How to arrange &organize home office in 8x10 room, 1 window. wide door

Hello Bonbon; I too Love to read, and I too have too many books!!

(Cook Books, in my case)

If you are looking to downsize, I would suggest that you try to sell Some of your books.

Some out of print books are quite valuable.

Look on EBay, and see prices for older books.

If you have Antique books, it would be worthwhile to take them to a Dealer, for prices.

You can sell items at a Home sale, (Yard Sale), online, and also by posting on Craig's List, and at Grocery stores on Bulletin boards.

Papers.....You will have to go through them, and sort.

I would suggest that you only keep what is revelant to you at this time, and what will be needed for the future.

I hope that this helps you!!! If you feel overwhelmed, or need help....Please contact a trusted Friend, or a Family member.

I wish that I were closer, as I would help you!!!! Take Care!

Here are some links that give you different ideas for organization:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/organizing-books-136728

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/organizing-paperwork/?lp=true

https://www.pinterest.com/explore/small-office-organization/?lp=true

Home something in these can help!

Can you post photos for room make over placement?

More bookcases would be the first guess, but you are going to feel boxed in.

I'm thinking some kind of a boxy footrest. Short, with a soft cushion on top. Maybe made out of cut-off shutters or kitchen cabinet doors that open for storing your papers? There are directions for making magazine containers out of cereal boxes, they could go on shelves.

have you considered donating books to a local library? Keep the fav's and share the rest? Have you looked on line at the freebookspot? Read books for free? There are other free sites to read from as well....project Gutenberg is one. I can get them on a desk top computer...have' not tried tablet yet

Could you have a friend take pictures of your room and send them from her computer to yours? A picture of each wall is most helpful. You mention folk tale books, are they hard copy or soft copy? You also mention papers. What kind of papers? I do a craft that employs many images on paper. Christmas tree shoppes have a wonderful 6 drawer stand on wheels that is small and holds an awful lot. I also collect a lot of ephemera, but I do have a storage room in my basement. So you have either a wall 8'wide of bookcases or one 10' wide. Here is one of my bookcases undergoing a purge. the little stand is what I was describing. If you organize (and maybe yours are) books by genre; biography, history, literature, poetry etc. You may find copies you can discard. Definitely keep those precious fairy tale books but make sure someone knows their value. A comfy chair, good light and footstool, should serve your reading needs.

BobBon, an idea I use a lot is to make your room out of paper.

What you do is draw your floor on the cener of your paper to scale. Then draw each wall perpendicular to its side of the floor. Cut out doors and windows.

Make your furniture out of paper. If floorspace is the only problem, you only need a top view of your furniture to scale. If looks matter, make the top view connected to the front view, fold at top and face edge and use tape to attach to walls.

Now you can arrange your stuff in all sorts of ways and see what works best. You can also try out color schemes!

: )

Sort through your books...maybe you could add one of those "little neighborhood libraries" in your area? For papers, if you could keep at least one shelf in one cabinet free, use baskets with lids to store unsightly papers until you get a chance to really sort through them. Good luck! https://littlefreelibrary.org/

read some of the other comments and came back to share my experience trying to sell some of our books. I called a renowned book store in our area and the dealer told me how they work would be to come to my home, select books from the shelves, make a pile of them and offer a flat fee. We took some books to a nearby new venue that sells c.d.'s, dvd's etc as well as books, they basically paid by the pound. Not worth our time for the wait for the books to be processed. Our town has a wonderful facility for accepting and giving books. That is better than a library which also has yearly purges.

Hello Bonbon; You are most Welcome.

I am shocked that Your Family does not want any of the Awesome sounding books!!!

It is so nice that you are going to help others!!!

I hope that everything works out well for you!!! Take Care!

Sunny C It seems all who are readers in my family have turned to e books. I admit I have too, I have archived over 400 that I've enjoyed reading and deleted a few . I have a selection of Historical Novel writers that I know I will read again.

The family does want items kept to remember grandmothers and fathers, like WWI and WWII shells and flight records etc. Keepsakes I am sorting for the girls and the guys. Well now I guess we know how all my paper work got into such a mess. I read instead.. Thanks for your good wishes.

Hi BonBon, so interesting to read your post and further comments. I admire teachers so very much. Thank you for the years you invested in our children....it's amazing to talk with my children sometimes and they mention teachers who really impacted them in different ways. My advice would be to decide at the beginning of each week what time you spend "working" in your office and schedule the time to sort through. Allow time to be able to enjoy the process as you look through papers and items you've not seen for a while. Be sure to include a really comfortable chair to read with good light. After getting into the habit of "working" a few times a week (maybe even setting a timer), reward yourself with comfort drink or food and relax in that comfy chair. Maybe turn on some nice music. I'm really talking to myself right now as I have lots of years of momentos and paperwork to sort through myself! 😁

A local store has a container in the front entrance, people put the books in it when they are no longer useful. That is what I did with my college books, a few at a time.