If you’re looking for opportunities to increase your productivity in the new year, organizing and maintaining a neat and tidy home office can be a great start. Whether you live in apartment in Round Rock, Texas or a home in Bellevue, Washingtona space that inspires and welcomes creativity begins with cleanliness and order.
Home offices can easily become a catch-all for the rest of your home clutter. The next thing you know, you can’t find the bill you need to pay or last year’s tax returns.
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Taking on the task of organizing your home office doesn’t have to be daunting, nor does it have to be completed all at once. Professional organizer Renee Brown says, “Depending on what works best for you, take a few minutes at the end of each work day to clean your desk.” She recommends tasks like “removing and putting away coffee cups, water bottles, papers, pens, etc.” With these 5 simple tips and a little effort, you can create and maintain a clean and tidy home office.
1. Create a system
Figure out a way to handle your workflow. Get an inbox to use for incoming work, an outbox for things that have been processed and need to be filed or thrown away, and a filing system to keep track of it all after it leaves your desk.
Most importantly, Wendy Sauer s Hosted by Wendy suggests “identifying a dedicated workspace”. She adds that it “doesn’t have to be a large space,” so a home office can be as simple as a corner within a larger area or a dedicated room. After determining your office space, Hayli Thorpe of Careful arrangement says, “As much as possible, don’t use this area for any activity other than work. Your brain will begin to associate work with this place and help you stay productive.”
Erin Kelly s editing centerhome and life organization brand, says one way to start organizing is “by sorting everything in your office by category (not location), such as books, papers, pens, reference materials, etc.”
2. Clean your desk
You spend most of your time in your home office at your desk, so it’s a logical place to start. Is it buried under piles of paper, pens, business cards or other junk? Go through it and divide everything into piles according to what you need to keep, what you need to review later, and what you need to throw away (put that pile straight in the trash can).
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Organizing your home office
3. Get a filing cabinet
A four-drawer cabinet is useful for storing last year’s tax returns, client information, and other things you need to get to that would get in the way if they were piled up on your desk.
Caroline Mejia with Sorry for the mess shares how, “It’s important to find a good filing system to organize your important papers and documents. The good news is that there’s a way to do this without taking up too much space.” She recommends “using a small document container or box with hanging dividers to create broad categories.”
If a filing cabinet isn’t your style or you don’t have enough space, Ashley Hinzman, professional organizer and owner of Life less messy suggests, “Use a 3-tier cart to store your work supplies. At the end of the day, you can put all your work items in the cart and move it out of the area.”
4. Use vertical space
It’s easy to think only of the space at or below eye level. Sure, a desk and filing cabinet are everyday essentials when it comes to creating a home office, but vertical space can be an integral part of organization.
Shealin Miles, owner of Professional Organization Service Goose and Gosling says, “For small office spaces, maximizing vertical space is key. Install shelves above your desk to store office supplies, reference books, and important files.” Other options for vertically organizing a home office include “wall calendars, Kanban boards, and tools like file holders and pen organizers.”
Morgan Luke s Sorting for Serenity recommends installing a “vertically organized supply design” and calls them “perfect for keeping tools and inspiration close at hand.”
5. Invest in dual purpose furniture
Don’t underestimate the power of dual-purpose furniture. Long gone are the days of thinking that something can’t be functional and appealing to the eye. Founder of Sorted by snow, Zoe Snow says “Focus on implementing dual-purpose furniture, such as a desk with built-in storage or a wall-mounted folding desk that can be stowed away when not in use.”
Minimalist desks without storage are great for keeping your space organized. However, if you lack storage space in other areas, Natalia, founder of The Accidental Factotum recommends “choosing a compact desk with drawers on one side to create storage space without taking up extra space and using the space underneath.”
6. Cut the cables
When organizing your home office for the coming year, ditch the cable clutter. Emily Mazur, owner of Revive home organization says, “If you have a lot of cables on the floor or hanging from your desk, try using cable organizers and/or a cable management box to hide them.” Another option is to look at wireless accessories such as a keyboard, mouse or printer.
7. Keep your essentials close at hand
Everything doesn’t have to be at your fingertips in your home office. Ensuring your workspace is free of clutter is critical to your productivity. However, Taylor O’Loughlin s Proper organization of the place shares, “Think about your workflow; what’s essential to your daily work life that you need to keep close at hand.” These items can be anything from a pen to a notebook. But remember that essentials tend to be used regularly (and we may all have different essentials depending on the job).
When it comes to “less important” items or stock, Tabby Berkey, owner of Upcoming organization says, “Creating one area for all office supplies also helps create a streamlined process for keeping stock of common supplies and knowing where to look when you need a refill.”
8. When in doubt, throw it away
Be honest. If that catalog that’s been on your desk since October is still there, you probably won’t be ordering anything from it. Throw it away. If there’s something you’ve taken action on but need to keep, submit it. And if you have paper copies of anything that you can easily access online, toss it.
A tidy office doesn’t stop at what you can physically touch. Kelly Herod s Perfect organization shares how you can even have too many emails that need sorting. Inboxes tend to pile up, so Kelly suggests either “trash it, act on it, or archive it.”
The hard work of sorting through your belongings is done. Now, Dawn Toombs with Pride cleaning services recommends “minimizing supply”. So you’ll want to avoid bringing clutter back into your space. She says, “Clutter creates chaos,” and recommends setting aside “one day a week to clean and wipe down your workspace.”
