How does your home office look right now? Whether you have a small home office or a large one, you will benefit from clearing out space every so often. Some benefits of having a stress free home office include:
Benefits of clearing a home office:
- Saving time finding things. Saving money on duplicate items.
- It makes a good impression with anyone who visits your space.
- Your focus improves with fewer distractions.
- It helps you reduce stress when you work in the space.
Now you can see how important it is to keep your home office decluttered. Here are 15 areas to visit to get rid of the stuff right now for a less stressful space.
Get rid of these things in your home office:
- Action items you haven't completed. This could be papers that list actions on them you thought you wanted to do and never got to do them.
- Electronics that are broken or not used - sometimes we replace a new printer, and the old one hangs around until we can find a place to recycle it. It happens, now is the time to get rid of it.
- Cables that are from unused electronics. Do you have cables you don't know where they came from? These can go too.
- Old completed calendars and planners. We sometimes keep these calendars/planners. Flip through them and rip out only the ones you want to keep. Recycle the rest.
- Dried pens and broken pencils. We tend to collect these items in desk drawers. Now is the time to get rid of them.
- Old magazines that are piling up. Do you get magazines sent to your home? Go through them and clear out the piles.
- Old archived folders and manuals of stuff not used.
- Paper receipts over seven years old. Do you have a bunch of receipts in a shoebox? Revisit these items and shred them now.
- Seven years or older tax supporting documents. If you want to organize the newer documents better, visit our post: 14 EASY TIPS FOR ORGANIZING LONG TERM FILES IN YOUR HOME AND BUSINESS
- Outdated reference books - technology books especially can be recycled right now.
- Dead plants and broken items. Remove anything that is not alive. I found this great article that talks about The Household Items You Need To Throw Out ASAP (According To A Feng Shui Expert).
- Old sticky notes. Do you use Sticky notes each day? You probably have a lot of them. Go through them and get rid of the ones you don't need. If you use them to collect information like phone numbers and addresses, gather them together and place them in your digital address book.
- Bulletin boards or magnet boards that are too cluttered displaying old information on them. A colleague of mine gives you tips on how to organize your bulletin board. Check it out here.
- Office supplies that are not being used any longer. Do you have push pins but no bulletin boards? If you don't go to where these supplies are stored frequently, you probably have some items that you mostly like have not used in years. Revisit this area and clear it out.
- If you work from home, you may have a fridge or beverage area in your home office — beverages cups and other things that may have expired or were destroyed and never used.
Well, there you have it! Feel free to share this image above to motivate others to make a stress free home office.
Clearing these items out of your home office will not only free up space and make your home office stress free, but it will also transform your frame of mind and allow you to see possibilities in your life that may have been hidden in the stressed area. Feel free to visit our other Office Organization posts.
Linda Samuels
Several years ago I redesigned my office. It involved removing everything (I mean everything,) because I was having built-ins installed. So I went through every drawer, file, and object to decide if it was being allowed to return to my new space. It was quite an exercise. But it was so useful because now what remains are just the things that I use and are working.
#5- I can't stand dried pens or broken pencils. If one a non-working pen appears, I toss it immediately. I also only keep pens that I like to use, where the ink flows easily across the paper. And pencils! I don't use them as frequently, but for the ones I do have, I like to keep them sharpened. A dull pencil also drives me nuts.
#11- Dead plants or flowers make me sad. They go before they start looking tragic. I often have a small bouquet of flowers on my desk. And I also have a tiny air plant that my daughter gave me. I take good care of it and it always makes me think of her.
Sabrina Quairoli
Plants make me sad too. No one wants to see dead stuff in the office.
Seana Turner
Those outdated books! Those seem to be hard to let go. Even my husband has shelves of them. I try and talk with clients about the fact that some of them are too old to be "trusted." If you would go online, rather than open the book, it is time to move it along.
Sabrina Quairoli
I totally agree! I recently purged these outdated tech books. I also got rid of Old QuickBooks starter books from the older software packages I purchased because they have all the answers and steps on the QuickBooks Support page online.
Janet Schiesl
Great list. It's everything that it's serving you. I guess the same is in every space of a home, but it always seems a little worst in a home office. I think because people think that if they put it where they can see it they will be reminded to do that chore. But it doesn't always happen. I spend a lot of time in my home office. I like it to be functional and beautiful to keep my spirits up.
Sabrina Quairoli
I agree, Janet! No one wants to be in a space all day and not love where they are. =)