Unclutterer

1. Posted by Mike D. - 05/21/2010

   Righ-ght. Uh-huh. No printer, no landline, no written or other materials at all, just you and your island in space. Give me a break.

2. Posted by missjulied - 05/21/2010

   For two right-handed people I would have gone with the laptops in opposite configuration (e.g. both on the right side of their side of the desk instead of the left side) so they have more room for writing if needed. When I look at the photo above I keep picturing them fighting for space in the middle.

   But maybe both are lefties.

3. Posted by Marie - 05/21/2010

   Another happy owner of an ancient Powerbook here! My keyboard is in cuneiform. :p

4. Posted by vanessa - 05/21/2010

   Wow! Stunning…I love clean lines!

5. Posted by Sheila - 05/21/2010

   Sure is uncluttered, but totally non-functional, since there’s no accommodation for the paperwork, files, desk accoutrements required to actually do work.

6. Posted by Orson - 05/21/2010

   @Mike.D the landline is physically connected elsewhere in the house, and we use a cordless phone when we use it (not often, cellphones mostly). Inbound paperwork is filed/dealt with as it comes in, and neither of us generate much paper otherwise. Out printer hasn’t been plugged in since we moved in here – 4 months ago. However, the first time I need it, it will be plugged into the ‘server’ computer, which lives elsewhere in the room.

   @missjulied No, we’re both right handed – there’s space to the right of both of us, behind the other’s computer. Mostly, that’s where my coffee cup or a recently eaten from plate sits; we don’t tend to use a lot of paper.

   @Sheila Surely that depends on the nature of the work you do at your desk? There’s a small storage area behind that you can’t see, but that contains almost nothing of what I’d consider ‘desk accoutrements’. The main thing it has is my drawing tablet and pen, but they only come out when they’re going to be in use. We have things like staplers, paper clips etc, but they’re all in another room – very rarely used. We find the area very functional for the way we live our lives.

7. Posted by Orson - 05/21/2010

   A bit more about overall usage.

   For Marie (the user of the machine closest to the camera), her usage is almost all personal. She works 95% of the time elsewhere, using this machine for personal stuff, and checking work email once in a while. A good portion of her usage of this machine is elsewhere in the house.

   For me, I work from home and from an off-site office – the laptop travels with me. There’s an Apple keyboard and mouse that you can’t quite see in that photo that I used at the office all the time, and at home about half the time (I was using them when I shot the image, I’m not today).

   Behind where I sit (the computer next to the wall) you can see a small roll-top cabinet with a bit of stuff in it – cables, paperwork, a charging station, blank and archival DVDs, stuff like that.

   3 years ago, I never would have believed that anyone could work like this; I understand people’s scepticism. Everything that’s on my desk right now, I’ve used in the last 24 hours. If I haven’t used it in the last 24 hours, why would I want it on my desk?

8. Posted by Alexia - 05/21/2010

   Yeah, my boyfriend and I share a desk, too. His massive 27″ iMac and my 15.4″ MacBook Pro (on an elevated stand) … plus, we have space for a lamp in the middle and our pens and whatnots. Side-by-side, with the other side of the table against our floor-to-ceiling window. Sitting next to each other works really well when we play World of Warcraft together.

   We used to have 2 massive desks in our old rental apartment, but when we purchased our current, much smaller condo, we had to find another solution. We were lucky to find an 8′ x2′ table surface that keeps us far enough apart. We even managed to find a drawer/filing cabinet that fits under the table between us. We’re actually quite proud of our configuration.

   Here’s an old shot from a couple of years ago, when he still had his “smaller” 24″ iMac and we hadn’t yet decided to add the lamp to the setup:
   http://www.flickr.com/photos/t.....473112721/

   I’ll try and take a full shot of how it is today. But I’ll have to tidy up a bit.

9. Posted by Bertie - 05/22/2010

   Hi Orson,

   I think Mike D is being cynical. I work away from home during the week. When I return home, if I need to work then I do so from our dining room table. I access our broadband with a wireless connection to our router/modem and, likewise, I can access our home printer which is in another room.

   Because it’s only a temp space, when I am working there it’s usually just me and my MacBook Pro. If I need a book or paper then I’ll bring it to the table. None of the stuff ‘lives’ at the table. In a about 18 months I’ll stop working away and be at home full time and we are looking at this sort of multi-user workspace to accommodate both my wife and me and, at other times, our two kids simultaneously for homework.

   I like your table and chairs. Where are they from?

   Kudos to you for a great setup. I’m one of those people who requires a neat and tidy desk to work, I can’t help it, so you’re space would work great for me. My wife on the other hand… That’s going to be the hardest to solve when I stop commuting.

10. Posted by Orson - 05/22/2010

    Hi Bertie

    The table is from Ikea, the chairs are the “Life” chair, from Formway. Quite possibly not available in your part of the world, Formway is a New Zealand company; we bought them when we lived over there.

    We have kinda the opposite problem to you… I naturally tend towards hoarding and clutter, my wife is the tidy one. But, that said, like you, I work better when my environment is reasonably clear and clean.

    O

11. Posted by Mike - 05/24/2010

    I like the table size and positioning. People seem so afraid to just use a nice stout table for their computers. Instead they go to Target and get some ridiculous labyrinthine Formica abomination that has a million form-fitting shelves for media that will be obsolete in two years and a roll-out keyboard tray that will snap off completely the first time you lean into it a little bit.

    I’m not so hot on the orientation of the workspace vis-a-vis the door. But that’s not usually the kind of thing you can readily rearrange… the shape of the room is pretty immutable in most cases. It would drive me batty to be on the left side computer and having to go all the way around the worktable to get out of the room, and it would drive me batty to be on the right side computer with a gaping open door immediately to my right. Ideally, the open door would not face either person working in the room, but would be directly accessible to either of them. This is a nitpick, though, and shouldn’t be read as me trashing the entire arrangement.

12. Posted by Orson - 05/24/2010

    Hey Mike

    Just by way of clarification – the desk is in the living area – there’s a lot more space than you can see in the photo. The door you can see is a door to the outside (the balcony, actually) – not one that’s used a lot.

    I’m the one who sits away from the door – and I just move to my right, and I’m out from behind the desk – it’s all good.

13. Posted by LMR - 06/03/2010

    I can see this working if you can do everything on your laptop, but when my hubby and I were both freelancing we usually had to work from printed documents and books. Alas, some of us need more room to spread out.
    Looks nice, though. Definitely looks like an IKEA display.

14. Posted by Orson - 06/03/2010

    Well, they’re laptops, so we can work from where ever suits. A couple of times, when I’ve needed more space, I’ve moved to the dining table. Often, i work form the couch. When I’m in the middle of work, there’s often paperwork and documents out, but when I finish for the day, they get put away.

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