Were you one of the many people who discovered that working from home caused a big clutter? By the end of 2020, 71% of Americans were working from home. And more work from home means more people who need to know how to organize a home office.

After a long day of hard work in your home office, it can be hard to feel motivated to clean up after yourself. Things start piling up and before you know it, you have a big mess to deal with.

Avoid getting to that hard-to-handle messy state, by creating an office that’s easy to manage and organized from the beginning. Check out these five handy tips so that clean up at the end of the workday is as easy as possible.

1. Choose the Right Desk

Your desk is the home base of your office space, and the more places to put and hide things in it, the more organized your home office will appear. 

Choose a desk with multiple drawers or even a hutch on top so that you have a built-in organizing system. It’s also a good idea to get drawer organizers with multiple sections so that you can have a specific place for each individual item. When items have a home, it’s easier to remember to put them away.

2. Differentiate Between Frequent and Less Frequent Items

Start differentiating between the items you use every day and the items you only use every once in a while. Then, base where you put your items on their frequency of use.

Things like pens and post-it notes may get used every day. They should go in an easy-to-reach location such as a hutch or cup on the top of your desk. Things that might get used less frequently can be put more deeply into a drawer.

3. Organize a Home Office With a Filing Cabinet

Every working adult should have a filing cabinet. Take time to find a filing system that works for you!

You can use a color-coded system by placing colored stickers on the tabs of your filing folders. Here you can set apart incoming mail, identification documents, finished projects, etc. 

4. Declutter by Removing Non-Essentials

Even with a filing cabinet, things start to pile up in an office. You can help cut down on what gets stored by identifying the non-essentials in your office.

Is that really important paperwork or is it a no longer necessary piece of a presentation from years ago? Even some paperwork that’s important, but not needed every day can be scanned and kept on a laptop or computer instead of in a physical filing system.

You can also declutter the decorations on your desk. Family photos and office plants liven up a space, but you might not need that bobblehead from college anymore. Consider setting a color scheme for decor to help you decide what stays.

5. Hire a Cleaning Service

You are busy enough without always worrying about cleaning too. Even once things are organized it can be exhausting to put wiping things down, dusting, and vacuuming on top of that.

Hire a professional cleaning service to come in and take care of that for you periodically. They’re guaranteed to find all the nitty-gritty details that matter better than you will.

A Home Office You’ll Want to Work In

With the right furniture, filing systems, and professionals to help with the job, you’ll be able to organize a home office that feels productive to work in. Tired of going it alone? Contact us about a quote for your cleaning needs today!