Dec
02

7 Simple Desk Organization Ideas to Keep Your Workspace Tidy at all Time

Whether you are working in an office or from home, having a workspace that is clean and tidy adds to your productivity. Because of all the work hustle, it’s easy to get things piled up cluttering the workspace, especially when you’re working from home.

Having to take care of the house and kids at the same time leaves no room, nor energy, for taking care of it daily. While you certainly shouldn’t deny yourself the so-called creative chaos, tidying your working area shouldn’t take too much of your time. Good organization is the key.

Aside from an adequate desk and comfortable, ergonomic chair, what you need are some workspace organizers. Having clean space can increase your motivation and sharpen your focus. And being well-organized means having half the work done in advance.

Here are some of the ways to organize your desk so it always looks tidy and spacious.

First things first - empty your workspace

Decluttering is the first and most essential step when organizing a space for work. Remove everything from and under the desk, shelves, and drawers. An overview of the space you have will make it easier to plan where to put all the necessary items.

See how much space you have at your disposal and decide how much of it you need for the work itself, and how much goes on the storage. Then think about the storage space you have. Open shelves and cases do look nice when decorated, but it can be terrible when you start putting this and that just to be “at your hand”.

So, consider getting closed cabinets. Or putting doors on the existing ones. There are several ways to close the shelves and give them a new, fresh look. Not only that you can make the space look tidier, but you can also play with colors, add some decorations, and make it more fun, inspiring, and inviting.

Next - separate, move and throw away stuff

When you have emptied the furniture and wiped off the dust, it is time to separate all the stuff and decide what to keep and what to throw away. Don’t be surprised if you come across a bunch of stuff that simply doesn’t belong there - hair ties, old bills, not working pens, old take-out menus, empty glue tubes, and whatnot.

Make three piles:

1. Important,
2. Things you want to keep,
3. Trash.

Take the trash out immediately, it will free both the space and your mind. Put a trash bin under the table, so you can avoid piling trash up again.

Make a list of all the bulky items and try to visualize where they would fit in best. Maybe you can rearrange the furniture and create a better lit or more open space. Once you’re satisfied with your office interior, separate the rest of the stuff into office supplies, books and notebooks, paper and accessories.

Have the most important item at hand

Put the things that you use every day, like a PC or laptop and stationery, on the desk. Place the books on the shelves and bookcases. You can buy or make binders or boxes to put important papers in them. Don’t forget to mark the boxes or binders, so that you always know what is where.

Things that you use least often can be placed in the drawers at the bottom of the desk or in the boxes and put on the top shelves. Use pen holders for pencils, scissors, colored pencils, markers, and small baskets for trifles.

Don't just throw things in the drawers and think that's how the desk is arranged. Place smaller plastic or paper boxes inside the drawer to help you sort all the items. Don’t be afraid to use colors if you like variegation. Arrange the space around you so that it brings positive energy and inspires your creativity.

Manage the cables

The thing that especially makes some places messy and gets on everyone’s nerves is a bunch of intertwined cables under and around the desk. And there can be a lot of them in the offices. Just think, a PC, monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, router, scanner, USB cables, phone charges.

A tangle of wires is not only going to pose a distraction, but it also is not a pleasant sight to see. Not to mention that it can compromise your safety.

Collect your cables together in neat little bundles using some zip ties, velcro, or cable sleeves. Shorten cables that are too long and hide power strips. Tie and mark the cables that are excessive and put them away in a box with other stuff you might use some other time.

Use digital forms of everyday items

Paper tends to make a lot of mess on the desk. Luckily, almost anything can have its digital form today. Scan all the necessary documents and save them as PDFs on your computer. Searching through will be faster and easier. Make sure to make a backup on a cloud, if possible.

Additionally, there are plenty of apps that can make organizing your work easier. Use Notes instead of Post-Its to make To-Do lists, Google Calendar to mark important dates and create reminders, or some organizational chart maker to create a visual representation of your tasks and duties.

Take care of your digital mess too. Don’t clutter files and icons on your desktop, as they are distracting and make everything harder to find. Divide them into separate directories according to the types of documents. Clean up any stray files on your desktop and nestle files within folders at least once a week.

Add some plant and decoration

A few decorative items and plants here and there can make your working area much more pleasant. Baskets in which you have placed all those knick-knacks from step 3, picture frames, figurines, everything comes into play if they’re meaningful and inspiring.

To function properly, a brain needs oxygen. And since plants produce oxygen while providing a soothing environment, a quick delivery of live plants is your solution to achieve that aesthetic office set-up. There are plants especially intended for offices, as it has been proven that looking at greenery rests your eyes from looking at a screen for several hours. And it relaxes the mind as well.

To remain organized, stick to the one in - one out rule. Every time you add a new item, take out a similar one. This will stop you from cluttering the space again.

Keep yourself well-organized

For your desk to stay decluttered and tidy, your working habits must be such as well. Organize your daily tasks so you can get them filed and out as soon as possible. The sooner you complete a task, the sooner you can put back all the accessories you have used for its completion.

However, you should focus your attention on a single task at one time. Prioritize your tasks by urgency or complexity, and act in accordance with it. The sooner you do boring, difficult, or quick tasks, the sooner it will stop bothering and distracting you. Staying organized makes you more productive.

Once you rearrange your working area and put everything in its place, be consistent in keeping your desk clean and tidy. Dust it and take out the trash regularly. Keep scanning the important papers and sort or shred the rest. Also, sort the files on your desktop regularly. Daily and weekly maintenance is what always keeps your workspace tidy.

Image source: https://bit.ly/3GbZA31

By: Nina Petrov
Nina is a content marketing specialist, passionate about graphic design, content marketing, and the new generation of green and social businesses.