Previous post
Even if you’re an organized person, it’s not always easy to keep your spouse or children organized unless you assume the role of a drill sergeant. And that just might cause even more chaos and rebellion. Instead, it’s best to organize a home office working space that is clean, simple, and easy to maintain. Here are some tips to keeping your home office organized:
1.) Declutter your pens: First, make sure that all of the pens you own are stored in one spot in your home—your office. There’s no need to have pens in every room or anywhere near the kitchen or bathroom. Unless you keep a journal and pen on your nightstand, all your pens should be in the same spot. Secondly, how many pens do you need? As a teacher, I can attest to the phenomenon of hoarding hundreds of pens and markers. It happens. But it’s time to declutter them! Throw out any pens that don’t work (you’d think this was obvious, but for some reason we all hold on to dead pens!), and keep only 5-10 black and/or blue pens, a few permanent markers, and a couple of highlighters. That’s all you need! And if they all die, you can run out and buy more for a couple of bucks.
2.) Keep your desk space empty or sparse: You work at your desk. There’s no need to clutter it with photos or knick-knacks or even flowers. Keep it clean and simple. Store papers and office supplies in drawers or file folders. If you need the stapler, you can grab it; all your office supplies don’t need to be displayed at all times. You can also use bowls or baskets to wrangle loose items.
3.) Standing desk: The pictures in this post are of my husband’s desk. It’s a work-in-progress—a hand-me-down, free piece of furniture stuck in 1994, it’s hideous and we know it. My husband feels like this is the one spot in our place that is “his” and he won’t let me paint the dang thing. So, I do my best at making it look aesthetically pleasing. However, he now owns a pyramid of standing desks to defeat his work-from-home, computer-generated bad posture. The standing desk, somehow, keeps him tidy and organized.
4.) Drawers upon drawers upon drawers: The ugly oak desk my husband uses doesn’t have a lot of storage space, so we added small, plastic container drawers underneath the desk to store office supplies. Like I stated previously, you don’t need to display your stapler, tape, and paper clips. Store them away until you need them to keep your desk space clean and open.
5.) Get rid of paper: I really hate paper. I hate making copies, printing things, storing paper—I even hate paper books (I prefer to read on Kindle). But there are just some papers you have to keep, like your taxes, insurance, or bank statements. (Or do you?) Every month, go through your paperwork and shred what you don’t need, and file away what you do. Make sure you’re filing by category>year>month.
I hope these tips and pictures help you. Don’t forget that our minds need to be at peace before we can be productive. So, before you attempt to get work done, you have to organize your workspace!
Leave a Reply