Home Office Organization Hacks
An organized work environment has a lot more than just visual appeal. For starters, DIY office organization has been shown to reduce stress. The appearance of clutter signals to your brain that there’s extra work to do. When your brain feels overwhelmed by all this (actual and perceived) work, it triggers a stress response. Organizing your workspace reduces the frequency of that stress response, and gives you a feeling of control.
How Can I Organize My Office Supplies at Home?
If you’re finding yourself putting things everywhere, it’s probably because you need additional storage. Before you go further, buy some filing cabinets, drawers, and organizers, so you have a place to put everything that’s currently in disarray. You can also digitize your documents. Paper documents can stack up quickly, and they really don’t have to. Most documents can go digital. Digitize your receipts, bills, invoices, and other miscellaneous sheets of paper. As long as you’re able to store them in an area that will get regularly backed up, it’ll be just as safe as having paper copies. Anything old that you still need can be put into storage. There are some things, like leases or signed contracts, that you really need to have a physical copy of… even if you don’t use it a lot. Box these things up and put them in your attic or garage storage; you aren’t going to be referencing them frequently, so they don’t need to be in your office.
How Can I Organize My Desk Myself?
Hide the wires — Out of all the work desk organization ideas this one has to be our favorite. With all of the monitors, computer towers, mice, laptops, phones, and chargers that adorn the typical office desk, the number of wires in front of us can quickly get out of hand.
Because reducing visual clutter helps reduce stress, hiding all these messy wires is essential. If your desk doesn’t have a slot to hide them, trying using binder clips to group them together and get them out of sight. Since your desk is going to be the place that you need to maximize productivity, it can be a lifesaver to implement useful tools that have the power to keep every single desk in the office organized, on-brand, and looking polished as well as orderly.
Label Everything — Adding labels to the bins, baskets, and organizers in your home office are important because labeling
- Makes it easy to find the items you’re looking for
- Allows you to quickly pick up after yourself and return items to their assigned “homes”
- Helps family and team members find the items they’re looking for AND to put them away where they belong
- Keeps things looking neat and tidy
Adding labels to your bins, baskets, and organizers takes a little extra time, but you make up that time by finding things easily, quickly picking up after yourself, and maintaining your organization!
How Can I Improve My Home Office?
A comfortable ergonomic chair, designed for maximum lumbar support, will help minimize back pain and let you focus. Science backs it up — a 2003 ergonomics study found that employees who were given an ergonomic chair reported fewer negative symptoms throughout the day and a total increase in productivity of 17.7%.
If day after day you’re experiencing back aches from sitting at your desk all day, it’s time for a change. Standing desks are growing in popularity and for good reason! While sitting all day can put you at risk toward diabetes and weight gain, standing does the opposite.
Plants are more than just pretty decorations. Studies show that being around plants is good for your health — they filter the air and their presence is therapeutic. Plants brighten up and add color to otherwise sterile indoor spaces. Plants help us better manage stress and refocus our energy, and psychologists have found that bringing some flora into a workspace can increase productivity by up to 15 percent.
How Do I Declutter My Home Office?
It can seem overwhelming to tackle a big job all at once. Separate your office into “sections” and complete one section at a time. You don’t even need to do it all at once; you can organize your desk area one day, and your file cabinets the next. Just make sure you get it all done within a reasonable time frame: otherwise, you’ll end up in a situation where only one part of your office is organized at a time!
You don’t want to put your things away in a messy office! Now that you have everything removed from the office and sorted, it’s the perfect time to dust, sweep, and generally clean your surfaces. You’ll feel better when you’re surrounded by fresh air, rather than stacks of random paperwork.
Conclusion
Clutter builds over time. In order to keep it up, you might need to develop some habits moving forward. Always put things back after they’ve been used and take some time to clean up at the end of each day. If you find yourself struggling to store things, invest in more storage options rather than trying to use something. Finally, if you see it getting out of hand, it’s time to schedule another decluttering!
Originally published at https://www.bluekeyworld.com on August 5, 2020.
