Where to put your genealogy endeavors

I ran across an interesting section in Organizing your Family History Search: effective ways to gather & protect your genealogical research by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack (Betterway Books: Cincinnati, 1999) about what to do with your genealogy research when you don't have an office. (Or like me, when your projects overflow out of your office.)

Your dining room table looks perfect until it is time for dinner, so here are a few options:

• Try a cabinet style computer desk, or a folding screen to take over a corner of the family room.
• Take over a large closet, you can build shelves (or I got mine from IKEA) and make a desk out of an ironing board (my closet desk is from an old kitchen countertop when we were remodeling.)
• Get a laptop instead of a desktop (Sharon says you can make an office out of anywhere, even the bathroom if you need to when you have a laptop)
• Make use of the library for books and journals--don't buy as much. (good advice for all of us--overflowing office or not.)
• Go ahead and use the kitchen table--buy tv trays for eating
• Move to a climate where you can eat on the patio.
• (I would add--just eat out)
• Kick a kid out of their bedroom.
• Or just go for the "I'm hopelessly hooked on genealogy" decor

Sharon's book was light and humorous with some good ideas. Thankfully, I have a great office--I needed a place to be able to get away and work. But I also turned the closet in that office into shelving space and a second desk. My daughter has claimed the second desk and joins me to do her homework there. Now if either of us could just keep the desks cleaned off....