5 Tips for Organizing Your Home Office

Whether you work from home, need to do work at home, or even just need a space to manage your family and home, setting aside a space for a home office is often a necessity. You may not have one room you can dedicate to use as an office. That’s ok. Even a small space in your kitchen, family room, bedroom, or other area in your home will work just fine.

When I began to think about what I wanted to accomplish with this post, I originally thought I would just share pictures and ideas from my home office. I’ve spent several hours over the last few weeks de-cluttering and re-organizing it.

However, on my Facebook page last week, I asked if anyone had questions about home office organization. Someone asked what the right procedure would be to organize a home office. So, I decided to share some tips I’ve come up with for organizing a home office.

Now, I could probably write an entire book, ok maybe a chapter in a book, about how to organize your home office. 🙂 Since I don’t have that kind of space here, I am going to share five tips that have helped me to get my home office organized.

1. Begin by deciding what tasks will need to be accomplished in your home office. Will it be used just for work? Or, will you need to use the space for other activities such as homework or crafting? Assessing your needs will go a long way in making sure you set up the most functional space as possible. This also helps you to determine what supplies will be necessary in that space.
2. If you are taking over a space previously used for some other function, or you are creating an entirely new space, you’ll want to clean everything out of the space if possible. Starting with a blank canvas will help you visualize the space better and will give you a clearer picture of the space you have to work with.
3. Measure to determine the size of desk, filing cabinets, and other storage units that you will use to fill the space. I’ve been guilty of shopping for furniture before having accurate measurements to know if the furniture would work in the space. My mind does not always comprehend the actual space available. Accurate measurements will help you to make the best use of your space.
4. Don’t overlook the space beneath your desk. As I mentioned in my blog post on re-furbishing furniture for your home, I am currently using an old conference table in my office as a desk. With the help of my friend Shana from Simplified Organized Styled, we took a small filing cabinet that I was going to get rid of and rolled it underneath my desk. It fits perfectly and is the optimal place to store all of my files related to blogging and writing.
5. Finally, don’t forget about your wall space. I have three boards that I made to help me keep track of writing assignments and other info I want to see at a glance. The two framed boards were made from supplies from Hobby Lobby. I bought a dry erase board and cork board from there and found frames that they would fit in. My mom helped me to cover the cork board with fabric. The middle board is a ready-made cork board. My mom covered it with fabric as well. Not only do these boards function well for me, they are pretty to look at.

These five tips have helped me out in organizing my home office. There are many other tips I’m sure I could share. Maybe I’ll get them into a book format one day soon!

How do you keep your home office organized?