Quick Organizing Tips

Create a classy, comfortable workspace on the cheap

Guest Post by Angela of Krystal Glass Writing Boards

Nobody needs to see your home office but you—but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be a clean, attractive place to be. Keeping a professional atmosphere, even in your home office, can help you take yourself more seriously and get more done during your work hours. Here are a few tips to create a home office you can be proud of.

1. Have a place for everything

Designate a place for everything you use, and resist the urge to create a junk drawer; those tend to grow like kudzu to encompass everything you didn’t feel like putting away. One of the biggest problems with keeping a tidy office is bills and other papers you need to handle; you can’t store them or throw them away, and you don’t want to forget about them, so they just stay on your desk, unhandled, for weeks. To solve this, buy a filing cabinet and an in/out box, just like in a normal office; and make sure to include a comprehensive set of folders in the cabinet, or it will inevitably transform into a wastebasket. Things you’ve yet to take care of go in the inbox; things that are ready to send go in the outbox; and when that’s done, anything that’s left goes in the filing cabinet or the shredder. This decision-making process can help you prioritize by preventing you from stalling on things that need to be done, while also keeping you from lingering on things that aren’t worth your time.

2. Don’t eat at your desk

Telecommuters have a hard time with this one. When you’re in the zone, it can be very appealing to grab something quick and run back to the office, watching dirty cereal bowls pile up around your monitor. It’s not just to avoid clutter—taking time out to eat gives your mind and body a much-needed breather, helps you make more deliberate diet choices, and provides an opportunity for real social interaction with real humans. On top of all that, your keyboard is just about the most unsanitary thing in your house; eating and typing will make your keyboard even filthier, and probably make you sick.

3. Go paperless

Whenever you can cut out paper, you’ll be doing yourself and the environment a favor. Setting up direct-deposit payroll and billing can save you, your clients, and your employees a great deal of time and money. Making notes on a nice clean glass whiteboard will make for less clutter than scribbled notes on Post-Its or stray receipts—everything that matters will be available at a glance in big, bold script on your office wall, and you’ll never have to dig around to find it.

4. Deliberately manage the flow of clutter in your office

To get rid of clutter for good, you need to adopt the same strategy you’d use to lose weight—you’ve got to take in less than you send out. If you buy a new appliance, dispose of the old one at a thrift store where it can help out a fellow small-business owner. If you’re hanging on to packaging for a big-ticket purchase, give yourself a deadline. After about a week, you’ll likely know whether the new printer/camera/cell phone is a good fit, so you can safely throw the box away. Try this with paper as well—for every new bill, invoice, or document that reaches your desk, strive to take care of one or two that you’ve been putting off.

About The Author

Angela is a freelance writer, loving wife, and mother of two beautiful twin girls and a standard poodle named Morty. She graduated with her Master of Arts Degree in English from the University of North Carolina. During her time at UNC, she wrote a number of children’s short stories that focus on a set of curious twin sisters and their dog (go figure).