There are countless work hours wasted searching for items that would make the workday move much more fluidly if appropriately stored and closed at hand. Regardless of your current office setup, if you feel that you are not being as productive as possible or don’t feel right in your workstation, then getting organized is a great idea. We have a few creative ideas to help you turn your home office from a disaster zone into an efficient workspace.
Organize Your Papers
Paperwork and files are the easiest to accumulate and the simplest to organize. Instead of letting clutter take control of your home office, organize your papers before they get out of hand. Separate all of your documents into three piles; shred, file, or active project—anything you can do without needs to be tossed in the shredder while essential documents should be filed. The papers you need for active projects should go in a file on your desk. Moving forward, anything that can be saved paperlessly should be stored online in the cloud or on a physical hard drive.
Make Home Office Mail Station
Most mail is sent electronically, but there are still some files that have to be sent as hard copies. Grab some simple wall slats to hang on the wall to keep your main organized. Have your incoming mail in one slat and your outgoing mail on another. Consider placing this near a door to remind you to drop things off or pick something up when you head out the door.
Use Your Walls For More Than Pictures
You are even more limited on space with a home office than in a regular office. Since you only have one or two rooms to use as an office, thinking outside of the box is essential to stay organized. It is nice to hand pictures on the walls to break up the space and give it character, but you can also put your walls to good use. Hang calendars, shelves, whiteboards, or even a flat-screen monitor to reduce desk clutter and make your space more efficient.
Keep Your Desk Clutter-Free
It is essential to keep your main work area free of clutter if you want to be productive. This means getting rid of useless knick-knacks from your desk and only keeping active projects in front of you. This will keep you on task and help keep the clutter to a minimum in your home office.