When you’ve been working in a typical office, you probably had the unpleasant, sterile environment of a standard cubicle or the more open, noisy or annoying office that lacks partitions. When you work from home, you have the massive advantage of designing and maintaining an office to your heart’s content in the way YOU want. You may have noticed that the home office is becoming more of a messy environment lately, with all manner of items cluttering every surface. To get things under control, you need to make some changes.
Let’s cover some of what you need to do to organise your home office in an efficient way:
Start Anew
If it has been quite a few years since you’ve seen your desk free of clutter, then it may be time for a literal clean sweep of the whole thing. Take every bit of office supply, paper, pens and everything let and leave your monitor, keyboard and mouse on there. It may be hard to tackle the individual pieces of clutter and paper, but you need to get it done for a fresh start. As soon as those are gone, you can create three piles – Save, Scan and Fresh.
Keep Things Simple
Working remotely gives you a chance to design your office space the way you want, but just because you can have all that extra space to yourself, doesn’t mean you should utilise it completely. To keep things clear you should use your desktop only for things you need when you’re working. Remove all personal items from the desk to free up space and choose only the most important items you need.
Make Sure Your Space is Respected
Having a dedicated workspace can help you get work done more efficiently, getting you to focus and be more productive. Sometimes, a home office is more than just a room with a door, it means you can have it in the dining room, bedroom, living room – you name it. The problem with having such office space is that you’re not always alone. You need to make sure your family or roommates understand that you need the space quiet as you work, not to mention they need to avoid touching your workspace. You can involve them in keeping it organised and functional, and use their ideas if you can, but you need to make sure you have your space to yourself when you need it.
Dividing Personal Space from Workspace
Depending on the size of your home or apartment, you may need to find a creative way to squeeze your workspace into your arrangement. If you have a smaller home, you will likely need to keep your office desk close by, but never in your bedroom. You need to keep a healthy work-life balance, so having it close is a bad move. Curtains may help give an option that defines a smaller workspace. When you’re done for the day, simply pull the curtain on your workspace and keep it out of sight.
Keep Your Desk for Work Only
Keeping your desk in order may be a challenging task, even when you work in an office and everything you need is located at the desk at work. If you have a home office, then you will likely see the occasional everyday item slipping into your workspaces, such as utility bills and other items. You should keep your paperwork elsewhere, preferably in a different room. If that can’t happen, you should have a separate filing and storage system around your home for your personal and work items.
