Working from home is nice. No gray cubicles. No distracting conversations. No fighting with coworkers over the thermostat setting. Instead, you get a calm environment, your own view and easy access to your kitchen whenever you want.
That's how it starts, anyway. But papers, receipts, invoices, boxes, books and office supplies conspire against you, somehow reproducing like rabbits until the walk to your desk becomes an obstacle course and you forget what the top of your desk looks like. Pretty soon, the home office becomes this monster you avoid.
I've been there. But I've come out the other side. It took me an entire weekend, but it can be done. All it takes is an objective outlook, a firm hand and a plan and you can rid yourself for good of the exasperation of your cluttered home office. Here's where you start:
Get rid of stuff
The clutter usually starts with paper — important letters, junk mail, invoices, rough drafts, contracts, sticky notes — and that's where you start digging out. If you don't already have one, buy a paper shredder. Start at the doorway and work your way to the desk. Make a decision whether to keep or trash every slip of paper you find. Organize the papers you're going to keep into general categories that you can sort through later. Everything else goes into the shredder.
But don't stop with the paper. Look for items you never or very rarely use that are cluttering up the office and either pitch them or move them away.
Go digital
The ultimate way to keep your papers organized is to stop using paper. Go through your (roughly organized) stacks of documents you need to keep and consider scanning and storing them on your computer or, to protect them from loss if your computer dies, to storage space in the cloud. Plenty of cloud storage services — like Dropbox, Apple iCloud or Google Drive — are available cheap these days.
Organize what's left
Take a close look at your storage and work needs and start organizing the space, bearing these considerations in mind:
- The things you use most should be closest to your desk so you can get to them easily.
- Store extra supplies — like unopened reams of paper or boxes of envelopes — away from the desk and out of sight.
- If you do have to use some paper forms and you have multiple clients to deal with, hang a column of clipboards on the wall, one for each client, and keep invoices and other documents attached to them. This not only keeps client paperwork organized but gets it off your desk.
- Use all your space and think vertical. Take a close look at shelves, baskets, vertical files and storage lockers to make sure you're using every bit of storage space available. Consider the entire space, including up near the ceiling, or even hanging from the ceiling.
Get the cords out of the way
If you spend a lot of work time at a computer, you probably have a lot of cords to deal with — from power cords to headphones. All those cords make the area look cluttered and can get in the way (and gather dust). You can limit the number of cords you have to deal with:
- Trade out your printer, copier, scanner and fax machine for a single device that does all four tasks.
- Go cordless whenever you can with a Bluetooth mouse, keyboard and even headphones, and connect to your printer wirelessly over your Wi-Fi router.
For the cords you have left, label both ends of every cord (trust me — it will save you frustration in the future). Use adhesive Velcro strips to attach cords to the back and underside of the desk to get them out of the way and keep them from tangling up.
Label everything
Getting organized is relatively easy; staying organized is the hard part. Label your storage methods so you can always find the item you need when you need it. You can buy a fancy label-maker or get artistic with markers and construction paper or dry erase paint.
Staying organized seems pretty easy, but it can be all too easy to fall into old habits and quickly stray back into your old cluttered, disorganized past. If you schedule yourself just a little time each week to tidy up your office, though, you can keep those messy-office gremlins at bay.