Spring has just about sprung, and you know what that means: spring cleaning!
When you work from home, giving this annual tradition the attention it deserves is especially important. Your home office doesn't have the luxury of separate rooms just for filing and neat little cubicles for keeping work and home apart.
Working at home means it takes a little extra effort to find that balance of comfort and convenience, but when you create a space that helps you stay focused and feel right at home, that effort is all worth it. Whether you're running a business from home or just catching up on some work outside the office, keeping your space tidy and organized is an important step toward perfecting your productivity in a home office.
Find the Right Storage
What items tend to pile up in your home office? Files? Paperwork? Books? Art supplies and other materials for making your product? Make sure to get storage that suits the demands of your job. Square shelving for stacking boxes, bins, and plastic totes might be perfect for the at-home artisan, while traditional bookshelves may better suit home-businesses that require lots of binders and paperwork. Do what feels right for your work and your space!
You can even find creative ways to incorporate your storage into your decor! Shelving full of books organized by color can add a compelling design element to your home office. Make a chic, unconventional desk by laying a slab of marble or wood across two file cabinets. Selecting the right storage is the key to not only a more organized office, but a space that keeps you inspired to do your best work.
Adore Your Drawers
Drawers full of jumbled-up junk are so last year! Tackle your office supplies by dividing up your drawers into organized sections with the help of plastic inserts or trays. With just a few inexpensive plastic trays, you can easily keep your scissors separate from your pens, give thumbtacks a safe home, and stash away paperclips and binder clips for easy access right when you need them. If you want to get crafty, you can even DIY your own drawer dividers using cardboard! It's a simple fix, but not having to dig through piles of paperclips and highlighters to get to your favorite pen will make a world of difference during your workday.
Find the Right System
But don't get too excited trawling the #organization tag on Pinterest! Flashy organization systems using color-coded binders and bright washi tape might look impressive, but the most important thing is finding an organization system that works for you. If you'd prefer picking seven different shades of folders and filing them alphabetically by topic, have at it! But collecting all those materials that organization gurus recommend can get expensive and overwhelming. Don't feel bad if all that labeling will do for you is give you a new, rainbow-colored pile of junk mail to deal with three months from now.
Think about how you mentally organize things. How would you instinctually file your kid's sophomore year report card? Would it go under "Kids"? "School Stuff"? "Records"? Maybe a folder with your child's name? Whatever works for you, build a system around that. One simple way to keep things organized is by breaking your files out into three general categories, making sure the file tabs are all in the same location for each. For example, Finance folders would all have their tabs on the left, Medical folders have middle tabs, and Home folders would have tabs on the right. You can break it out whatever way makes the most sense to you -- as long as, when the time comes, you'll know how to hunt down the things you need.
Hide Cords Away
Visual clutter is as bad as paper clutter, and having a bunch of wires and cords crisscrossing your work area can be both visually unpleasant and dangerous. Tripping and fires can be real concerns when your cords are all out in the open! So stay safe and bundle together cords that go to the same place, and be sure to label both ends, so you know what connects to what. Keeping cords out of the way is especially important at your desk area, where the cords tend to converge and create lots of visual distraction. Use Command hooks, zip ties, and double-sided sticky tape to secure cords and surge protectors to the underside of your desk to keep them out of sight and out of mind.
Multi-functional Fun
Chances are, your home office space isn't so much a sprawling study as a corner of a spare bedroom that the kids haven't taken over. If you're working with limited space in your home office, furniture that serves multiple purposes is an absolute must.
If you really are doubling your home office as a guest room, make that guest bed a futon or day bed. That way, you have somewhere to lounge when reading reports, or when your eyes need a rest from the computer screen. A storage ottoman can also be a great way to give yourself more seating space and an extra spot to stash stuff away. These furniture options can be as stylish as they are functional, so they're worth looking into whether you're a design fiend or simply a fan of effective organization.
Get ready to work in style with a space that works for you. With these home office organization tips, you'll be ready to take on your business like the boss you are. And if you're still searching for the right furniture to make your home office complete, come on by! We've got storage, seating, workspace essentials, and so much more to make all your home office dreams come true.