So, Organization Point #1: A Gorgeous & Neat Work Environment. This is a beautifully organized workspace. I am not quite sure what’s going on in that bottom shelf on the right, but I like that there is one little messy element. That magazine file on the desktop can hide a multitude of sins and serve as an inbox without messing things up. I can’t quite tell what is in the Catherine Holm casserole dish, but it sure looks neat and organized. I would not have thought to use a casserole dish that way. I’m sure it would get a lot more use on my desk than in my kitchen. The drawers in the vintage desk provide plenty of space for everything to be tucked away. Also, check out how organized the art arrangement is. With everything lined up neatly like this in a similar color palette, you could hang pages from a lovely glossy and it would look fantastic!

Organization Point #2: Using tumblr. Does anyone out there use tumblr? What do you use it for? For those of you who don’t know or don’t care to blog, you may find you really enjoy tumblr. It’s kind of like tweeting but with photos, at least for me. It is also a very simple way to dip your toes into blogging, as it certainly isn’t all about photos. That’s just what I use it for. Anyway, you can peruse everyone’s blogs right on the site in one easy feed, and mark your favorite posts. You can also re-post those that you like.

So, how does this help you get organized? The result is that you can create style files of your favorite images. You can also tag them. For example, when I want to look at inspiring black and white designs I’ve been collecting, I can go into my own tumblr blog and search “black and white” and they’ll all come up in a wonderful stream (here is mine if you want to see what I mean). The catch is that you have to be an obsessive compulsive tagger to make this work. Overall, it’s the perfect spot to store all kinds of inspiration and ideas. If you do post to tumblr, please remember to give credit to publications/websites/blogs/photographers if you are using their images.

Here are just a few of my favorite design people to follow on tumblr (tumblr has even informed me that they are among my “tumblr crushes” because I mark their images as favorites the most often!):

The Brick House

Yvestown

Design Evolution (this post Michelle wrote is how I found out just what the heck tumblr was in the first place – seriously, how does everyone keep up with the latest and greatest web tool? It’s ridiculously overwhelming!)

The Beautiful Soup

My Farmhouse

P.S. Doesn’t this office fit the color palette from yesterday? It does a much better job than I did, and it wasn’t even trying!

Ah, Organization Week has come to an end! Thanks so much to everyone who participated in Organization Week. I’m feeling motivated and hopeful, and you have all provided me with some clear and easy ways to get a jump-start on getting organized.

Here’s a roundup of our guest bloggers’ websites and blogs:

Penelope Loves Lists

Unclutterer / Unclutter Your Life in One Week (mine is on its way from Amazon)

The Kitchen Designer / Susan Serra Associates Inc.

Turquoise L.A. Blog / Vanessa de Vargas’s Design Site for Turquoise L.A.

The Office Stylist / Sorting with Style

The City Sage

Here are a few more sites I check on for Organizational Inspiration. Please add your favorites in the comments section so I can add them and have a more comprehensive list. I need all the organizing help I can get.

Chez Larsson’s Organization Page

Flylady

February’s Lonnymag is chock full of  FABULOUS jewelry storage ideas.

The Ten Habits of Highly Organized People over at Oprah.com. Oprah’s putting her closet cleanout stuff up on eBay. I spied a pair of Prada Venice Print pumps, size 40 on the cover of the magazine…

Flickr Group Pretty Organized

I’m going to be following Paola as she tackles her home office for the next three weeks.

A great round-up of Storage and Cabinets in this Canadian House & Home (LOVE that magazine) Photo Gallery

I am pretty new to digital magazines. While I love my glossies, so many of them have disappeared lately that I am turning to the internet. Online magazines are only getting better and better lately – they have such a professional look, they feature people that we won’t see in the big magazines like Elle Decor and House Beautiful, at least not yet, they have much shorter load times than they used to and they have become really easy to “flip through”. To me they are the media that exists between blogs and print magazines. I’m digging them, and who can resist that orange, black and white cover? I LOVE IT!  I had not heard of Nesting Newbies until I saw a link to it in an email I received from one of our soon-to-be-featured guest bloggers. They are now on issue 2 (yup, that sounds about right for how long it takes me to hear about something new and exciting), and I LOVE their philosophy. I think they said it best themselves, so I am going to quote:

NestingNewbies.com is a cross platform experience featuring a quarterly digital shelter magazine, online cooking segments, and informational blogs aimed at showing those who are new to nesting how to cook, entertain, and decorate.

NestingNewbies.com combines a traditional magazine format with the new social media trend of original online videos and blogs to present a cross-platform experience for “nesting newbies,” the site’s target audience of those who are new to nesting and have no clue when it comes to cooking, entertaining, and decorating. Cooking and decorating enthusiasts will also enjoy the original ideas being presented.

It sounds like just what  a lot of us need these days! To peruse the winter issue, click here.

Cover via NestingNewbies.com, photographed by Michael Soo, showroom by Maloos Anvarian.

photo © Ken’ichi Suzuki // Image Courtesy of MOUNT FUJI ARCHITECTS STUDIO via Yatzer

Photo by: Saxon Holt/PhotoBotanic

I was flipping through the latest issue of Garden Design the other day and The Late Show Gardens jumped off the page at me. It’s a garden show in Sonoma that starts with sustainable design as a no-brainer base and creates art from it. For example, plants that cleanse contaminated water and soil help shape thoughtful spaces. Peruse the whole shebang over at gardendesign.com, if you are not convinced, here’s a little teaser!

Photo by Mitch Maher

all photos via gardendesign.com

In spite of all the Fat Tires I drank Saturday night, I was in heaven this Sunday. The Atlanta Journal Constitution featured Tim Hobby’s home. Tim could very well be the most design-savvy man in all of Atlanta. He owns a store called SPACE, and I first saw his interior design work at my former next-door-neighbor Mike’s house, which was also featured in the AJC recently. I am loving the new male demographic that this paper has tapped into for its home features lately! They even featured DA-WIGHT from Real Housewives of Atlanta awhile back (his style wasn’t really for me, but it was fun to see how he lives!).

Tim does a great job of keeping things modern and clean without being stark and lifeless. A few thoughtful moves give his place a lot of personality. He is a master at creating interesting vignettes while having the perfect eye for the big picture. I can look at his living room, then look around mine and think “If Tim Hobby were here he’d ixnay those stacks of magazines and that throw and that bowl and put all these white items together” etc. Looking at this slideshow helps inspire me to get rid of some of my clutter and make everything cohesive.

photos by Sean Drake for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

from Amy Lau Design via Houzz

from flickr member kellylj

from flickr member Hoot and Heart Company

from flickr member coco + kelley

from flickr member Habitually Chic (I think this was originally in Domino magazine)

from flickr member lookiloos

from flickr member lotuslily

from Style Redux (follow that link for a glamorous round-up of bar carts)

photo via from Canadian House and Home (by the way, I LOVE that magazine! It’s helping me fill the void left by the loss of some of my favorite shelter mags of late), via The City Sage.

Yesterday I was cruising Tumblr, and one of my favorite rolls to follow over there, my farmhouse, had posted an insanely eclectic living room that made me very curious. It turned out it was designed by Gary Spain Design and I just had to see more. While I cannot seem to find a thorough “about” column, the pictures tell a lot. Gary Spain design’s service include not only interior design, but set design and styling as well. I thoroughly enjoyed going through each slideshow on the site, and there are a wide range of styles included. Here are a few more favorites (it’s hard to choose):

He mixes in bold art and classic busts:

Arranges a perfect David Hicksian tablescape:

Creates serene and beautiful work areas that blend right into any room in the house:

And mixes color, art, and modern to perfection. Wow.

all images via garyspaindesign.com

While I’m thankful that our forefathers got rid of those pesky British taxes that didn’t have representation and all, I am always a sucker for a Union Jack. I think my favorite use of it lately was the quilts featured on Man Shops World by Becky Oldfield. Here are a few more dreamy shots of the U.K.’s flag I’ve been collecting lately:

Check out Timothy Oulton’s sofa:

A dash of Vivienne Westwood (she’s been doing this a long time) via Living Etc.:

From Natural Curiosities:

From Made By Girl:

From Jonathan Adler:

From one of the designers of Libertine, as seen in Domino.

From the fabulous Bonnie Cashin:

From Naked Decor:

Quilt image by William Waldron via Elle Decor
Sofa image by Michael Falco for The New York Times
Living Etc. images by Jo Berryman for Living Etc.
via Natural Curiosities
Bonnie Cashin Foundation