Storage & Decluttering & Organizing

Simple and Easy Hacks on How to Organize Home Office

Do you work from home and have turned your small storage room into your home office?  Organizing an office space at home is something you don’t really think about until it’s too late. As time passes, the pile of papers, unused pens, coffee mugs, bills, software boxes, files, and many unwanted and unused items starts layering around you. Until the time comes when the important things go missing and you finally realize that there’s a need to organize a home office and it’s long overdue. Here are some of the simple ways to organize your home office space.

Organize home office by purging paper

A cluttered home office space.
A cluttered home office space.

It is very easy to let the paper pile up in the office space at home. You must draw a line and control the growing clutter before it is too late and the paper takes over your entire space. Use the System of Three that is tossing or shredding it, filing it, and taking action from it to organize a home office. Go through every piece of paper in the office space to get out of the mess easily. Filing up important papers makes your work easier at a later date. You may also check an article on how to reduce paper clutter in home and office on our blog.

Organize home office by color coding your files

If you want well-organized and functional office space, you need to have an efficient filing system.  Color-coding or organizing your files in five different color categories can be a great idea to organize home office space easily. For instance, your green files may be designated for financial documents, red for medical papers, orange for personal, yellow for insurance, blue for the house, and so on. It is also important to label each of the folders as per your requirements.

Organize home office by creating mail station

Organized home office space with a printing station.
Organized home office space with a printing station.

Mail station can keep a good amount of junk at bay. The mail is the most uncontrollable item coming to the home office. Creating a mail station like a folder for outgoing and incoming mail, a file to staple the mail, bills, or other important documents for every member in the family can be termed as mail station. Filing the incoming mail in the mail station and taking some time out to go through the folders can keep your home office from getting chaotic and disorderly.

Create a printing station

Printers and its supplies occupy a good amount of space in your home office. You can mount a glass wall shelving to create a printing station and keep the things in an organized way. In case of a wireless printer, you may keep it in the cabinet as well or any empty area and create space for other necessary items.  It will make your home office appear spacious and more organized.

Organize home office by categorizing

Home office table with files, papers, notebooks.
Home office table with files, papers, notebooks.

Organize your home office by categorizing similar items together. This will allow you to have a more functional office space. For instance, you can look inside your writing tools drawer when you need markers, pencil, and pens or tools drawer for hole puncher, stapler, scissors, etc.

Keep your books systematically

The books are common items that lay scattered in your home office. Organizing the books by color, genre, or size according to your likings can make your office desk appear neat and tidy. When you choose to organize the books by color preference, not only do you get a clutter-free space but also an attractive element in terms of design.

Utilize wall space

Wall space utilized with racks.
Wall space utilized with racks.

Walls are one area that often remains neglected. People keep searching for space to tidy up things but never think of using wall space. Use the vertical space to hang the filing system, whiteboards, shelves, calendars, baskets, etc. to create more space on the floor.

Conclusion

Figuring out how to organize a home office is the primary task that you must pay attention to. This article has many ingredients to make your home office the perfect place for you to work.

Moupriya Das


Acknowledgment:

This article was originally published in 2019 on SPIC AND SPAN. Home & Office Cleaning blog.

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