Tidy Desk, Tidy Mind: A Step by Step Approach to Home Office Organisation
With more of us working from home than ever before, whether full-time or part-time, the need for an organised and functional home-office has increased dramatically over the last two years.
Whilst previously considered more of a luxury space, which one might use from time to time, the home-office has become an increasingly important space in daily life. Ensuring calm and organisation in this space is more important than ever!
We’re sharing our step by step professional organiser approach for organising a home office and creating a positive work environment within your home, including how you can implement long lasting organisation systems to ensure the home office space remains organised in the months and years to come.
Step 1: Decluttering the home office space
Home-offices are a prime place for clutter to build up, whether it’s piles of paperwork, stacks of stationary supplies or anything ‘admin’ that doesn’t have a space elsewhere in the home; the office can become a dumping ground for all these items.
That’s why you should begin by decluttering your office space of any rubbish, unnecessary items, and items that belong elsewhere in the home.
The best way to do this is to fully empty the space you are organising, including desk drawers, shelves, cupboards, which will enable you to take a full inventory of everything stored in the space.
With everything emptied you can sort and group items making as many categories as you need depending on the types of items that you have e.g pens, highlighters, tapes, instruction manuals etc.
Remember, there will be items you find that do not belong in the office; remove these and place them in the correct location in your home. You will come across items that can be discarded, donated or sold; you should deal with these items straight away, to ensure they don’t remain in the space as clutter.
Step 2: Planning out the space
Any transformative process always begins with a vision. You should visualise your ideal office space; is it uncluttered and clean with only a few items that inspire you left on show? Is it minimalist, containing only items you need to get your work done?
You should also consider how you want to feel when you’re working in the space – relaxed, inspired, energised, and at peace? Figuring this out is going to make it much easier to maintain your home office organisation in the months and years to come.
Determining your space and its purpose is vital. You may have a whole room dedicated to the office or you might just have a nook.
It’s important to identify which type of office space you’re working with and you should also know what your office space will be used for; is it simply a space to sit down and work in?
Will you need to incorporate storage for office supplies?
Do you require space to store household paperwork and other important documents?
These are all questions you must consider when planning your office space.
At this point you should also consider your requirement for organising products to help implement effective organisation systems within your office space. Creating these systems will make it easy for you to maintain and keep track of your belongings, leaving you time to focus on what’s important.
Just remember, when choosing organising products, always be sure to maximise the storage space you have available.
The key is to match products with both the measurements of your space and your aesthetic style. We share 5 of our favourite organising products for the home office later on!
Step 3: Organising and styling your home office space
Next is the fun part; organising and styling your office! The key to achieving a functional and stylish office space is through containing, labelling, and placing.
Organising drawers
The best way to keep office drawers organised is through containment. In-drawer micro-organisers are great for categorising small items in shallow drawers e.g. pens, paperclips, pins.
Deep drawers can be utilised for storing any larger bulkier items such as large devices, backstock paper supplies, notebooks. Deep drawer dividers are an efficient way to create sections in larger drawers.
When filling your drawers and in-drawer organisers, be sure to remove excess packaging, for example don’t keep paper clips, extra rolls of tape or pens in their packaging, as the boxes tend to take up excess space and are prone to breaking, resulting in uncontained and uncategorised items in the drawer.
Organising cupboards and shelves
If your office space incorporates cupboards and shelves, these are great for organising books, paper, photo albums, office supplies and even backstock stationary!
Making use of various containers in cupboards or on shelves is a great idea. Letter trays, magazine files, acrylic drawers and baskets can all work.
Any product that helps to give your inventory structure and a home to be returned to will work well. If you do utilise containers, you should be sure to add a visible label on the outside where necessary; this will make it easy to find items when you need them.
Styling surfaces
With your home office organisation systems in place, it’s time to style your office. As this is a space where you’ll likely need to focus, try to keep surfaces clear of distractions but consider adding items that will bring you joy, such as a family photo or a house plant.
5 must have products for organising an office space
How can we help you organise your home office?
If you’re feeling inspired to get your home office organised and create a productive working environment in your home, take a look at our Home Office How-to Guide for more in depth guidance, tips and product recommendations for organising your home office the Homefulness way!
However, if the prospect of getting your home office organised on your own feels overwhelming, don’t worry, Homefulness is here to help!