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5^th January 2025

In the US they appear to call it a "home office", but that just makes me think of the government. We call the room where the computers live "the study". Anyway.

The study is a complete mess right now. We recently had some very invasive work done on the house that meant we (and all our furniture etc) had to move out for over a month, so we're still in the process of moving back in. It has been very nice to take the opportunity to replace carpets, paint, swap around furniture, and get plug sockets put in where they can actually be useful. The room felt lovely until it was time to get all the STUFF back in.

A photograph of some of the STUFF - a clear plastic crate containing misc objects such as a cuddly demagorgon from Stranger Things, a folding laptop stand, and a robot-building kit; a yellow storage box filled with stationary; and a black messenger bag that serves as my work bag.

A photograph of some of the STUFF - a clear plastic crate containing misc objects such as a cuddly demagorgon from Stranger Things, a folding laptop stand, and a robot-building kit; a yellow storage box filled with stationary; and a black messenger bag that serves as my work bag.

So of course instead of doing anything that might improve the situation, I'm looking at the "home offices" of various housekeeping bloggers. For "inspiration".

I've delved deep into the archives on a couple of them, following links to related posts, and I just can't get over how much *stuff* is involved. Several different bloggers have two (or more!) full-sized desks in their offices, complete with drawers, additional bookshelves, wall-mounted shelves, wheeled carts, noticeboards, sideboards. Many of their office rooms are bigger than our master bedroom. Of course this is the usual average-US-house-is-more-than-twice-the-size-of-average-UK-house deal combined with the demographic of your typical housekeeping blogger (married with children, spouse earning enough to support the family, running a blog/organising business on the side of being a SAHM), but there's a kind of opulence to it all, albeit one measured in stationary.

a view of our full, cluttered study; a bookshelf, large desk with two monitors, huge desktop PC, and small set of drawers with a printer sat on top, all along one wall with a large office chair partially in frame. The desk is covered in small clutter such as over-the-counter medicine boxes, paperwork, peripherals, and evidence of snacks and drinks.

a view of our full, cluttered study; a bookshelf, large desk with two monitors, huge desktop PC, and small set of drawers with a printer sat on top, all along one wall with a large office chair partially in frame. The desk is covered in small clutter such as over-the-counter medicine boxes, paperwork, peripherals, and evidence of snacks and drinks.

The only alternative perspective, at least among the content creators I'm at all familiar with, is the hard-core minimalist setup of just a macbook perched wherever they happen to be sitting. Which is pretty similar to how I'm typing this right now (laptop on my lap, slouched on the sofa), but isn't practical for doing my actual job, or possible for my husband's huge gaming PC with multiple monitors and peripherals. And while we'll never have enough paper to require a filing cabinet, there are enough documents to necessitate several ring-bound folders.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. Just another manifestation of seeing the appeal of minimalism from an aesthetic/Sim-Environment-bar perspective but finding it completely impractical for day-to-day life, I guess.