How to Manage Messy Cords and Papers

Remember when I shared our new Secretary Desk? Our little office? Well I am here with an update. It was kept perfect and so organized for a couple of weeks or actually months. But once my girls discovered how fun it was to color and do their homework here it started to get messy. Oh and then Christmas hit and this became the dumping ground. Then we needed to charge the phones, iPads and laptop and the mess of cords just took over. So I partnered with Native Union to share how we were able to manage messy cords and papers in our home office…how to keep it under control! 

Since we do not have a big fancy office this little secretary desk functions as our office. And it is front and center in our living room. The first thing you see when you walk in our home. So having it look like this….with all the cords a mess and papers everywhere was no good. I snapped this quick photo the day before I decided to tackle this area. You ready for this? Because I’m not!

I would sit her to work on rare occasions or I would quickly charge my laptop or phone. I really just wanted to close it back up. Hide this messy secret! Until now…

I have to say the new Eclipse Charging Station really got me excited to get this area organized and all the cords cleaned up. After tackling this I can say I enjoy working here and now it functions even better for me.

First let me quickly tell you more about the Eclipse Charging Station and how it keeps all our cords organized! It comes with three USB ports to charge three devices all at once and it only uses up one power outlet. All of the cords can be stored within the device when they aren’t in use. It rises with a double tap and lets out a subtle halo of light so you can easily find cables in the dark.

The best part is it charges quickly!

I never knew I needed this, but I am so happy we have it!  And I made some other small changes I want to share.

TIP- ONLY KEEP THINGS IN THE SPOT WHERE THEY ACTUALLY GET USED!

Notice how I have some books stacked on the shelf? Well they look cute but I do not use them daily or weekly…or really at all. I went through and evaluated each piece and only kept things that I actually use in this exact spot. The books got moved, the markers, the bag of cards and anything else that we didn’t need here. 

These are the only things that I keep in this little desk that I use often or would only use here- checks, stapler, pencil sharpener, my drafting supplies, any outgoing mail or papers (that I need to tackle that week), my camera because it is easy access and I use it multiple times a day, journal and work books. 

I try to live by the motto “Touch it Once”. For instance school papers from the kids can be a big mess…daily! Anyone else?? So when the kids come in the door with all their papers we look at them together and decide if they are recycle or love enough to save.

If it is a paper/note/art project that we love enough to save-

I take a quick photo of it with my phone. Uploaded the art project to their private Instagram account. Then we use Chat Books that automatically prints a little paper book, after 60 images are uploaded (then those papers get put in recycle). There are a few art projects and journals that we do save the originals and those go into a Rubermade container that we keep in the bookcase in our family room. 

*If we don’t have time to look at the papers right then they go into our little command station in our kitchen. (I shared a picture of it with my email subscribers…a little behind the scenes). 

Now that our little home office is a little more organized I tackled another little spot that was driving me nuts with the cords and papers. 

My nightstand! I had a mess of cords here, that would all appear at night. And my girls would put their iPads here if they wanted me to charge them. Not to mention I would bring my laptop to bed to finish up any blog posts or emails after the kids went to bed. So phone- laptop and iPads cords all charging here…in this little spot. 

I got an Eclipse Charger for here also! I loved it so much in our little Secretary Desk I figured I needed one here too. Although now I have the girls charge their iPads in the Secretary Desk on that charger. My hopes is that this Eclipse Charger only gets used for my phone and occasionally laptop.

Thanks Native Union for Sponsoring this post and my lovely readers who support shops that support Nesting with Grace to keep it up and running. 

You can find an Eclipse Charger HERE and my wish list is THIS marble charger!

Order now to give as a great Christmas Gift!

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