Ideas to Help Organize Your Home Office

Harrison Stevens, May 12, 2020

Working from home is quickly becoming the “new normal.” From full-time telecommuting to alternating in-office days, more and more people are now setting up an office in their homes. If you’re one of them like I am, you’re probably trying to figure out the best way to stay organized and productive in a spare bedroom or a room that’s pulling double duty—home office by day, family room by night. Your commute may have gotten shorter, but the challenge to organize your home office is real. I’ve found one of the best answers to space issues is using a wall organizer for your home office. Here are some more ideas that might help.

Customize Your Furniture Into Office Furniture

Not everyone has space at home for adding filing cabinets or office desks. But, you can have dedicated places for all your office accouterments by taking a look at the furniture you already have and re-imagining it. For instance, you might have an end table with drawers full of odds and ends you could clean out and use for your office supplies and files. That small folding tray table you use for eating in front of the T.V. could make a great printer stand. Using existing pieces of furniture will also make the transition from workspace to family space easier at the end of the day.

Containerize

My grandmother had a saying, “A place for everything and everything in its place,” and I’ve used this as my motto when it comes to organizing. If you always have a designated spot to put each supply after you use it, you’ll never hunt for your favorite pen or any other must-have item again.

The best way to create these places is by containerizing like things together. This makes it easy to know exactly where to find the shipping tape or labels or whatever you need without having to plunder through a million other items. You can organize your home office with containers you buy or reuse jars, glasses, and bowls you already have.

Colorize

Color coding offers a quick and visual way to prioritize tasks, for example, everything in the file with the red tab is urgent, everything in the folder with the green tab is in progress, and everything in the file with the yellow tab is on hold. Or, you can use colored files to separate your work into categories, such as one color for projects, one color for vendors, and one color for financial matters. Using colored markers works the same way on a whiteboard, calendar, or planner. Color-coded trays can separate unopened mail from outgoing mail and invoices that need to be sent from statements that need to be paid.

Go Vertical

The most overlooked organizational real estate inside a home office is the walls. By going vertical, you don’t just have extra storage space, but you prevent much-needed desk space from becoming cluttered. Shelves are always an option, but if you want to get the most bang for your organizing buck, you’ll choose a wall organizer instead. These marvels of organizing, such as The Rachel, a 1Thrive wall organizer, have all the elements you need in one convenient place. The Rachel has a streamlined design that fits in a limited space and is the perfect way to organize your home office.

The Rachel wall organizer includes: