and Chaos

The second of two posts today.

Much of my time today was spent clearing boxes from the spare room, in order to make room for the removal men to bring furniture in on Monday when we move house. There were a few remaining ARTHaven boxes to sort out, as well as some stuff I’d already unpacked and stacked against the walls – a bad move as it turned out, as it all got very dusty, and also I discovered it was much easier and more sensible to unpack the boxes in the ARTHaven itself rather than carrying all the stuff through unpacked. One lives and learns.

This is the spare room now.

Not a box in sight!

After what looked like a very ordered and tidy work space the other day, chaos is starting to reign again as stuff got dumped all around my ARTHaven. Why is it that being tidy takes so much work, but being untidy involved no work at all?

My poor ARTHaven… This is the view towards the textile zone, which you can now barely see. Most of the boxes will eventually be unpacked into the bedroom, and for now there’s no room anywhere else for them that will not involve the removal men bringing stuff in. It will all get cleared eventually, I suppose, but at the moment it’s a rather depressing sight!

It was not all chaos, though. The rest of my time was spent organising my office. My hubby brought over a few more office boxes today with things I shall no longer need here at home in the last few days before the move. It’s looking really great, and I look forward to working in this dedicated office space. On the right you can see the old metal Ikea pan rack from the utility room. I didn’t want to get rid of it but was hard pressed to find a home for it, and eventually it found its way into the office. It is going up on the wall under the shelf on the right where it fits just fine. It will be handy for putting extra things on, and I can also hang things from it with hooks.

The new wall shelves have proved not strong enough for my stacks of paper, and these now reside in the bottom of the bedroom wardrobe. It’s an ideal place because the floor is about as strong as you can get, and it will be easily accessible when I want it, but out of the way most of the time, and there is more than adequate wardrobe space in the bedroom.

On the left of the picture, you can see my cork pinboard propped up. This is going in the space underneath the wall shelf with my ring binders on it.

Yesterday my hubby brought the small black desk up from downstairs, and this has slotted in beautifully on the left of the main desk, with its end partially concealed under the big desk. I have actually ended up with more of it being exposed than I expected, with the bookcase up against the door frame into the ARThaven proper, and then the filing cabinet.

I also plugged in my red clip-on spot light which I haven’t been able to use for ages, and this gives good light onto the desk. I also have my big red floor-standing anglepoise lamp to bring over on Monday and this will stand where the pan rack is currently resting.

Once I have sorted the stuff on the right hand wall shelf, I am going to use this for my computer software instruction books and various other bits and pieces, and also as a gallery for displaying the little treasures I rescued when we were clearing out Mum and Dad’s house – things that Dad made, and also some family photos. The wall clock will go on the end wall above the desk.

I am very pleased indeed with how all the work has gone today – mine, my hubby’s and the builders’. Only a few days to go now! I can’t believe it’s all happening at last.