How to declutter & organise your home office

How to declutter & organise your home office

Having a tidy workspace boosts mood and productivity. And with home working fast becoming the norm, there’s a good chance you have been making improvements and updates to your home office.

Whether you are installing a brand-new home office or re-inventing your current space to be more efficient, here are our top home office organisation tips to ensure your space is clutter free.

Keep it professional

With double the volume of people now working from home, many of us are struggling to create that divide between our home life and our work life. Therefore, when it comes to organising your home office, it’s important to try and keep that divide as much as possible.

Aim to separate your work and personal life as much as possible. If space is an option for you, relocate your home office to an area that is away from the kitchen, utility and bedroom to reduce the risk of distraction while working. Remove personal items like workout equipment, TVs and mobile phones to minimise the blurring of professional and home worlds.

Remove non-essentials

Take a good look at the items on your working desk and edit out any items that are non-essential. Strip back your desk items to only the things you’re working on currently and use regularly.

You might be a huge fan of pretty stationery, with novelty notebooks and pencils arranged neatly in pots, but then realise that you never actually take any written notes! Put these decorative items on shelves or on top of cabinets instead to keep them from causing a distraction on your desk.

Create a filing system

Sorting out paperwork can be stressful. If you receive a fair number of documents to your home, there’s a good chance it will start piling up into a mess if you don’t have a filing system in place.

Perhaps you’re keeping documents such as contracts or posted items on top of your desk, just in case you need them. Chances are you won’t, so file them as soon as they come in and then you’ll always know where they are when you need them. Things are much more likely to get lost or picked up by other family members if they are left out on surfaces.

There are many types of filing systems available, from simple box files to rotary filing and hanging suspension files. The best type for your needs will depend on the nature of the paperwork you have to file and how accessible you need documents to be. Once you have decided on the best filing system, categorise it into sections that make sense for you, such as specific clients, suppliers or projects. 

Upgrade your storage space

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to de-clutter your current office, things just still seem too cramped. If this is the case, then you might need to make your office furniture work harder for you.

Fitted home office furniture ensures that all your equipment, paperwork and folders are kept out of site, allowing you more space to think and work at your desk. Even if your office is on the smaller side, bespoke furniture units can fit into any type of area, ensuring that every inch of space is maximised.

With built-in cabinets, draws and bookshelves, you can tailor your office furniture to your exact requirements, meaning that you will never run out of a place to put all your work items.

Adopt a clean desk policy

Many modern workplaces adopt a clean-desk or paperless desk policy nowadays, and there’s no reason why you can’t do the same at home. 

Paper and clutter will soon accumulate again if you don’t stick to a strict routine, so make some rules today that you can stick to long term.

The use of digital storage options, including cloud storage and external hard drives, means that we don’t need to print out as many documents to file anymore. Instead, we can keep things in digital format for future use. Similarly, you can opt for paperless statements and invoices from most suppliers, reducing paper waste and making filing and accounting much easier too.

Make the most of your office space with Hammonds

If you’re looking for more inspiration on how to use furniture to best effect for a tidy working space, the Hammonds team is ready to help you organise your home office.

Book a free design visit today and begin to notice the difference that a clutter-free workspace can make!