Home Office
My first blog post will be on home office simply because a lot of us (including me) have moved onto a remote work environment since the pandemic hit. Let's face it, we spend most of our time "at" work. A dedicated work space, whether it's a whole separate room, or an area in your living room, needs to be tailored to your work needs and provide you the comfort you need for a long day at work. Let's start from starch in these 5 steps!
1. Pick the location of your dedicated work space and clean it.
Cleaning your area before setting up is essential! Top-down approach is best used. Dust off any lighting in the room and if there is a window near by, dust off the blinds and clean the window using your preferred product. Vacuum and mop.
2. Plan the layout of your space.
Start by placing your desk in the desired location. My personal preference is against a wall and close to a window. Follow this by placing your surrounding furniture such as filing cabinets, drawers, book shelves that make the most sense. For example, you may constantly go through your filing cabinet for work so it makes best sense to keep this next to you and not on the other side of your office.
3. Wire management.
For aesthetics purposes I highly recommended managing your wires so that it looks nice and neat. No tangles and no clutter. I also highly recommend a wireless mouse and keyboard. Here are the products I used to manage my wires as well as the keyboard and laptop stand I personally use!
4. Drawer organization. Filing cabinet organization too!
My favorite part! :) My drawer is placed to my left and close so that I can quickly grab what I need during work. My top drawer contains items that I use on a daily basis such as pens, highlighters, post notes, etc. I have these organized in clear containers.
From there, you should add items to your drawers in the order that you need them. Items you least access on a daily basis, should be on the last/bottom drawer. Organizing your drawers in these ways will also help you get rid of items you no longer need. For example, I had construction paper. Well, I'm well past the age of using construction paper for school projects LOL. I donated the paper to my little sister in elementary school.
If you have a filing cabinet like me (personal and not work purposes) well let's just say this part may be your least favorite part like it was for me. To organize your filing cabinet, it is very important that you look at each document you have and start to categorize them. Throw out/shred any old documents you no longer need. I threw out so much when I went through this process. I even threw out old ripped hanging file folders too. Get new hanging file folders, new labels and organize by preference such as by alphabetical order or importance relevance.
5. Add small items and decor to your desk.
Last and final touches! Add small essentials such as a coffee cup holder, charging pad, etc. Then add some light decor to give it a personalized touch. This would be like a small picture frame, a candle, or a plant, for example.
There you have it! A complete makeover of your home office. Your work space should now be a space where you can be creative, productive all in the comfort of your own home!