Home Office Organization: Work from Big to Small

You know what good home office organization looks like. It doesn't include piles of books and file folders on the floor, papers strewn about the desk, half a dozen pens hiding underneath those papers. You look at your office, see the state it's in and decide to do something about it. You probably hear the clichés: start small, one step at a time, create a new habit, stuff like that. You try it and maybe see it work for two or three days. Once you see improvement you lose the motivation to keep at it. The truth is all the good habits in the world aren't going to help you if your office isn't set up to facilitate good home office organization. You can spend countless hours working on habits that might transform themselves naturally if you dedicate one weekend to remodeling your home office with an eye looking specifically at organization.

Your Office Desk
Take a look at your desk. Is there enough shelving for everything? Do you have an open space for paper trays? If you have papers lying around everywhere, you're probably a person predisposed to having things lying around at your desk. This isn't a bad thing. You want as many items as possible within an arm's length, you just don't want it buried. Sit down at the desk you have now and look at it. Is there a better design that will allow your clutter to have its own place? On the other hand, if you want to remove the clutter from your desk area, but simply have trouble finding the motivation in the moment, maybe you should consider a smaller desk to limit the clutter space available. You know yourself; you know how you work. Before you try to will yourself into better home office organization, ask if you have the right desk for you.

Home Office Cabinets
Maybe the desk isn't the problem, though. Maybe everything's gravitating toward your desk because it doesn't have any place else to go. Do you have sufficient storage throughout your home office? The answer is probably no. It's time to put in some new home office cabinets. Chances are if your work area is overrun with clutter, that clutter doesn't need to be on-hand. It's nearly impossible to have too many home office cabinets. Install smaller cabinets on the wall to preserve a feeling of space in the room. Wider, floor cabinetry will get those bulky items off the floor and away from the work area. Modular cabinets will allow you to create custom spacing for awkward items for an affordable installation price.

Creative Differences: Love Chaos and Stay Organized
Everybody works differently. Maybe the resistance you've been feeling toward home office organization is nothing more than a psychological personality trait. Some people find it difficult to concentrate when their environment is too neat. Still, you need to be able to find things in your work area in a reasonable amount of time to avoid losing valuable time. Try to find another way to express your need for creative chaos. Organizing your home office should free up space in the room. Make half of the room a mess of artistic endeavor. If you like to paint—if you'd like to learn to paint—get some paint, some canvasses and go at it. The importance of home office organization is to keep your work area organized and your mind focused on the task at hand, but don't feel like you have to spend five minutes looking for buried items just because you like to be messy.