You need a dedicated place where you can sit down, focus, and get your work done. Somewhere you can close the door to the outside world and have no distractions. So you create a home office.
But now that all your work is spread out, you’re feeling overwhelmed with your new workspace. Now it’s time to organize your space to increase your office efficiency and work productivity.
Need some inspiration? Here are thirteen home office organization ideas DIY lovers will enjoy completing. Create the ideal space, so your office isn’t only a workspace but an organized oasis.
1. Keep Your Desk Clear
Picture this: you’re feeling motivated and ready to work. You rush to your home office to get all your ideas out. But when you sit down at your desk, the top is messy and covered in miscellaneous papers, folders, and pens.
You now have to take time to put everything away to give yourself a workspace. But when everything is clean, the momentum is gone, and your motivation has decreased.
Avoid this feeling by keeping your desk clear. Find a place to put everything so when you’re ready to work, you can sit down and get started.
2. Add More Flat Surfaces
One way to keep your desk clear is to add more flat surfaces. This will allow you to move some of the larger items away from your main workspaces like file folders, printers, books, or notebooks.
What kind of a flat surface you add is your preference. You can choose a simple surface like a table to create a printing station. Underneath the table, you can store larger items or supplies like printer ink or reams of paper.
Or you may want a piece of furniture that office more storage like cabinet drawers. This will offer you more compartments and privacy while allowing you to use the flat surface for storage.
3. Find a Place for Everything on Your Desk
For the supplies and tools you do keep on your desk, find a place for everything. Since you want to keep a clear workspace, find desk accessories that can keep the space open.
Of course, you’ll want to get cups to keep your pens, pencils, and highlighters. Paper trays for work your incoming and outgoing work are a great idea. File folder organizers will help you keep filed papers organized.
You may also want to have a desk organizer with compartments for miscellaneous supplies like paperclips, staples, pushpins, or small notepads.
4. Utilize Shelving
When you can’t spread out anymore, spread up. Shelving offers you the opportunity to create more space in your office without taking up a lot of room with large furniture pieces.
Shelving fits in well in any office space, but it’s perfect for spaces that might be tight or low on floor space. Both floor shelves and wall shelves offer great storage.
Add your books, office supplies, or decorative objects for personality. With many shelving styles, you’re sure to find one that fits your storage needs and personal style.
5. Or Try Built-In Wall Cabinets
Or, if you don’t like the look of open shelving, you can try built-in wall cabinets. Built-in cabinets are one of the home office ideas if you want to create a custom organization plan for your space.
You can use custom or pre-fab cabinets that address your specific storage needs. You can add drawers, shelves, or a combination of both. You can even build a desk into the cabinets to create an office suite.
Cabinets also offer you some privacy. Keep sensitive information from sitting out where people can find them. Or hide some things away to keep your office looking neat and tidy.
6. A Quick Command Center
The layout of your office can greatly affect your productivity. One of the best home office setup ideas is using a corner as a command center. This is a small desk where you can quickly access your needs for home and office.
Include a calendar, phone, notebooks, pens, and other quick access office essentials. If you take a quick call or need to print something in a hurry, you can use this command center.
This is also a great place to organize family events like kid’s sporting events, play rehearsals, or doctor’s appointments. If you ever hire an assistant to work from home, they can be in charge of this station.
7. Customize Wall Calendar
Working from home can be hectic, so you need to keep all of your appointments, meetings, and engagements organized. Use a customized wall calendar to keep your schedule straight and keep you on track.
Putting a calendar up on the wall will keep your schedule at the front of your mind and allow you to plan your workload more efficiently. Hanging your calendar, schedule, or to-do list up on the wall will free up desk space.
8. Label What You Can
What good is organization if you can’t find anything? You may have drawers, files, and boxes that keep your office clean, but if you have to tear through everything to find one piece of paper, your office won’t be clean for long.
It goes without saying that you should use labels to keep your office organized. Use label stickers, cards, or a label maker to mark where you keep supplies, important files, and tools.
You may also want to mark drawers or cabinets to keep track of their contents and make finding what you need much easier.
9. Be Smart With Your Tech
Your home office probably runs on technology. When researching potential technology, you probably found what will best aid your work. So be smart with the way your display and take care of it.
Lots of cords can easily make your office look messy. Find a way to organize your cords to keep them protected and from getting tangled together.
You may want to find a place to store a work laptop after you’ve finished for the day. A locked drawer or safe is a great way to keep digital work documents safe.
10. Try a Bin System
Some of the best home office organization systems include bins, both small and large. You can use a series of bins to keep everything in your office organized, from extra pens and pencils to books or small pieces of technology.
Bins are a great storage method because they can stack to save space. There are waterproof ones to keep your items safe. And they easily store away in larger storage containers, on shelves, or in cabinets.
Be sure to use labels or even clear bins, so you know what items are stored where.
11. Separate Work From Home
Despite being at home, a home office is more of a place for you to escape the rest of your household and focus on work. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t handle some of the household business in your office.
You can use your office to pay bills, file taxes, and keep the home schedule organized. But even though the two responsibilities share a room, you should keep them separate.
Have separate filing, organizing, and calendars for your work and home responsibilities. Be sure to label everything clearly and try to work on the two at different times.
You don’t want to pay a personal credit card bill with a work account.
12. Drawer Dividers
Drawers can easily become overwhelmed and messy if you throw items in without a second thought. Before you know it, you’re searching through a messy drawer for a paperclip you knew your put in there weeks ago.
Preemptively get rid of the hassle and organize your drawers with dividers. Get premade boxes, cut-to-fit dividers, or ones that are custom-made for your needs. Use them in your desk cabinet drawers to keep everything in its place.
This bit of organizing will save you so much time and many headaches.
13. Do Weekly Cleanouts
No matter how much organizing you do, life will happen. And when life happens, things get messy.
This inevitable fact of life means that you can spend hours organizing, but your office may still fall victim to a little disorganization. So stay on top of the messy by performing weekly cleanout to stop the mess from accumulating.
Every week, throw out scraps, excess, and anything you don’t need. Shred papers, throw out used pens or ink cartridges and empty the trash. Then straighten up your office again and replenish any low supplies.
Doing this weekly ensures that you stay on top of the mess and keep you out of the position of an overwhelming all-day cleanup. This will keep your office much cleaner for longer.
Home Office Organization Ideas DIY Lovers Love
Your office space should promote productivity, allowing you to get away from distractions in an uninterrupted environment. But it’s not always outside factors that can affect the quality of your work.
An unorganized office can be as destructive as someone running in and disturbing you during the day. Disorganization can pull you out of your work groove, break your focus, and decrease your efficiency.
Instead, try these thirteen home office organization ideas DIY lovers love to create the office space you need to do your best work.
Inspired to transform your space? Get more home advice on our blog today!