Snoopy is upside down; the bed is a mess. Welcome to my office. On good days, I have a desk. On bad days, I have a chair. But…I have evolved.
Years ago, I could not possibly have worked in this chaos. I’d have spent the whole morning cleaning up the room in order to work in it. But parenting and life have whipped the type-A out of me. That’s a luxury for times of plenty, not chaos. And the job has to get done, so ultimately do you want to spend your time cleaning or working? I can always clean up later. You know, kind of like cleaning up after the storm has passed…
I don’t know why, but I move around the house a lot, in terms of work space. Sometimes, I’m at the dining room table, sometime I’m on the couch, and sometimes I’m in an armchair. One thing I’ve noticed is that I really like to work from the couch because there is a loveseat perpendicularly situated next to it, which forms a corner.
I like corners. They’re cozy. They also make me feel grounded. When I taught preschool, the way the room was set up was important because research has shown that young children learn well in cozy settings with lots of divisions. This makes them feel safe. Too much space is overwhelming.
Perhaps, in this period of enforced domesticity moving around the house gives me a sense of adventure, of trying new things in different settings. It seems I am traveling around the house, hopefully preparing for the travel that will take place one day, once more, in the not-too-distant future.