A Wedding Invitation Designer Gets Home Office Makeover

This summer I had the pleasure of working with wedding invitation designer Steph Brown of Oh My! Designs on her home office. When she contacted me, she had gotten to a point where her office was becoming unruly, and needed help whipping it into shape. From our initial consultation, I knew from seeing Steph’s office over Zoom that it had a lot of potential to be both functional and beautiful with the right design and products in place.

Her unique challenge as the owner of a stationery business was to create and maintain a system for her sizable inventory paper stock, office supplies, and shipping materials, all in a small, shared space.

To accomplish this, the room had to be redesigned to accommodate new and repurposed office furniture that would maximize storage space and fit all of the new containers to house Steph’s inventory. A lot of precise measuring and product comparison was necessary to find items that were the perfect fit, which was all the more satisfying when it all came together!

See below for the Before and Afters, and then keep scrolling for my conversation with Steph about the project.

Ample desk drawers provided much needed storage space. The packing materials in the corner were relocated to the other side of the room to a newly created shipping station.

We repurposed this larger bookshelf from another part of the room to expand the cubby space. At first glance it looks like the same bookshelf but it is a bit bigger, and those extra inches helped in getting everything to fit and up off the floor.

A taller and wider bookshelf along with extra shelves allowed for everything to fit and be accessible. We moved it to the other side of the closet door to make room for a shipping station in this corner.

We moved a standing desk from the other side of the room to this corner to create a shipping station. The desk provides much needed surface area for packaging up invitations to send to clients.

What are some of the biggest challenges in running a wedding invitation business from your home?

There are so many moving parts and lots of supplies + materials! I’m typically working with multiple clients at once, so I’ll have each order in the office at a different point in the process. It can quickly get chaotic if I’m not staying on top of things. I need space for designing (at my desk), printing, and assembly.

I also have a collection of leftover paper, envelopes, and materials that I stock alongside extras of my most popular items. There are a few different sizes of everything and they’re constantly moving in and out of being stored to being used.

I truly feel like I have the best job ever, but sometimes running a business from home can lead to overwhelm if your space isn’t set up for success.

What was the point when you decided to bring in help for your office?

I’ve tried in the past to organize myself, but it was always a quick fix - never for the long term. With Covid, I had a lot of work put on hold and the time to devote to making over my office. I knew it was something I needed real help with to create a system I could stick to.

What surprised you the most about the process of working with a home organizer?

How you could look at something and so quickly see a solution or better way to do it. You bring a totally new perspective to the room and really look at the big picture. I was constantly surprised by all the small adjustments that could be made to make a huge difference.

What would you say was the biggest benefit of working with a home organizer?

My favorite part and the biggest benefit was the work you did outside of my office - mocking up the room, researching products and furniture, giving me different options, and providing a shopping list. Having everything measured out so it would all fit perfectly together and I didn’t even have to think about it!

What is it like now working in your newly organized space?

This room is totally transformed and it’s brought me so much energy to work in here. I absolutely love being in this space and feel mentally refreshed. It’s so important to my creativity, productivity, and processes to have a space that allows me to do my best work!

Thank you Steph!

About Oh My! Designs:

I work with modern couples to create pretty paper for their big day. The wedding invitation is the first impression of the entire event, so I make sure it counts. oh my! designs is based in San Diego, California and serves clients worldwide!

www.ohmydesignsbysteph.com

instagram.com/ohmydesigns_

When Organizing Meets Sustainability

Getting organized is becoming more and more mainstream in the U.S., which means more people are aware of the benefits of tidying up than ever before. You’re likely already familiar with concepts like how you can save time, money, energy, and sanity by living in an organized space. And how organization in the home leads to better health outcomes, both mentally and physically, for the people that live there.

So I want to take these ideas a step further and talk about what sustainable organization means to me, and why I think it benefits us all to pause and think about this idea on a deeper level. It’s not overstating things to say that we are at an inflection point in regards to consumption in western society which makes this is concept more urgent than ever. Never before in the history of humankind has there been the amount of waste that there is now, both in our landfills and within our homes, and it doesn’t have to be this way.

I’ve been organizing home for several years now, and have been in tiny New York City apartments to suburban mansions. I can tell you from experience that no matter the square footage or the amount of closets, most clients think they have the same problem: Not enough space. You may be thinking, well how can that be the case for everyone, especially in larger homes? It's because we all fall into the same trap of filling our spaces to capacity without thinking if we really need to be doing that. I’m here to tell you that across homes of all shapes and sizes, the problem isn’t a lack of space, its too much stuff.

I bring this up not to shame people, but rather to illustrate that this is a problem that most of us struggle with at some point or another (especially in the U.S.). It’s a systemic problem with our culture of consumption. The more awareness we have around this issue, the more we raise the collective consciousness so that our choices can be more intentional. And yes, corporations are overwhelmingly the biggest polluters; that much is certain. But knowing that fact doesn’t let us off the hook from dealing with what we can control as individuals. Everyone has a responsibility to examine what they bring into their home, even if technically they have enough space for it.

So where does that leave us in terms of getting organized in a responsible, sustainable way? It can be overwhelming to consider when the problem of over-consumption can seem so vast. I made the above Venn diagram as a fun and helpful exercise to see where my definitions of Organization and Sustainability in the home overlap. Here are my 3 main takeaways:

1. Responsibly remove what you don’t use or love

This an umbrella for: Composting, recycling, gifting, donating, and selling. Trash should be a last resort.

2. Use what you already have

Pantry & freezer items, toiletries & beauty products are the big categories here. Check your stock before you shop. Other ideas to consider: shipping material as gift wrap, food jars for pantry & fridge storage, old clothes & towels as cleaning rags, mugs for pencil holders, empty candle votives for make up brushes, phone and shoe boxes for drawer organizers.

3. Only bring in what you need

Only until we take a hard look at our consumption habits will we be able to get our clutter under control. If we do #1 & #2, but keep mindlessly shopping, then that is not sustainable, and we’ll never be truly organized. Ask yourself: do you need to own everything you’ll ever use, or are there some things you can rent or borrow? For the items you purchase, choose only those that align with your values. That can mean shopping second hand, to shopping from an ethical & sustainable company, to buying only what you will love and use for years to come.

I hope this inspires you to pause the next time you click “add to cart”. Look around your space at what you already have, you might realize you don’t really need that organizing product after all. Once you get into that habit, more creative possibilities start to reveal themselves. And, crucially, the planet will thank you.