Keep Your Office Space Tidy With These 6 Simple Tricks
Keeping your desk clean and uncluttered can feel impossible, but there are plenty of tips, tricks, and hacks that you can use to clean up your workspace and clear your mind.
So, set aside some time to focus on office organization and get ready to tackle your cluttered desk.
1. Give everything a home
This might seem like a no-brainer, but instead of cluttering your desk with pens, notebooks, highlighters, snacks, and whatever else you want to have on hand, create a “home” for each set of items.
It can be as simple as getting a mug to place your pens in, or purchasing paper trays and vertical desk organizers to keep things organized. You could use ice cube trays to organize small items in your drawers.
2. Tame your cables
Ahh, cables, always in the way and getting tangled into an unmanageable disaster. Here are some easy tricks you can use to get them under control:
- Snap binder clips onto the backside of your desk and loop laptop chargers, USB cords, and other cables through the silver loop on the clip.
- Use bread clips to label and organize cords.
- Rain gutters are also great desk-attachment tools that help wrangle cables.
Or, you can take the easy route and buy a “cable management tool” from Ikea.
3. Expand your workspace
No, you won’t need to buy a new desk, but you will have to think beyond your available desk space.
Start thinking vertically: shelves, raising your computer monitor, and using the space under your desk.
Instead of littering your desk with post-it notes, hang a whiteboard on the wall. You could also attach clipboards to a wall to organize papers.
4. Make a “supply wall”
Taking the “think vertically” notion one step further: supplies like staplers, tape, scissors, and post-its are good to have on hand, but they don’t need to take up precious desk space. Use a pegboard to secure office supplies so they’re easy to reach, but not in the way.
Your refrigerator isn’t the only magnetic surface that can be used for notes and other reminders, either – use a magnetized white board or other surface to hang notes and supplies.
5. Keep small items in a spice rack
If you have limited drawer space, grab an old spice rack to store paper clips, rubber bands, push pins, and other small items.
Just be sure to wash the glass spice jars completely, or else your supplies might smell like dill.
6. Start from scratch
Okay, so this one might not be a “hack,” but it makes sense: If removing clutter doesn’t seem to work, take everything away and add what you need back little by little.
After all, all of the office hacks in existence aren’t going to be very helpful if you simply have too much stuff to begin with.
