Arrangement Ideas for My Cluttered Home Office

Lisa Rivera • Sep 29, 2020

Stop letting a cluttered home office steal your motivation and turn you against your job. If you’re struggling to stay productive in a space that’s too small, too messy and too overwhelming, there are some simple steps that you can take:

Start with a blank slate
Invest in proper furniture
Rethink your office arrangement
Use all of your available space
Go paperless
Stop making excuses

Keep reading for an in-depth breakdown of how you can rein in the clutter that’s taken over your home office.

Start with a Blank Slate

Are you feeling totally overwhelmed by all the clutter in your office? When you “clean,” does it just feel like you’re consolidating stacks of paper? Do you dread the mess that awaits you every time you walk into your home office? It may be time to do something drastic.

If you’re feeling resigned to a home office you hate, you need to shake things up. And one of the most effective ways to reinvent this space is by removing everything. Every stick of furniture, office appliance and picture on the wall. Everything.

Why would you go to such extreme lengths? To look at the space with new eyes and see the possibilities. Ladydecluttered.com further explains that if you’ve had the same desk configuration for years, it’s very difficult to envision how the space could be rearranged and improved. Removing everything and slowly adding items back one by one forces you to think about what you really need and want surrounding you for hours every day. Instead of feeling forced to find a home for way too many items, you’ll feel motivated to pare down to just those items you need to keep your home office running smoothly.

Invest in Proper Furniture

Now that you’ve stripped your office down to bare floors and walls, it’s time to reimagine the space to make it as productive as possible. And if you’re using the same inexpensive desk that got you through college, it’s time to invest in some real office furniture.

HGTV goes into further detail about the importance of proper office furniture in 5 Quick Tips for Home Office Organization. Quality furniture doesn’t just look great — it helps you work better. By properly storing your work materials, you’ll have quick access that saves you time. No wasted minutes digging through drawers for missing materials. Plus, when everything’s visible and accessible, you’ll know when you’re running low on printer ink or paper.

In addition to helping you work better, proper office furniture helps you work safer too. When you sacrifice your comfort in a cluttered home office, you’re sacrificing your health. Even if you don’t necessarily have a fall hazard due to stacks of papers, chronic injuries are very common in the workplace, often due to posture issues. That short desk that has you hunched over is taking its toll on your back. Same with that hand-me-down desk chair.

Quality office furniture that fits your height and workstyle offers ergonomic benefits that will keep you healthy and productive. This includes proper chair, desk and computer monitor heights. Prolonged use of any ill-suited furniture can cause surprisingly serious consequences. Stop getting by with a hodgepodge of secondhand items that may be doing you more harm than you realize.

If you’re really tight on space, there is an abundance of sleek furniture options that fit any space, especially desk options according to homeguides.com. Want a super skinny desk for a narrow office? No problem. Need one that folds up into a cabinet? Done. If your office is doing double duty as a spare bedroom, smart office furniture solutions can give you back a lot of space when it’s not in use.

Want something that delivers great storage while being less formidable? Consider backless bookshelves or ladder shelf units, which can still be tall and offer lots of storage space without seeming so imposing. Backless furniture designs that let you see the wall behind produce a much more open look and help convey a sense of ample space and freedom that you so desperately need.

Rethink Your Office Arrangement

Once you’ve downsized your office items and invested in quality furniture that actually matches, it’s wise to rethink your office arrangement. The two most important concerns for you at this stage are aesthetics and functionality.

Although the aesthetics of your office may seem superficial, there are some tangible benefits to having a space you can admire. First and foremost, you’ll be able to concentrate in a neat, organized space. “Messy desk, messy mind” isn’t just some phrase your mom would throw around in an attempt to get you to clean. An untidy space saps your motivation and is distracting. Instead of concentrating on your work, you may be subconsciously wishing that pile of papers in the corner would just disappear.

Secondly, you’ll actually enjoy going to work. It’s hard to feel motivated to punch in if your office has all the aesthetic appeal of a coal mine. When you enter a space you love, your mood will improve and you won’t be counting down the minutes until you get to bolt.

When considering ways to boost your office’s functionality, think about those items you use every day. Your main focus should be to make it easy to access and use them. Everything else? Safely store it away in a drawer for the handful of times a month you’ll need it.

Here’s another popular organizational phrase for you: “Litter begets litter.” Even one or two extraneous items floating around your desk quickly attract more. And then more. And before you know it, your entire office looks like it was ransacked by the FBI. When considering which items to leave out, go with less.

Use All of Your Available Space

If you’re struggling to find space in your home office, look around you. Do you see the standard desk, cabinets and filing drawers? If all your furniture sitting around your office is approximately the same height, you’re giving up lots of space.

Treat every square foot of your office as a precious commodity and maximize the space you have. This includes taking advantage of the floor and walls. There are several ways to make sure you’re getting the most out of your home office:

Trade in that desk lamp that’s eating up valuable space for a standing floor lamp.
Make use of awkward spots with corner bookshelves and hutches.
Keep mail and paperwork off your desk with low-profile, wall-mounted file holders.
Mount a cork bulletin board to pin up important notes and paperwork.
In 10 Home Office Hacks to Get You Organized Now, HGTV.com recommends giving yourself a place to jot down notes and brainstorm with a hanging dry erase board.

Still struggling with your desk space? Try eliminating two of the biggest desk offenders: bulky monitors and your computer tower. If you haven’t upgraded your computer hardware in a while, rethink that bulky monitor. For the computer tower, you can either move it to the floor or just get a laptop, which will solve the monitor issue as well.

Go Paperless

Stacks of unsorted papers, receipts and mail are some of the most common enemies preventing you from having an organized office. Chances are your desk is cluttered with a few sheets that you meant to read and file away days ago, but you just haven’t gotten around to doing. If it’s such a drag on your decor, why not just go paperless? It’s easier than you think:

Opt for paperless statements.
Scan and save everything digitally.
Invest a few bucks in a cloud storage account.
Pick up an external hard drive to back up your digital files.

In addition to cutting down desk clutter, significantly decreasing your hard copies will cut down on all of the storage space you need for your paper items. Imagine what you could do with your home office if it wasn’t bogged down by all those folders, filing cabinets and overstuffed drawers.

Stop Making Excuses

Unchecked clutter emits a sense of chaos that pervades your work and sours your mood. You probably spend at least 40 hours a week sitting in your home office. Why let yourself spend that much time in a space that you actively dislike?

If you’re unhappy with your home office, stop making excuses. Take a weekend and do something about it. That messy area is sapping your comfort, health and happiness. Fortunately there are many ways to transform that space, from furniture to design to the way you work. You just have to find the motivation to start.