Meticulous vs Mayhem: The Reality of My Small Business Office

There are two very different versions of my Daisy & Joy office.

There is the version where every bookmark is neatly lined up, the cards are sorted into their correct sections and the prints are carefully stored by size and design. All of these organised by SKU (stock keeping unit).

Then there is the other version.

The version with mug boxes stacked wherever they will fit, packaging supplies overflowing from the shelves and market props that apparently have no proper home despite living in this room for several years.

I have what I like to call a Type C brain. I can be extremely particular and organised about some things, while apparently not seeing the pile of boxes beside them. Meticulous and mayhem can exist quite happily within the same room and sometimes even on the same shelf.

A Small Business Office That Changes With the Seasons

My office never stays the same throughout the year because Daisy & Joy has different working seasons.

During the quieter periods, I have time to put things back where they belong, reorganise the stock and make the room feel calm again. I can see the floor (not a sight often seen), sit at my desk without first moving a pile of something (a regular occurrence) and generally feel as though I have everything under control.

Market and Christmas seasons are very different.

At that time of year, the office becomes a mixture of stockroom, packing station, photography studio and market-stall storage area. There can be boxes of Christian greeting cards waiting to be packed, bundles of Bible verse bookmarks being prepared and prints spread out while I double-check designs and quantities.

Add in packaging, bags, tablecloths, display stands, baskets, price signs and everything else needed for a market stall, and it does not take long for the room to become almost unrecognisable.

I would love to say that I calmly put everything away at the end of each working day, but that would not be entirely truthful, even in the slightest! During the busiest seasons, the main goal is usually to get the orders packed or the market stock ready. Making the office look lovely comes much further down the list.

The mayhem normally has a purpose, even when it does not look like it. Organised Chaos I like to call it! Looks like a disaster but I know where everything is in the chaos.

The Meticulously Organised Part

My bookmarks are probably the best example of the meticulous side of my brain.

They are stored by SKU so I can quickly see what I have available and which designs need to be restocked. With collections such as The Psalms Fruits & Florals Collection growing to include coordinating bookmarks, cards and prints, having the smaller products properly organised makes packing orders much easier.

There is something very satisfying about seeing the bookmarks all lined up together — particularly when several coordinating designs are stored side by side. The Isaiah 40:8 bookmark is one of the designs that makes this section especially lovely to look at, in my opinion.

My cards are organised into their different categories and then by SKU too. This means I can find the right card without searching through several boxes, whether it is a birthday card, a sympathy card or one of the Bible verse and Christian encouragement cards.

The prints are also carefully stored to keep them flat, clean and protected. They are arranged by size and SKU, making it much easier to find a particular Bible verse print when an order comes through.

This organisation is not just about making the room look nice. It saves time, reduces unnecessary handling and makes the physical side of picking orders a little easier for me. As I shared more fully in my previous blog post about how Daisy & Joy began, repetitive lifting, reaching and packaging can be difficult because of the limited function in my right arm.

Knowing exactly where the smaller products are means less rummaging and fewer boxes being lifted unnecessarily. It is one part of the office where being meticulous genuinely helps me work better.

And Then There Is the Mug & Packaging Shelving

The mugs and packaging shelves are another story entirely.

Mugs take up considerably more space than bookmarks or cards. They arrive in boxes, need their own packaging and cannot simply be filed neatly into a drawer.

The Ephesians 2:10 “God’s Masterpiece” mugs have their own boxes, as do the remaining imperfect Ephesians 2:10 mugs. Then there are postal boxes, protective packaging, labels and all the other supplies needed to send them safely.

In theory, all of these things have designated shelves.

In reality, the system works until a delivery arrives, I need to prepare for a market or I order a slightly different size of box. The shelves then become a game of packaging Tetris, with everything placed wherever it will fit.

Beside the mugs are the market props. These include display stands, baskets, signs, table coverings and all the little items that help turn a plain table into a Daisy & Joy stall.

Most of these things are awkward shapes and do not stack particularly well. They also spend much of the year waiting for the next event, so they tend to be moved from shelf to shelf depending on what else I need to reach.

I can happily spend time making sure every bookmark is facing the same direction while completely ignoring a box of stall props that has been sitting in the wrong place for several weeks.

That, apparently, is how my brain works.

My Version of a Type C Brain

I have seen Type C used to describe the people who fall somewhere between completely organised and completely chaotic, and it feels very accurate for me.

Some areas are meticulously arranged because having a clear system makes everyday life easier. Other areas become mayhem because the items are awkward, the system has stopped working or I simply have not had the time or energy to deal with them yet.

This is not limited to my business. It happens throughout our home too.

I can have one drawer organised into perfectly defined sections while the cupboard beside it contains several things I have put away “for now” and then forgotten about.

That is why I am beginning to share more of the Meticulous vs Mayhem theme on my home Instagram account too. Rather than only showing the finished, tidy corners of our home, I want to share the contrast between the areas that work really well and the areas that most definitely do not.

I love interiors and creating a home that feels calm and welcoming, but I also live in that home with my family, work from home in my day job and run a small business from it. There are toys, washing, packaging boxes and all the other things that come with normal family life.

The tidy photograph can be real without being the whole reality.

What the Office Looks Like During Busy Season

During Christmas and market season, the mayhem normally wins.

Cards are counted and packed into boxes. Bookmarks are bundled together. Christian gift bundles are prepared, market displays are tested and packaging supplies seem to appear on every available surface.

Sometimes the room can go from completely tidy to complete chaos within one afternoon.It can be frustrating when I have recently spent time organising it, but I have had to remind myself that the purpose of the office is not simply to look nice. It is a working room.

A busy and untidy office can mean that orders are being packed, products are being prepared and Daisy & Joy is doing what it was created to do: sharing encouragement through Scripture.

The chaos is often evidence that something good is happening.

The Calm Before the Next Busy Season

At the time of writing, the office is probably the tidiest it has been for quite a while.

The desks are clear, the smaller products are properly organised and I can walk across the room without stepping around market boxes. I am enjoying this calmer version of the space while it lasts.

However, I am under no illusion that every shelf has suddenly become perfectly organised.

The bookmarks, cards and prints are firmly on the meticulous side.

The mugs, packaging and stall props are still leaning heavily towards mayhem.

And I think I am finally becoming comfortable with both.

Running a creative small business from home will always involve stock, boxes and unfinished jobs. A family home will always contain areas that are more organised than others. Neither has to be perfect to be beautiful, useful or worth sharing.

So, when you see a photograph of my neatly arranged bookmarks, please know that just outside the frame there may be a tower of mug boxes I have carefully avoided photographing.

That is the real Daisy & Joy office: part meticulous, part mayhem and always a work in progress.

Are you naturally meticulous, mostly mayhem or — like me — a mixture of both?

 

Emma xx