Working from home, whether it be for running a blog, working a remote job or freelance or contract work, or starting your own business, comes with a lot of perks. Often it makes your schedule more flexible, makes it easier to eat meals at home instead of wasting money on lunches out of the office, and helps you avoid office bullies and other less-than-stellar coworkers.
But working from home also comes with challenges. You have to have the self-discipline to remain productive without oversight. How you organize your workspace can really impact your productivity. Below are three workspace organization elements that can help you create a productive workspace you’ll love being in.
Organizing a Functional Home Workspace
Workspace Organization Element 1: The Desk
Chances are that most of your work is going to happen at a desk. Of course, it’s important to get out into the world to find inspiration, but the nitty gritty often happens sitting down inside. So you want your desk to be both functional and visually appealing. This can be accomplished in many ways, including converting old furniture such as dressers and tables into a desk.
Silverware trays and ice cube trays can be slid into your desk drawers to organize small office supplies and trinkets.
Choosing a comfortable desk chair that you love both the look and feel of will help you be in the right mind space to get work done. Use a yoga ball as a part-time chair to help keep your posture tight. Working from home gives you the freedom to not sit all day. Look into desks that raise and lower so you can sit and stand as you like. You can even build a standing desk of your own!
Workspace Organization Element 2: Storage
Office supplies can quickly add up and turn into clutter. Check out these easily hidden storage ideas for ways to keep clutter off your desk. It even shows an armoire that’s been converted into an office space of its own! You’ll likely need to find some filing cabinets or maybe even some lockers for sale where you can keep all your papers organized and safe from damage.
Workspace Organization Element 3: The Walls
Office walls usually offer minimal functionality, but they bring lots of opportunity for building an inspirational and productive environment. Motivational quotes and posters can be found a dime a dozen, but think about the images and words that personally inspire you. You can even design your own custom wallpaper to bring a personalized touch to your work space.
You can also utilize wall space for further organization. Keep shelves or hanging drawers on the wall for items you don’t need to access regularly. These elements can be just as much design as they are for function, making your office a pleasant, organized place to work.
Having an organized, inspirational space that you design specifically for productivity can make all the difference when working from home. Do you have any home office organization tips? Share in the comments below!
Author Bio: Jeriann Watkins is currently in the process of organizing her very cramped craft room for her farmer’s market booth. You can check out her adventures at dairyairhead.com.
I have to agree. Having your home custom modified to fit your daily needs can pay great dividends in many ways.
Excellent post, Sabrina. Thx for sharing your tips.
When I first became a homebased writing business, my “office” was just a space on the dining room table. It was easy to keep organized as I had no files and needed little space. Then, as time went by, my business has grown and I have a lot more “stuff.” I now occupy the loft bedroom space in our home as my office, so I admitted.y don’t have to keep things quite as tidy and organized as I should!
Since I became an author, I have done more and more work at home. These tips will help me organize the mess I have now.
Thanks for sharing this with us, I will use the tips personally.
Great tips! I liked the hidden storage ideas need to follow one of them because sometimes my workspace becomes flooded. I have been thinking of using my wall space for quite some time now, after going through your post I am not going to do any more delay and go ahead with it even for my books it seems to be a pretty good idea.
Throughout the day, I find myself inevitably creating clutter (mess!) on my desk. If I don’t clean up by the time I’m done, it’s super important for me to do so before I start work the next day. Cleanliness and order make all the difference in the world! It’s visually appealing and motivates me to be more productive.
Sabrina, you would be horrified if you saw my home work space. We rescued kittens from our yard last year in hopes of finding them a home. When we couldn’t find them a home, of course we ended up keeping them. And the only place to put their litter was where our desk chair used to go. (we have a tiny city apartment) So now we can’t sit at the desk anymore, but can’t find any place else to put the littler. Now I get much of my work done on the couch. Though I do like the idea of using a yoga ball. I might see if I can incorporate that in some way. But right now, as I sit on my computer and type, I have a cat leaning on my leg and purring. So I guess the sacrifice has been worth it.
Great suggestions for a functional home office, Sabrina. Storage is important but thankfully we can nowadays store a lot of our documents online, which is helpful provided you have backups:-).
My must for my home office space is an l-shaped desk. I know for certain I would not be happy and able to function without one. I’m also quite a pile-maker and need lots of space. One of my old bookshelves (aside from a few knick-knacks) is primarily used for various stacks of paper I need to deal with. I probably should get some stackable file baskets for this purpose, but I rather like my system 😉
Good tips. I’ve recently moved to a new home which is much larger than my little house back in Maui. I also left 90% of my stuff back there, so I’m pretty much starting over and it’s so much fun! Right now my ‘office’ is in my dining room because I love the light and view, not to mention the little deck. Since I don’t entertain much, I’ve decided to live with this for awhile and may end up keeping it this way. It’s so much fun having all this extra space!
Lots of good ideas, Sabrina! I’m lucky to have an antique library table as my desk, so feel properly spoiled every day when I sit at it. When I feel like standing, I have an old suitcase (parents’ from 1951!) that I plop on top of it to make it the perfect height.
And like you, the yoga ball is great for keeping the abs in check.
What I learned in working from home years ago is to make your workspace lovely so that you enjoy being in it.
Having your own space is so important! You can’t possibly do your best work if you’re surrounded with your kids’ homework, game controllers, etc. If it’s absolutely necessary to share a computer with your family, set clear rules about when others can use it and removing their stuff from the area when they’re done.
I find that working from home there are a lot of things that I use much less frequently than I did when I was working in an office. A simple example is paper clips. I’m sure I used them multiple times a day while working in an office, sending various stuff to various people, whether it is HR forms or expense reports or suggested reading. At home I am much more likely to do everything digitally. So, to get to the point, it becomes more important to have a logical place for something like paper clips when you do need to find them, and hence to value of your organizational suggestions.
Insightful post as usual. We do not have an “office” as we do not officially work from home – yet! However I have always had my eye on a library, come study room. It is important to cut off when working from home so one is not open to distraction.
An airy room with minimal furniture would suit me just fine.
Great info Sabrina. I know that a well-organized designated work-space can do a lot to put you in the mood for work and keep you motivated.
I make tremendous use of binders – by labeling the spine I can find the information I need in a minute and they store neatly on a bookshelf.