Is your home (or work) office a place where papers, mail, books, and random junk pile up? This could be significantly affecting your productivity. An office is a great place to shut yourself away and get stuff done, but if your office is chaotic, it could be messing with your ability to get anything accomplished. Check out our best tips for cleaning and organizing your office below.

1. Minimize – The truth is, you have a bunch of stuff in your office that you don’t use and you won’t use. We often have extra supplies, papers, and files we don’t need. It will be a lot easier to organize your office if you are honest about what you need and what you don’t need. If you minimize the amount of stuff in your office, you will have less to organize.
2. Have a Space for Everything – You have definitely heard someone say “a place for everything and everything in its place.” This is something you should strive for when organizing your office. If you have a particular place for your stapler, you won’t waste work time looking for it when you can’t find it. If you feel like you don’t have enough room in your office to have a place for everything, go back to step 1.
3. Keep Your Desktop Clear – It is tempting to leave important papers or documents on top of your desk because you want to be sure they stay top-of-mind. However, a cluttered desk can get in the way of your focus and concentration. You can get a tray or file organizer to put on the edge of your desk, but be sure you have a system when it comes to organizing your papers and files.
4. Organize Drawers and Shelves – When you are cleaning off your desk, it can be tempting to just throw things into your desk drawers, but this is not a good idea. You should try to have an organizational system when it comes to your drawers; otherwise, you will have a hard time finding things when you are looking for them.
5. Make Everything Digital – Okay, so you don’t have to make everything digital, but the less paper you have around your office, the less clutter you will have. When possible, try to keep digital files instead of paper ones (but be sure to back those up!). It will make organizing a lot easier if you are doing it on your computer because then it won’t take up physical space in your office.
6. Tidy Your Office Every Day As You Finish Your Day – The best way to make sure your office is always organized is to spend a few minutes every day straightening things up. In fact, it is a great idea to end your workday with a bit of tidying. That will ensure things are organized and ready to go for work the next morning.

It is easy for your office to get cluttered and disorganized, but, that can seriously slow down your work. You will want to try to keep your office as organized as possible to make sure you can be as productive as possible. We hope these office organizing tips helped you! As always, if you need cleaning or organizing help in your home, you can call Everyday Helper.