Working from home is a challenge because of the many distractions that are present in your house. Of course, it has its benefits, such as being able to dictate your schedule and not having to deal with traffic to get to your office.
Overall it has its pros and cons that you should carefully analyze and balance out.
One way you can help reduce the disadvantages that come with working from home is by organizing your home office. A home office will serve as your professional sanctuary inside your house.
When you are in there, you should be in an expert mode, so you should ensure that everything in the office reflects that.
If you plan on organizing your home office, here are nine simple tips that you can follow to level up its organization.
Clear Your Desk Everyday
When you’re working from home, ensure that you clear out your desk every day after your dedicated workday.
According to Cleaning Exec Maid Service NYC, your desk is your primary work hub, so you should respect it as such. Before you leave your home office, make sure that you remove any remnants of the previous day from it.
How one’s desk looks will dictate what the mindset of the person who is using the desk. If you want to start each of your workdays in a productive mindset, then you should clear out any items on your desk that you deem are not helpful with your work.
Remove any items unrelated to your work, such as your kids’ toys or your own and other distracting elements. You should also try and clear out any work-related things that you used on the previous day. After all, there’s nothing quite like starting the day with a clean slate.
Throw Things Out
Make sure that you have a trash bin by your work desk so that you can always throw things outright when needed. If you find yourself holding a lot of office supplies, then you should throw any excess and unnecessary items before you start a rigorous workday.
Also, if you tend to bring some snacks with you on your desk, you should make sure that you throw away the wrappers after you eat them. Don’t leave it for tomorrow when you can do it today.
Before you finish any of your work, make sure that you clear out your desk and throw away the non-essentials.
Group Similar Items Together
It would be best to group similar items when organizing your home office. By doing this particular system, it will help you find things faster.
For example, you can have a dedicated cabinet for any electronic items such as wires or spare keyboards that you have.
You should also consider investing in storage items that are particular to specific items. For example, there are storage items that are best for wires and managing cables.
Use Color Codes in Filing Your Papers
When it comes to your paperwork, you can use a color-coding system for organizing.
You can buy flags that you can stick on your paperwork to indicate what type of documents they are. Having this color-coding system will make it easier for you to find the paper that you need when you need it.
Use Vertical Wall Space
If you have a small home office, but you still want to make some space for organizing your office items, then it’s advisable to take advantage of your vertical space, such as your wall.
You don’t have to place every single thing that you use in your home office right on your desk. You can set up shelves or racks up on your walls instead.
Ideally, you should have a separate space for any of your paper items so that they don’t end up cluttering your desk. At the same time, you reduce the risk of damage in your paper items in case you bring in coffee or food items with you on your desk.
Clear Your Bulletin or Message Board
A lot of home offices make use of a bulletin or a message board. However, not a lot of people know how to utilize these boards properly.
What ends up happening is people forget what they put up on these boards, or they put up unrelated things on it.
If you have a bulletin board in your home office, consider clearing it out and then creating an actual system for it.
Tame Small Items With Trays
If you have smaller office items, like paper clips and staples, that you need to organize in your home office, you can hold them with the help of trays.
Trays with partitions already on them will help you separate the smaller office items but make them still accessible.
Create a Printing Station
Having and installing a printing station will make it a lot easier for you to print without taking a long time setting things up.
Having a separate station will add that subtle touch that will make your home office look that much more organized.
Keep Your Books Systematically
All the books that you should keep in your home office ideally should be related to your work.
You shouldn’t keep any recreational books, such as novels, on your shelves. Once you take those out, you can then order your books in a particular system.
You can dedicate separate bookshelves based on the topic of these books and then organize them alphabetically.
Keeping your home office organized can be a challenge when you are starting. However, once you get the ball rolling, it’s going to be a lot easier for you in the long run. If you’re organizing your home office, try and apply the tips listed above to have a home office that’s hard to leave behind.
