Tips for an Organized Office Space

Have you ever walked into an office space that immediately inspired you? Everything is in its place, clutter is non-existent, and there's a sense of calm and productivity in the air. Organizing an office space is not just about tidying up, but also about creating an environment that promotes focus, creativity, and efficiency. In this blog post, we will explore some practical tips for organizing your office space that will not only help you stay organized but also inspire you to do your best work.

Imagine entering an office where the desks are neatly arranged, the files are perfectly labeled, and the shelves are filled with books and plants. The colors are soothing, and the lighting is just right. This kind of environment can have a profound impact on your work performance and overall well-being. So, let's dive into some tips that will help you create an inspiring and organized office space.

In order to create an inspiring office space, the first step is to declutter and simplify your surroundings. Clutter can be a major distraction and can hinder your ability to focus and be productive. Start by going through all the items in your office and getting rid of anything that is no longer useful or necessary. Be ruthless in your decluttering process and only keep the essentials.

Once you have decluttered, it's time to simplify. Simplifying means keeping things minimal and organized. Invest in storage solutions such as bins, shelves, and file organizers to keep everything in its place. Label everything clearly so that you can easily find what you need when you need it. By simplifying your office space, you will create a clean and organized environment that will inspire you to work efficiently.

Furthermore, consider the layout and arrangement of your office furniture. Keep your desk clear of unnecessary items and only have the essentials within reach. Arrange your furniture in a way that allows for easy movement and flow. A clutter-free and well-organized office space will not only make you feel more productive but also create a calming and inspiring atmosphere.

Now that you have decluttered and simplified your office space, it's time to add some personal touches and inspire yourself. Personalizing your office space can help create a sense of ownership and make you feel more comfortable and motivated. Hang up pictures of loved ones, display artwork that inspires you, or add a touch of greenery with some plants. Choose colors that evoke positive emotions and create a calming atmosphere.

In addition to personalizing your office space, it's important to surround yourself with inspiration. Place books related to your field of work on your shelves for easy access. Display quotes or images that motivate and inspire you. Consider creating a vision board where you can pin up your goals and aspirations. By surrounding yourself with inspiration, you will create an environment that sparks creativity and encourages you to do your best work.

Moreover, pay attention to the lighting in your office space. Natural light is ideal, so if possible, position your desk near a window. If natural light is limited, invest in good quality artificial lighting that mimics natural light. Proper lighting not only enhances your mood but also helps reduce eye strain and fatigue, making your office space more inviting and inspiring.

Organizing an office space is not a one-time task but an ongoing process. To maintain an organized and inspiring office, it's important to establish systems and routines. Create a system for managing paperwork, whether it's a physical filing system or a digital one. Set aside time each week to declutter and tidy up your office space. This will prevent clutter from piling up and ensure that your office remains organized and inspiring.

Additionally, establish routines that help you stay focused and productive. Set specific work hours and create a daily to-do list to keep yourself on track. Prioritize your tasks and break them down into manageable chunks. By establishing systems and routines, you will not only stay organized but also create a sense of structure and discipline in your work life.

Finally, don't forget to take regular breaks and incorporate moments of relaxation and inspiration into your workday. Step away from your desk, stretch your legs, and engage in activities that rejuvenate your mind and body. This will help prevent burnout and keep you motivated to maintain an organized and inspiring office space.

An organized office space is more than just a clean and clutter-free environment. It is a space that inspires and motivates you to do your best work. By following these tips for organizing your office space, you can create an environment that promotes focus, creativity, and efficiency. Remember to declutter and simplify, personalize and inspire, and establish systems and routines. With a well-organized and inspiring office space, you will be well on your way to increased productivity and success.

"Joy Checking" Post-KonMari Method

The KonMari Method is supposed to be a magical once in a lifetime process. After performing the method in 2019 to my home, maintaining those existing storage solutions has been straight forward without any issue. HOWEVER, what happens when my life changes and evolves? Everything I did back in 2019 made sense up until mid 2020 and now 2021.

With the pandemic hitting, I needed to pivot to create a workspace for my engineering job along with a home gym. I also had a roommate move out in September 2020 freeing up lots of closet and garage storage space that were his portions of the home I did not organize and declutter. In December of 2020, my partner moved into my home with many of her possessions.

All of these life transitions required me to re-address many of the categories of the KonMari method - Clothing, Books, Komono.

Clothing - My clothing style has changed much since 2019. I have become a Lululemon believer for business attire, casual attire, and workout gear. I was able to go in and swiftly joy check all of the clothing subcategories with this new vision of my style in a matter of an afternoon and consolidate my closet to 1/3 the space. The other 2/3rds I am leaving for my partner to store her items once she is ready to take action.

Books - When I performed the method the first time, I was in a transition for my engineering job and kept lots of my technical content that I needed to reference. In the current direction I am now headed, many technical books got to find a better home.

Komono - During the pandemic, I started roasting lots of coffee and my green bean collection was growing up to 60+ pounds. Coffee storage really needed its own home, so now they are in a single 20 gallon tub in my closet. With my roommate moving out, I also got to re-evaluate many of the closet storage areas by adding vertical space.

Many of the photos you can find on my Instagram feed :)

Just because you did the method once, you could probably use a touch up here or there as your life evolves.

Life At Home: March - June

Where have I been and what have I been up to these past 3 months since the start of COVID in America? What does the future of home organization look like for me? Let’s find out.

Most of you probably have seen my last Thought post of coming back from London right at the start of the virus happenings in America, but here we are exactly 3 months later. Once returning home, my day job as an Engineer transferred to working from home. I ended up created my “office space” in the kitchen, a place I never thought I would end up working from.

March 2020 - Kitchen Table Office

March 2020 - Kitchen Table Office

It was also really interesting going to the grocery store to get basics as everyone was panic purchasing at the time. Everyone at this time was also afraid of everyone else breathing on each other it seemed. The beaches and boardwalks were closed. Gyms were closed. The only time I left my house was to go for afternoon runs.

Panic buying of paper products at Ralph’s in Pacific Beach

Panic buying of paper products at Ralph’s in Pacific Beach

It took a few weeks for me to get into the swing of things being at home most of the time. I laid out some goals I wanted to achieve during this time.

Build a gym and maintain normal workouts. Weights were very difficult to acquire during this time but after enough persistence and Amazon pre-ordering I was able to build a full set of 10-35 pounds dumbbells with a bench.

Home Gym Setup

Home Gym Setup

Roasting my own coffee beans - I’ve always been a fan of great coffee and usually purchased beans for the weekends from micro roasters from all over the place. I was going through coffee really fast at home now and wanted to find a way to reduce spending while getting great quality coffee still. I purchased a Popcorn roaster to start with. Most beginners go down this path - So far i’ve roasted around 10 pounds of beans from various sources since April. I love being able to consume something that I’ve made myself! Please reach out if you are interested in this hobby!

Home Coffee Roasting!

Home Coffee Roasting!

Roasted Beans

Roasted Beans

Playing guitar more frequently. I decided to re-arrange my music setup to have everything I needed in one corner of my home to allow playing music on any instrument or amplifier instant. I’ve somehow enjoyed playing Nickelback and Creed songs regardless of what others may think about them. It was a running joke to play their songs in our household but it really caught on. Just ask Justin or Natalie next time around.

Living Room Music Corner

Living Room Music Corner

Start bicycling again. I recently traded one of my road bikes for a gravel bike and have been riding the neighborhood and fiesta island multiple times a week. It’s been an enjoyable way of getting fresh air and exercise at the same time. Fiesta is closed to vehicle traffic for almost another month so I can do laps around it without worrying about cars trying to run me over.

2019 Giant Anyroad 1 Gravel Bike

2019 Giant Anyroad 1 Gravel Bike

The last thing that I’ve enjoyed doing was standard household maintenance. I cleaned my dryer vent out since laundry was taking longer times to dry. I don’t think it’s ever been cleaned in the 20+ years my condo has been around. Sometimes it’s the little things that give you enjoyment and satisfaction.

Dryer Vent Cleaning

Dryer Vent Cleaning

I’ve done a lot of self-satisfying things, but where does Home Organization currently stand in my life? The entire industry was basically shut down during COVID so I really knew it wasn’t worth my efforts to put in much work if I couldn’t go into someone’s home at the time to help them declutter and store items. As the state of California slowly has been re-opening again, I’ve started back up doing sessions with existing trusted clients. Just this past weekend I was able to help a client re-organize an entire kitchen storage and pantry!

Konmari Kitchen Session Sample

Konmari Kitchen Session Sample

I want to keep helping as many people as I can with their clutter moving forward - virtually or safely in person. I know it’ll take time for the industry to get rolling again but I’ll be ready for any twists or turns that come my way throughout the process.

Stay safe. Stay well.

The history of DJ Quanson

I thought today would be a good opportunity to share some stories about my life with you. One of the stages in my life was my DJ career that probably spanned a solid 5 years where I went by the name “DJ Quanson”. I know there are some of you out there who have seen me play live or heard about what I previously did through casual conversations. Here is a brief history behind this venture and where I currently am today with DJ Quanson. Pictures included in this summary too!

Growing up, I was always a big fan of music - listening, playing in a band, going to shows. My favorite genres have always been punk rock, metal, and hardcore since as early as I can remember. Around 2010 I started listening to electronic music quite a bit on Sirius XM BPM. This was probably the time when DJ’s started to become mainstream. Being the dreamer I am, I asked the question - why aren’t there more DJ’s out there who mix the music I like to listen to and not all the “mainstream” stuff. I wanted to hear some punk rock and metal thrown together! I decided to make that happen myself.

November 2014 I ordered my Pioneer DDJ-SB DJ controller to mess around on my Mac mini desktop. I remember the first groups I tried mixing together were Northlane, Knucke Puck, The Story So Far, Enter Shikari, Arhitects, etc. I’m sure you haven’t heard of any of these groups but I had a blast doing so! Around the same time. I put out a few mixes on Mix.lr back when that was the way to broadcast live mixes to the world. I had some selections of electronic music but not too much around this time.

November 2014 - First practice DJ Setup

November 2014 - First practice DJ Setup

Word got around that I had a DJ controller in 2015 and I was asked to play a private casino night event at board room of an apartment complex. Of course I wanted to give this a shot and try something new! At this time I didn’t have ANY equipment besides my controller and Mac mini. I borrowed lights, computer monitors, a sound system to pull this event off. The biggest problem was I didn’t have any MAINSTREAM music that a general audience would want to hear. Like most instances, its who you know and not what you know. Luckily I had a friend who was a DJ around town that let me use his music library for this event. I didn’t really know any of the songs and could barely beat-match properly at this time. I ended up performing at the event and it went well and I learned so much about performing.

June 2015 - First DJ gig with mostly borrowed equipment.

June 2015 - First DJ gig with mostly borrowed equipment.

After the casino night event I felt lots of momentum moving forward. This was when I decided to brand myself as DJ Quanson. The name Quanson comes from my college fraternity days where there were multiple Michael’s in our organization so we would all be referred to by last name. Quanson was one of the names I was referred to by some close friends so I decided I would carry that forward. I wanted to create a logo but didn’t know anything about graphic design at the time. Once again its about who you know, so I had a friend create the logo you see below.

August 2015 - First and only logo

August 2015 - First and only logo

Around this time of getting my “brand” up and running I decided to purchase a laptop computer so I didn’t have to borrow as much equipment to get my mobile setup up and running. I was also asked to play at one of my friends pool parties which would allow me to casually experiment with new techniques and songs.

August 2015 - Summer pool party

August 2015 - Summer pool party

After the pool party, I was asked to play another casino night - same organizers and spot as my first event. This time I was more prepared with my laptop and lighting although I still borrowed a sound system. I remember at this event having an active dance floor in front of me which was an awesome feeling that people were “feeling” off the music I was playing.

September 2015 - Casino Night 2.0

September 2015 - Casino Night 2.0

After this second casino night event I felt great about my new found DJ career. I was then asked by a friend to perform at an Oktoberfest event at the Tin Roof, a bar downtown San Diego. Of course I accepted the event, but was extremely nervous since this is the first time I would be playing in front of complete strangers on an actual stage. For this event I actually did lots of preparation of a song list and mixing strategies. I actually got people on the dance floor for this event too which was awesome. After this event I realized that my go-to specialty tunes were late 90’s early 00’s pop hits - a complete departure from punk rock and metal.

October 2015 - Oktoberfest at Tin Roof, San Diego

October 2015 - Oktoberfest at Tin Roof, San Diego

Things were on a roll here it seemed. I was referred to others to perform a Halloween party in Pacific Beach at the Night Owl bar. Not many people can say they’ve DJ’ed at this fine establishment. This was when I knew I needed to get more equipment - my own huge speakers, more lights, more everything. I had a blast doing this event and it was really fun to perform on the busiest night in Pacific Beach.

October 2015 - Halloween at the Night Owl in Pacific Beach.

October 2015 - Halloween at the Night Owl in Pacific Beach.

At this point I thought I’d be done for the year with the holidays coming up…Think again! I was referred to play a private event at the world famous Razor House in La Jolla. Alicia Keys currently owns this house. I stepped it up even more this time and got bigger speakers. This was the probably one of the coolest events I was able to play.

razorhouse.jpg

2015 was finally over with lots of momentum heading into 2016. I was then asked to play my first wedding at a winery. I had never done a wedding before but was up for the challenge. Preparing the playlist for each portion of the evening and following a set time line was probably the biggest portion of the wedding. The stakes were really high too because any sort of mess up could ruin the couples special day. We went back and forth a few times with all the songs the couple wanted for each portion of the ceremony and reception and everything turned out perfectly with no hiccups! First wedding under my belt complete.

April 2016 - Winery wedding in Ramona, CA

April 2016 - Winery wedding in Ramona, CA

After my first wedding, in the summer of 2016 I ended up doing my first house warming party, then another small backyard wedding.

July 2016 - House warming party

July 2016 - House warming party

July 2016 - Backyard wedding

July 2016 - Backyard wedding

After the summer of 2016, I did a night time pool party. This was when I acquired a bunch of new music to experiment with which gave me new energy and variety to keep it interesting. I also was able to do the Oktoberfest event at the Tin Roof once again. Things were starting to get stale around this period of time for me as many of the events I was doing used a similar set of music and I no longer got the “nerves” prior to each event. Everything was still “cool” but nothing really excited me like it did in the first place.

September 2016 - Night time pool party

September 2016 - Night time pool party

October 2016 - Oktoberfest at Tin Roof, San Diego

October 2016 - Oktoberfest at Tin Roof, San Diego

In November 2016, I also got another interesting opportunity to just throw up some speakers and hit play on a pre-set playlist at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. One of my favorite parts of each event was always seeing how the space was set up and the organizer letting me be a part of their experience.

November 2016 - Air and Space Museum event

November 2016 - Air and Space Museum event

Also in November of 2016, I was able to do another wedding of 2 of my good friends that were getting married in San Diego. This wedding was beautiful and I was so glad to be a part of the couples special day. At this point, I had all my equipment and setups optimized so little prep work needed to be put into an event. At this time I felt like DJ Quanson was slowly winding down too and this was a great way to slowly put this business to rest.

November 2016 - San Marcos Wedding

November 2016 - San Marcos Wedding

At this point if I wanted to DJ again, I wanted it to be a fun event where I could show up throw on some tunes and have a good time rather than lots of expectations from the client. What better way to do that than a one-off house party.

February 2017 - Masquerade House party

February 2017 - Masquerade House party

I ended up putting DJ Quanson to sleep for the almost the rest of 2017 as it no longer “Sparked Joy” in my life at this time period and I didn’t see much happening in the future. I felt really satisfied with what I accomplished and the events I was able to perform at. There was always one thing that I never got to do though…..DJ a Night Club. At the end of 2017, I was asked to do event at Fluxx Nightclub downtown San Diego - I couldn’t say no to this one! After dusting off the equipment and getting a refresh in music I was able to execute the event and felt extremely satisfied at the end of it. There’s nothing cooler than being the source of infinite bass in a super packed club where people are having a fun night out. I ended up doing this same event in 2018 also!

December 2017 - Fluxx Nightclub

December 2017 - Fluxx Nightclub

December 2018 - Fluxx Nightclub San Diego

December 2018 - Fluxx Nightclub San Diego

In the summer of 2019 after performing the Konmari method on my home, I made the conscious decision that DJing was no longer really a part of my current lifestyle and future life. I sold off almost all of my mobile DJ equipment (speakers, lights, cables, etc.) I ended up keeping my DJ Controller and a few lights in case I wanted to have a fun moment or another unique opportunity popped up where I could plug into someone else’s sound system. All in all, I had some great times over the 5 years of doing it - there is a time and place for each and everything in our lives and we must always keep moving forward with the next adventure!