I started 2014 with plans to sort out my desk. Not that it was particularly disorganised, except for the week around Christmas when everything got dumped on it. But I’d seen lots of pictures on the Internet of cool looking desk spaces. I’d read blog posts about people organising their working space. I’d subscribed to decluttering calendars that suggested I should be setting up a bill-paying station, and labelling file boxes.

My desk in the strictest sense of the word is a bureau. It has a lid that flaps down to make a desk space. There are lots of cubby holes to randomly store things in. It has 3 deep drawers stuffed full of fabric, stationery, and board games. It’s next to a window and has my pinboard full of random stuff above it.

What do I do at my desk?

So in an organised fashion, I sat down to think about what kinds of tasks I did at my desk, and what supplies I might need as a result. I thought about the time I spent reading, typing, blogging, making lists, paying bills, filing, and sewing.

This was when I came to the conclusion that my desk is just part of a wider desk network within my house which takes in comfy chairs, floors, staircases, and a dining table.

The only thing I always do at my desk is use my sewing machine (although I did do this on the floor for some years).  I read all over the place, both paper and online. When dealing with paperwork and filing I use the floor to spread them out. I sometimes blog at my desk but I am just as likely to do it from a comfy chair or sitting on the basement stairs. I like to fill in the New Year Revolution, and my diary while in bed.

What do you do at your desk?

So I asked some chums about where they did activities you might expect to do at a desk. It did sound a tad Family Fortunes but they confirmed the same thing. It’s not that they don’t work at a desk but that they use a host of other locations too. Tables in coffee shops featured as did tablets on trains. Carla tells me that she types on the sofa her laptop jostling for space with the kittens.

So with this in mind, I’m wondering about how to adapt my entire house to make it my desk. I’m thinking stationery stashes in every room. Maybe moving my sewing supplies into my bureau, and displaying my pens, sticky notes, and paperclips on my sewing shelf.

But I think this also says something about the increasingly blurred line between work and play. And if work is as much fun as play is does it matter? I don’t think so as long as I also get plenty of sleep, good food, and time outside.