Corporate HQ Relocation

I’ve always said Jim and I have the best commute to our corporate headquarters: We step out of bed, and when our feet hit the floor we are within mere steps of our office, depending on how quickly we are moving.

But in the past few years our house has been in a state of flux: Jim’s mom moved in to the guest bedroom for two years, and a friend of ours bunked in our official home office for about a year, prodding us to move our base of operations into our master bedroom. 

It wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t horrible. The major problem we faced is that we constantly found ourselves in the master bedroom: Jim in bed on the laptop so he could ice his injured knee prior to surgery, while I sat at a cramped folding table covered in paper, files and large pieces of computer and other electronic equipment.

Nightstands became miniature filing cabinets; actual two-drawer lateral filing cabinets were dragged up the stairs and into the walk-in closet. All flat surfaces were soon piled high with manila folders and books as personal affects were placed in storage for safekeeping.

Interior decorators would not accuse our bedroom of being a sanctuary by any stretch of the imagination or meet the criteria of Feng Shui design. At the end of its long journey, the space that served us so well will be fondly remembered as the multi-purpose sleeping room.

We spent a good portion of this weekend moving filing systems back down to the first floor; sorting, recycling and shredding reams of paper that were of the utmost importance a year ago and now were rendered scrap.

While we are still shopping for the perfect desk set, our computers and office equipment will be imperfectly staged on a series of folding tables, octopus-like cords plugged into power strips everywhere. For the time being, it won’t be what we want, but will definitely be what we need; to separate our professional from our personal life.

Our bedroom will also undergo a massive overhaul as it is restored to its original purpose, with a fresh coat of paint to serve as the jumping-off point. Nightstands will once again hold photo albums and recreational reading, and surfaces will be adorned with family pictures and fresh-cut flowers.

Our morning commute will increase by a flight of stairs and thirty additional steps, but we will adjust our alarm clocks accordingly to wake us one minute earlier.