No Room For An Office: Making Space

In 2010, I moved to Arizona after running away from a bad marriage.  I left my home in Southern California, and made a new home in the desert.  While I met some of the most amazing people, a part of me needed to come back to California.  I think I had something to prove to myself, more than anything else.

Two years ago I made the leap and moved back.  I traded the desert sunsets for beach sunrises, and don’t regret a thing.

The biggest transition turned out to be downsizing from a three bedroom house to a one bedroom condo (that costs hundreds of dollars more).

Trying to write while hunched over the laptop in my bed or crunched up on the couch became a barrier and slowed my writing to nearly nonexistent.  It became a constant excuse, a reason to forgo writing attempts for a Netflix marathon.  This past weekend, I decided enough was enough.  I am planning to publish a novel within the year, and the only way to make that my reality is to, well, write.

Researching office spaces was fruitless, or rather not in the current budget by a long shot.  So, it was time to get creative.  My first thought was to convert the detached garage into a makeshift workspace, but it would be difficult to make it comfortable and functional and wi-fi would be hotspot only.  All in all, wasn’t going to work.

Then, it dawned on me that we never eat in the dining room.  Why waste an inch of space when it’s so valuable?  So, we set to work converting the unused dining room to an amazing office space on a budget.

 

Several quick trips to Walmart, the dollar store, and Big Lots later…we were ready to start the conversion.  Using the dining room table as the desk saved big bucks right off the bat, and the chair was a marketplace deal I found in the neighborhood (half the cost of a new one and in new condition).

Walmart provided the whiteboards (around 17 bucks a piece) and the bulletin board was a score at 7 bucks.  Décor was found at the 99 Cent Only Store, and all matched the preexisting paint perfectly.  The carpet ($9 clearance) and the Filing Cabinet ($34) both came again from Walmart, and finished the room off.

I sat in the chair, imagining what I would need to successfully rip apart draft after draft of my current and future novels.  That’s how I ended up with two white boards.  Honestly, if I could turn all the walls into white boards, I would be in writing heaven.  All in all, I ended up with an amazing and inspiring office area that instantly gets me in the mood to write, on a small budget with very little space.

The moral of the story, there is always a way to overcome the excuses that keep you from reaching your goals.  There is always a way, you just have to find it.