7 Home Office Organization Tips

Is your home office disorganized or cluttered? Does the sight of it make you feel stressed? Are you struggling to get things done? Our team of professional organizers has the home office organization tips you need to transform this space into a place where you feel focused and inspired.

Get Rid of Clutter

This tip may seem obvious, but the real question is how to start? First, it’s important to understand the psychology of clutter—what you’re seeing scattered on the desk of your home office is a result of postponed decisions®. Turns out, we don’t use 80% of what we keep—that goes for what we store physically and digitally! Begin by sorting through the paper clutter to determine what can be tossed, what needs to be filed for reference, and what should be placed in a visible to-do pile.

Utilize an Inbox/Outbox

There’s logic behind the standard “in” box for unsorted papers and the “out” box for those that need to go somewhere out of reach. Take a moment at the end of every day to manage these two boxes, always trying to empty your outbox whenever possible—whether filing things for long-term reference, mailing out completed forms, or moving things to the appropriate “action”file.

Place Action Files in Desktop Organizers

“Out of sight, out of mind”—if you are the type of person to forget about important bills, projects, or paperwork once it’s been filed, then you should utilize “action” files stored in a desktop organizer. Carefully design a system that works for you, creating files for documents to be signed, bills to be paid, papers needed for current projects, or any number of other tasks. Be sure to clearly label your folders and only keep them in the action fileorganizer for as long as you have an active need for them. You should also consider whether an existing professionally designed system fits your needs, such as the Swiftfile Tickler System,which keeps things visible and sorted by date.

Keep a Shredder and Recycle Bin Handy

Often we let paper pile up because we don’t have a secure and easy way to dispose of it. Two simple home office organization tips solve this problem: invest in a small shredder and recycle bin to keep near your desk. This will encourage you to dispose of unneeded documents immediately, rather than putting off that job or decision until later.

Review Long-Term Reference Files

We all have documents we need to keep on file permanently. Much of what we keep we only need to have on hand for a certain period, however. Whenever you are filing a document, ask yourself at what point in the future you might be able to safely discard it. Do you need to keep a paper copy, or will a digital copy backed up to an external or cloud-based storage platform suffice?Home office organization is an ongoing task that requires regular maintenance. Depending on your paper flow, set aside a time monthly or quarterly to review what you have filed and discard what you don’t need to keep.

Organize Your Digital Spaces

Staying organized has a lot to do with mindset. Organizing your physical space can only do so much for your productivity if your digital life is still a mess. Apply these same home office organization tips to your email, calendar, and digital filing systems. Flag emails for follow up, sort emails and digital files into folders, and regularly purge what you don’t need to keep.

Don’t Forget about Design

Part of the joy of having a home office is that you can design the space exactly how you like it. When buying organizational supplies, invest in items that reflect your unique sense of style. Make sure you have a well-lit workspace, adding a nice desk lamp if desired. At the end of the day, all these home office organization tips will be for nothing if you still walk into a space that feels drab and uninspired. With just a few chic finishing touches, you will feel more productive in your work and more motivated to maintain organizational systems.

Professional Home Office Organizers

Need help putting these home office organization tips into practice? Let Totally Organized help. Our founder, Traci Olivares, is a Certified Productive Environment Specialist (CPES) through the Productive Environment Institute. With her professional credibility, she can help you implement a home office organization system that will help you save time, space, energy, and money. Your home office should be a space where you can focus on your work, accomplish your goals, and get on with enjoying your life. Contact Totally Organized today for a free consultation!