Working from home is awesome, albeit sometimes it’s unbearably tricky. There are the days where you don’t feel motivated or inspired to start working.
The reason is a wrongly organized home office. Whether your home office is small or big, it’s important to keep it organized for better productivity.
Here are 11 ideas to organize your home office!
1. Declutter and Detox Your Home Office
When was the last time you meticulously declutter your home office? Are those organizers, filing cabinets, and drawers so messy that you can’t find anything at all? Get all the stuff out, place it in a single pile, and begin from scratch. Throw out all the things that create clutter and that you don’t need or use anymore. File the other documents you need to be able to find them easily. It’s going to take a lot of time, but it’s worth the final result.
2. Categorize it
The most common categories that will help you sort out your documents include labeling (label tape and labeler), mail (address labels, stamps, and envelopes), writing tools (pencils, pens, and markers), stickies (stickers, tabs, and sticky notes), and other tools (staple, straight cutter, hole puncher, staple remover, bill calendar, and others.)
3. Label it
Buy a top quality label maker and try labeling your boxes, drawers, and files for a quick way to organize your home office. This will help you to find what you need in a matter of a few seconds.
4. Take Care of Cables
Ok, now I realize that image might not be accurate for your home office but its so pretty. Who doesn’t like some good wire management completion videos?
Chances are your home office is overloaded with electronics and thus you have tons of cables running everywhere. Take care of those cables by hiding them in one place. There are many cable and cord organizers available online and they don’t cost a fortune. Cable Management
SOULWIT Cable Holder Clips, 3-Pack Cable Management Cord Organizer Clips Silicone Self Adhesive for Desktop USB Charging Cable Power Cord Mouse Cable Wire PC Office Home
5. Place All the Supplies Out of Sight
Store all your home office documents and supplies in drawers, containers, bins, and baskets. This will help you to keep your desk clean and organized. Keep the number of drawers, containers, and baskets to the minimum. If you already have the drawers or filing cabinets, this is one of the few free home office organization ideas and who doesn’t like free?
6. Organize Your Filing System
Separate your filing system into 5 categories identified by the color. For instance, color code your documents in this way:
- House documents are blue;
- Medical documents are red;
- Financial documents are green;
- Insurance or taxes are yellow;
- Personal stuff are orange.
One of the easier office organization ideas we have, only costs a few dollars but will really clean up your files.
AdirOffice File Organizer Classroom – Office – Home – Corrugated Cardboard (30 Slots, Black)
7. Build a Mail Station
Regulate the papers and letters coming into your home office by creating a mail station. Create a folder for outgoing and incoming mail. Once you receive mail, file them in the mail station before they clutter your working area and house. Then, take some time and go through those emails once a day or a week.
8. Use your Wall Space
The wall space is usually overlooked, but you can use this are for hanging calendars, filing systems, shelving, whiteboards and many more. Go vertical to maximize the space. Take advantage of your wall space, using the walls will allow you to take clutter off the ground and free up floor space.
9. Use Dual Monitors
If you only work with one screen, especially just a laptop screen, you’re killing your productivity. One of the greatest investments you can make is in a couple of nice sized work monitors. Ideally would probably be 24 to 27 inch. Or, you could opt for a single 34-inch widescreen. Personally, I run two 27″ Dell monitors and I love them.
To better the dual monitor experience I’d suggest a good monitor mount. For a while, I was using the stands that come with the Dell monitors and they took up a lot of space on my desk. I got the monitor mounts and a laptop stand and it freed up a lot of room on my desk. It’s really nice having the extra room to put my notebooks and other stuff. The 2 items cost $50 and are worth every penny in my opinion.
10. Try a Daily Planner
Something that I recently started using and absolutely love is a good daily planner. There are a ton of different planners out there but the one I chose was the Panda Planner. For me, it works great. It gives you planning for monthly, weekly, and daily. I make sure to fill it out every day and it helps me stay focused and get more done. I’d highly suggest using it to better organize your life.
Onto the last of the office organization ideas!
11. Aquire a Good Desk
A good office can’t be complete without a desk. You can get pretty crazy with a desk. You can go with a sit-stand desk, desk with drawers, desks without drawers, L shape desk, U shape, small, big, I think you get it.
What I have been going back and forth on lately has been getting an electric sit-stand desk. Something like this desk but only getting the base. I have the top from the Ikea desks I have that I could just throw on it. It’s nearly an additional $150 just for the top and they cost like $30 from Ikea. Still on the fence though because $350+ is still a lot.
The Best Office Organization Ideas to Boost Productivity Final Thoughts
Keeping your home office organized will help you work better and save time for those you love. Not to mention that it will help you reduce your stress levels and increase productivity instead.
Hopefully, you enjoyed these office organization ideas, be sure to look around and see what other useful information you can read.
Be sure to sign up for our newsletter for more great content and free stuff.
