Working from home can be hard.
Trying to work in a office space that’s cluttered and disorganized is even harder!
It’s easy for shiny objects to distract you and prevent work from actually getting done.
So that’s why this post is so good and packed with smart tips for setting up a functional and practical home office!
This post will cover the not only basics of home office organization, and also give you key organizing maintenance tips as well.
Let’s get to it!
Evict What’s Unnecessary
First, give yourself a designated space free of most distractions in your home office area.
By getting rid of the clutter in your office area, you can focus on your current task.
And that’s instead of getting sidetracked with the stuff surrounding you and literally getting in your way!
This is especially true if you’re easily distracted (a.k.a. shiny object syndrome!).
Kick Clutter Out
Don’t allow your home office workspace to be cluttered with anyone else’s stuff.
Declare your work area to be a clutter free zone.
Keep it clutter free by ushering out anything that doesn’t belong on a daily basis.
What Counts as Clutter in an Home Office?
So what does clutter look like in your home office?
Simple: Anything and everything that doesn’t help you get work done.
You can use this straight forward guideline to help banish the unnecessary or distracting items from your office space.
The last thing you need is to get distracted by your partner’s magazines or childrens’ toys that have found their way into your workspace.
Relocate them to a more appropriate place in your home.
If you don’t have an alternative place to store the evicted items, maybe it’s time for them to leave your home entirely!
Keep Only Essentials
Once you’ve decluttered your space, it’s time to set it back up to support your work.
Gather the supplies and equipment you need to work.
Think pens, paper clips, binder clips, paper notebooks, phone charger, computer equipment, etc.
Get what you need, but not so much that your space is cluttered.
Keep just a few of each within reach.
Less is more in this situation.
Protect the Prime Real Estate
The space in your immediate vicinity in your home office is the absolute most valuable space in your office.
Think of it in terms of the value of property near a beach.
The closer, the better and more valuable!
Property further away from the beach and without direct access to the beach are substantially less valuable and less desirable.
Organizing Your Office Desk
Consider your desk to be the beach as you look to organize your home office!
Reserve your desk for high use supplies like books, papers, and other resources that you use all the time.
Keep items used less frequently in spaces more difficult to access and out of your way.
The more you use an item, the closer it should be to your desk.
And the inverse is true as well: the lesser used items should be stored further away from your desk.
With this in mind, don’t store extra supplies easily in reach.
Instead, move them to an area a little more out of your way since you won’t be needing them frequently, like a bottom drawer or in the office closet.
Organizing Office Desk Drawers
Continuing on with our beach metaphor, next let’s tackle desk drawers.
These drawers may not be beach front level of prime real estate in your office, but they certainly have direct beach access.
So treat them as such and only keep the items that you use daily in these drawers.
So the extra office supplies like staples and pens definitely shouldn’t be living in these drawers, or at least not in the top most drawers!.
Put less frequently used supplies in a place in your office out of swivel range (the space you can get to when you swivel in your desk chair).
Over to you!
Follow these steps and you’ll have a work space where you’ll be able to be productive and actually get work done!
Most often you might not even recognize clutter because it’s been there for so long.
But once you evict it, you can see the difference!
And now it’s time for the fun part, making everything pretty!
Read this post on how with recommendations for stylish home office necessities!
Recommended Home Office Organization Resources
Now you know the basics of home office organization and it’s time to talk about the details of what goes into an uncluttered space.
Paper is hands down the biggest clutter culprit in office spaces.
Getting a handle on it now will go a long way to keeping your entire home office organized!
Conquer Your Paper Clutter is a self paced course for decluttering and organizing all of your paper in your home.
Everything you need for a paper management system is explained in detail.
You get an actionable organizing plan that’s manageable and not overwhelming that’ll make a difference right away!
Another way to get more done is to learn how to master productivity and time management skills.
That’s where Slay Your To Do List comes in!
This self paced course walks you through 13 steps to mastering time management so you can get more done in less time!
And who doesn’t want to do that?
