Simple Organizing Tips For Your Office And Desk
A clean and organized workspace sets a great atmosphere and allows you to be more efficient and to concentrate easily. So it seems like a pretty obvious situation. All you have to do is keep your office organized. But it’s not that simple. The key is having a good system and to respect it.
De-clutter
Start by de-cluttering your office. Get rid of anything you don’t need there or doesn’t belong there. Be methodical and take one area at a time. Go through everything and put the things you haven’t used in a while in a separate pile. If you find an item you haven’t used in months and can’t even decide whether you’ll ever need it again, don’t hesitate and throw it out.
Designated spaces
Again, go over the entire office, one area at a time. If an object doesn’t belong in a certain space, put it in a container or a basket. At the end, start re-distributing the items. Put everything back where it belongs.
Keep things within reach
A good approach is to establish functions for individual areas. For example, you might need a storage space as well as a main workspace. Keep everything organized and within reach so you don’t have to constantly get up or move around.
Label your things
Labeling your things is an important step towards being organized. This way you’re constantly being reminded where items belong and others will also know exactly where to put an item they’ve borrowed or where to find an item they need.
Organize the drawers
Drawers are almost always messy. So a great idea is to use drawer organizers or containers for the little items. Also, put similar items together or put the items that are used together in the same drawer.
Clear your desktop
Start by emptying your desktop and wiping it clean. Then only put back the essential items. If you don’t use an object regularly, it shouldn’t stay on your desk. Perhaps a drawer or a shelf would be a better option.
Organize small items
If you need to keep a bunch of small items on your desk, it’s best to organize them and use containers to avoid clutter. It’s a good idea for item such as paper clips, pens, sticky notes, etc.
Color-code your files
Use colors to organize your files and your documents. This system allows you to easily and quickly identify the category in which you need to look. You don’t waste time going through all the documents and you become more efficient.
Focus on a single project at a time
Part of being efficient is getting rid of unnecessary distractions. So clear your workspace of everything and only keep the things that are related to the project you’re working on.
Don’t leave a mess
At the end of each day, clean and organize your desk. Don’t leave a mess because it’s you who will have to deal with first thing in the morning the next day. It’s best to start the day on a high note, with a beautiful desk.
Look for practical storage solutions
Now let’s review some practical ways to organize everything in your office and on your desk. For example, you can repurpose Mason jars as cubbies and use them to organize all your pens and other desk supplies.
Or you can use an empty shoe box to keep related items organized. You can put empty toilet paper rolls inside the box and use them to organize your pencils, highlighters, etc.
Open shelving is also really practical in an office. You can use the shelves to organize all your files, books, catalogues, etc. Not that you can divide them up in categories but this way you’ll easily find the exact item you need without having to browse through a big pile.
Make a hanging notepad. You can use a branch and some leather straps. There are lots of clever ways in which you can use this feature later on, whether it’s for taking notes, for reminders or for displaying things.
You can make your own chic storage containers for the desk. Use empty cans or other type of containers, glue and twine or yarn. You basically just wrap the twine until you cover the entire container.
Make an organizer dock for your desk so you keep all the essentials gathered in one place. You can have a place for your phone, for your pens, highlighters, paper clips and everything else you usually need and use.
Another way to organize all the stuff you usually keep on your desk is with pipes or other similar elements which you glue together to form a pyramid.