How to organize your office

If the mess you’ve managed to achieve at your office/workplace starts giving you a constant headache, you need to find the way to get rid of it.

Of course, it’s completely normal to have your working desk and area a little bit out of order, as you can’t avoid a light mess when you’re working and using the space as you’re supposed to. But when your office (no matter if it’s a corner or a room in your own house or a proper office/block in a building of a company you work for) turns into a total disaster, you won’t be able to work efficiently. And that’s something you need to prevent.

When everything has its own place and when you know where that place is, finding a necessary paper or a piece of stationary turns into an automatic task but not into a day-long hustle. What I’m trying to say is that it’s much easier to work in the well-organized office.

And, if you take your time to conduct a throughout office cleanup and organization, you’ll be able to maintain your working space in that highly desired kept-together condition without too much effort. As when you reach that point of being able to breathe freely in your own office, there will be no coming back. (At least you’ll try your best not to ruin your hard office organizing work))))

So, if you’re ready for a full-blown office organization makeover, let’s get down to business!

10 office organization tips

1. Decluttering comes first! It’s probably the nastiest and the most time-consuming part of the entire office organizing process. It’s also the most boring and probably the most embarrassing one. You need to go through your working area, all papers, all folders, all cords and all stationary and toss away everything you don’t need or don’t really use.
   Be a ruthless office declutterer. Team up with your office cleaner. Don’t let that files and piles of 100 years old papers occupy any space in your office storage.
   Post an office cleaning task
2. Go through your documents stash to figure out which ones you’re able to get rid of and which ones you need to keep. Use cardboard boxes or plastic bins to divide them according to date or/and project they’re related to.
   Sharpies, colorful markers and file dividers, chalkboard labels will help you with categorizing and organizing.
3. If you’re organizing your home office and need to sort your receipts, financial, medical, pet, and house stuff, personal documents and other paperwork, consider using those handy tote file organizers. They look amazing, occupy minimum of space and allow you to keep all your paperwork sorted in one place.
   This might be an excellent organizer for the project paperwork as well. If you need to bring it all papers somewhere, you’ll just grab that organizing bag and head out to the spot.
4. Attack your desk. Clear up as much space on it as possible. Don’t place too many decorative and nonfunctional items on it. Use your storage or pen holders as desk decorations instead. Divide your desk into computer and paper work areas.
5. If you have to deal with a lot of paperwork, purchase a multi-leveled desktop file organizer or magazine holder and use colorful or chalkboard labels to sort the documents into ‘incoming’, ‘in work’, ‘require reworking’, ‘files to give out’, ‘current project files” sections.
   Use one of the desk drawers to put away the papers you’ve just finished working with before sending them into the archive to be able to grab them quickly when you need.
6. Get a similar organizer for your mail. A hanging file tote will work great in minimal space conditions. Divide your mail into categories (like bills, offers, personal mail, project-related docs, outgoing mail) as well.
   Be good at keeping up with this organizing system. Otherwise, even the fanciest and the most elaborate organizers won’t keep your papers in order.
7. Place a junk mail bin beside your table to be able to toss away all those promotion leaflets, banners and newspapers everyone receives.
8. Organize your stationary drawer with the help of drawer dividers. You may easily make them out of cardboard and decorate them with a stick-on paper with an elegant design. Keep a simple and compact stationary organizer with your notebook, a couple of pens, stick-on notes and paper clips on your desk to be able to grab the items you use the most in a wink.
9. If you don’t have any drawers in your desk and you’re feeling that well-known lack of storage space, grab a hammer and a couple of sturdy nails, drive them into the wall above your desk and hang a couple of storage baskets/buckets on them. You may keep your spare stationary or even some papers in them.
10. Hang a white board above your desk to be able to visualize your to-do list and work-related ideas. Having a calendar to mark important dates and a schedule whiteboard keeps you organized and on time as well.
11. Organize your office equipment. Set up a printing station. The greatest way to do that is to make sure that you’re able to reach your printer, scanner, office phone, etc. without getting up from your chair. Sounds lazy, but so comfortable, doesn’t it?
12. Manage your computer desktop. Make it as clean and minimalistic as possible. Create an elaborate file storage system. Different folders, folders in folders will prevent you from getting lost in your own electronic data stash.