How To Organize Your Home Office

Hello everyone!  I’m so happy you’ve decided to join me this Winter to begin organizing your home!  The first area we are going to tackle is the home office.  Seems like so many people are working from home these days because of the pandemic. So, whether you have a designated room as an office or you’ve had to carve out a small area in your home to use, the following steps will teach you how to organize your home office for maximum productivity!!

Six easy steps to Organize Your home Office

I developed a strategy that makes organizing any space very simple.  Just follow six steps that start with the letter “P” and you’ll be organized in no time! Get ready to Prepare, Purge, Polish, Personalize, Place, and last but not least, Put Back!! I call it the 6/P strategy and if you’d like more details about how to use it, just click here.

Prepare

Get the office ready to organize by grabbing four containers.  I like to use the following: a trash bag, a cardboard box, and two laundry hampers.

Purge

Remove everything in the space except the furniture and sort all items into one of these categories:

• Trash-throw all unnecessary items in the trash bag
• Donate-put items you would like to donate into the cardboard box
• Relocate-any items that don’t belong in the office should go into laundry hamper #1
• Replace-items that need to stay in the office should be placed in laundry hamper #2

Polish

Now that the clutter is gone it’s time to clean the office!  Remember to start at the highest point in the room and work your way down! 

Personalize

To complete this step, ask yourself the following questions:   

1. How does this space need to function for my personal needs?
2. What is causing clutter in this space?
3. Which items are necessary for the room to function productively?
4. What items do I need to make or purchase to contain items in this space?
5. How can I beautify the space, so I enjoy spending time there? 

PLACE

Now it’s time to place items back into the office in an organized manner.

Discard the trash bag you filled up! If you have items to donate, don’t wait around, take them to the donation center soon! If you have items that belong in another room, deliver them now. Replace the items you removed from the room and put them back in an organized manner!

Put Back

If you want to keep your office organized, you must put things back where they belong! If you can develop that habit, your office will stay clutter-free and you’ll be more productive than ever!

HOW I ORGANIZE MY home OFFICE

I perform many different tasks in my office and have found that dividing the room into zones helps me keep it organized and functioning properly. Consider the following zones and decide which ones you need!

Divide your office into zones

These are the zones that I am currently using or have used in the past. You may have other zones that you need to incorporate based on what activities you use the office for!

1. Work zone- Your desk, lamp, computer, pens/pencils and any items you need close at hand to do your job.
2. Mail/bill zone-Organizer for incoming mail, calculator, stamps, envelopes, return address labels and any items needed to pay bills.
3. Office supply zone-a place to store extra pens/pencils, scissors, tape, stapler, staples, rubber bands and any other office supplies you use.
4. Printing Zone-printer, copy paper, cardstock, photo paper, ink supplies.
5. Filing zone-Your file cabinet. If you don’t have one, consider using filing tubs, magazine holders, or binders.
6. School zone- crayons, markers, glue, school paperwork, consider setting up a homework station.
7. Storage zone-bookshelf or closet where you can store books, magazine holders, bins and large office items.
8. Craft zone -If you craft, scrapbook or sew, set-up an area in the office for all of your supplies.
9. Wrapping zone- Wrapping paper, ribbon, tape, scissors, boxes, gift bags, greeting cards and tags.

Tour my office zones

Here’s a tour of my office space, so you can see how I incorporate zones to make my office function best!

Work zone

Computer desk

Here’s my computer desk, it holds the main items I use daily! My desktop computer, laptop, a small lamp, and fan (a lifesaver for hot flashes). It has tons of storage that I use to hold all of my office supplies.

Craft desk

I use the smaller desk for writing, crafting, and wrapping gifts. It holds my desk organizer, planner, calendar, and a small lamp. These items can be easily moved to provide a flat work area, which is very important to me!

Office supply zone 

The drawers and shelves on the desk provide storage for all of my office supplies. I keep items I need often like the tape, stapler, ruler, pencil sharpener, paper clips, scissors, and a handy notepad in the drawer to the right of my keypad.

I store extra office supplies like tape, post-it notes, staples, and notecards in the drawers to the left of the keyboard.

In the cabinets above the computer, I store items using baskets, binders, a letter holder, and stackable trays.

Printing zone

I keep all of the items I need to print in the same area. I store the printer paper, photo paper, and card stock above the printer so it’s easy to grab when needed.       

Mail and wrapping zone

I use the wall to the right of my bookshelves as a mail and wrapping zone. The cute mailbox holds our mailbox key and any outgoing mail. Whoever gets the mail puts it in the mail holder on the right, which keeps my kitchen counter from piling up with junk mail!! My greeting cards are organized by holiday/event in the black bin to the left of the mailbox. I keep wrapping supplies on the floor in two black storage bins.

Filing zone

I use the black cabinet to store all important household files. The white filing cube on the right holds important pictures I plan to use in my scrapbooks. I will go into greater detail about these in my next organization post that will address paper clutter in your home.

If you don’t have a file cabinet you can use other items like boxes, magazine holders, and binders.

Storage zone

The bookshelves in my office provide lots of storage. I love to use fabric cubes, magazine holders, and photo boxes to keep items contained and out of sight. I have lots of scrapbooks and I store them on the bottom shelves because they are so heavy!

Craft zone

This is the area where I store the majority of my crafting supplies. I love to scrapbook and make simple DIY projects. As you can see, I have a sewing machine but am not very accomplished in this area!!

HOW I PERSONALIZED MY OFFICE

I love the Personalize step in my organizing strategy. I hope you will use the Personalize printable to help you figure out what problems you are having in your office and how to solve those problems. Sign up for our email list to get access to the free printable library.

However, I also want you to consider how to beautify the space, so you enjoy spending time there. Below are three projects I did to help make my office decor more cohesive and enjoyable to look at.

A seasonal banner

I love adding seasonal touches to my home and I decided to hang some snowflakes to remind me that it’s winter here in Florida. It’s easy to forget that when you have some days that hit 80 degrees, but I’m certainly not complaining!!!

Painted the white board

The frame I put around the whiteboard was a bronze-looking color and did not match the room at all. To remedy that, I painted it with black chalk paint and then used white wax to antique it. See the DIY here!!

Painted the desk

Rich made this desk for me! The base is part of my Grandmother’s baby grand piano and he built the top portion. I recently painted it so the top and bottom match. This piece has great sentimental value to me! See the DIY project here!

Well, my friends, I hope this post has given you some great tips and inspiration on how to organize your home office. Good luck working on the first space in our Winter organization challenge and I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a post to help you tackle the paper clutter that can so easily overtake your home!

more organization inspiration

Blessings, Rich and Donna