How Do You Organize A Home Office?

My Home Office is not always greatly organized and because it’s in my home, a lot of things can contribute to the disorganization, like normal day to day life in a household. I personally find it more difficult to keep my Home Office organized than my regular office. I did come up with a system though to help myself and hopefully, it will help you too…

So how do you organize a home office? Five major things to do are: organize your files and papers, organize your digital desktop, organize your desk, organize your IT equipment and finally, organize your books and larger items in your Home Office. Equally important to maintain this organization: a routine to file, re-organize and clean up on a regular basis

I started this organization system and my friends who visited me liked it a lot. Some asked me for some tips and tricks to help them get their home office organized. Some also gave me their own tips and tricks. Below are the best ideas that worked for me…

Organize your files and papers

First thing first: clear out all the unwanted and un-needed papers (and any other item that do not belong). With less on your desk or in the Home Office, it’s easier to see what else needs to be done. So, putting stuff in the bin is the starting point.

Whatever is left goes into one of two piles: Active (need to do something with it) or Archive (need to keep for posterity… Or IRS as a proof of expense more likely or whatever other important reason to keep the doc). Active should hopefully be a small pile at that point…

Archive will need to be filed. I do use a couple of filing cabinets. One for my personal docs and one for my business. Within each cabinet, I use a color-coded system. Simple but efficient. Bank docs => Red, Insurance docs => Green, Invoices => Yellow… That’s for my business. For my personal / family papers: same system and almost same color codes: Bank => Red, Insurance => Green, Bills that I need to keep => Yellow…

Active pile are the papers that you need to do something about before either discarding them or archiving them. I do use magazine holders – Color-coded: Red => Incoming – Black => Archive – Blue => working. On a day to day basis, I don’t want to be distracted by what’s incoming: I just put it in “Incoming”. I continue to work on my “Working” docs from the blue magazine holder. Every evening (or every morning if you prefer), I take what’s in incoming and triage it: discard, archive or working.

Go paperless! Not always easy to achieve because some of us still love paper. It’s much easier for me to read something on paper and I know that it’s just me because, on a screen or a tablet, I get the same information, I can highlight, file and archive much more easily. Not only that but a digital doc come with enriched information: click here and you have a link to a map for an address, click there and you have a link to book that event… Still, I prefer paper most of the time.

That being said, best is very often to go paperless. First, because the paper physically disappears which means less clutter. Also, a digital doc is much easier to file and archive. You can keep records for years in digital format that you would not want to keep (or may lose) in physical format (we’ll talk about backing up your files in the following section).

Second, some documents can be read by an application that will recognize the information and store it in a database. Very useful for retrieval later on or for report creation. Example: scanners that read business cards and store them in a contact database. So much easier to find contact details later on (have you ever lost business cards…? And where are they when you need them…?). Another example, the scanner that reads your receipts: it can generate expense reports… So go paperless when possible.

Organize your digital desktop

Your digital desktop can be a mess and no one will know… but you. And how does that affect you? Well, try a retrieve a file and it would take much longer that it should. Or you may not find it at all and have to re-create it (if you generated it in the first place) or re-download it (if you received by email). An example? I misplaced some invoices on my laptop. I couldn’t find them so I had to go back to my email to re-download them.

What solution can we use? I did not get too creative and I basically reproduced the physical system I described above with a couple of twists. The first one is that I create “secure” folders for all the files that contain personal or sensitive information. There’s one “Personal” secure folder and another “Business” secure folder. Second twist: remember when I get a piece of physical paper and I need to sort them? I I have three magazine holders: Incoming, Archive and Working because accessing a file from wherever I archived them can be difficult, so for easy access, they stay in a “working” folder temporarily. In the digital space, files do land in an incoming folder but then, when I dispatch them, they go to their final place as they are always easily accessible. So, only one folder: “Incoming”.

The most important thing with those folders: they are on the C drive and never to be put on the cloud. All other folders are on the cloud. That detail is very important because even when they, meaning Apple or Microsoft or whoever, say they have a secure cloud, you can count on some hacker, someday, getting to your files. So, those files stay on my computer locally, on the C drive. Obviously, I need to back them up. A simple memory stick is enough for that and I back them up weekly, on Fridays before I close up shop.

Just like with a physical file, any file I get downloaded (usually through email or website), first lands in an “Incoming” folder on the C drive. Why the C drive? Same security reason: at that point, I need to assess whether the file contains sensitive information, therefore, off to the “Incoming” folder on the C drive first, not the cloud.

When I get my files, they are scanned on download. If it’s an Excel spreadsheet, I usually copy the data to a file with the same name but with an additional “_SAFE” at the end of the file name. The reason is that Excel files can contain little pieces of code or Macros and I just want clean file containing just data. So “File_name.xls” becomes “file_name_SAFE.xls”.

Once I have my files in the Incoming folder and I checked them, then I re-dispatch them to where they should go. Again, I’ve arranged by folder just like in the physical world except that there are no color codes but we still have “Bank”, “Insurance”, “Bills”, “Taxes”, “House/Real Estate”, “Medical”, “Retirement/401K”, etc. Likewise, on the business side: “Bank”, “Insurance”, “Invoices”, “Taxes” and any other folder appropriate for your activity.

Note that all the folders above are on the cloud. I do have a OneDrive account with my Office360 and that helps with keeping my files backed up permanently (no need to back up those files). In addition, using the cloud allows me to access my files from another computer if needed.

For the longest time, I used to have my files on a laptop and had to do weekly backups. So, that was not necessarily efficient, not o mention that if my laptop at the time died or would not start (because I had an old one and did not replace it), I was basically cut off from my files and my business! Even today, I manage my business almost entirely from my laptop. If it breaks or if I lose it (which happened once), I can’t run my business! Again, the above does not apply to the “secure” folders: they are never on the cloud and I do back them up on a stick weekly.

Organize your desk

Just like we organized our digital desktop, we also need to organize our physical desk. At this stage, we have already cleared out all papers, so we should be left with three types of items: decorative items, functional items as in “need to be on the desk so I can do my work” or foreign item as in “does not belong on the desk”.

“Does not belong on the desk” items need to go. Where they go is up to you: bin or their proper place somewhere else in the house. “Decorative items” can (and should) stay. Just be mindful of their quantity and whether they are in the way. Very important: not too many of those decorative items – 1 or 2 maybe, more than that and your desk is overtaken.

Lastly, the “need to be on the desk so I can do my work” or functional items: these are your pens, notebook, sticky notes… The guiding principle no 1 is: everything has to have a place (and then put them back at their place). Guiding principle No 2: store based on usage frequency. How often do I need them? Daily, weekly or less than weekly? Determine a place, on your desk, for everything that you use on a daily basis. What is used only once a week could be on your desk but maybe best in close proximity on a bookshelf for example or container (depends on the size, ease of access required…).

If you have a dedicated desk to work on (not working on the kitchen table for example), you can use a desk organizer put in your pens and other accessories. You should also have a drawer organizer, so your pens and other accessories have their place. For slightly bigger items such as dictionaries, calendar, clock maybe, use a small bookshelf on your desk or even a larger one against a wall.

For larger items that I need on my desk occasionally, if they don’t fit in the bookshelf, I like to use containers and arrange the containers against a wall. Larger containers and smaller ones. I have a scale in them, some bubble wrap in another one. I also use containers for all my “over stock”: the notebooks or the sticky notes, binders, etc. that I bought in bulk.

There is no real hard and fast rule, just two principles: should they be on the desk in the first place? How often do I use them? From there, I find them a place based on their “utility”, the frequency with which I use them and their size/bulkiness. All of the above applies relatively well for the “office” type work.

If your business requires you to perform an activity more manual (crafting small decorative items for ex.), you’ll have to adapt the above slightly as you may have something bulky (like a sewing machine for example) that you need daily…

Now, back to office type of work and let’s imagine you are using the kitchen table as your “Home Office”, how can you organize a desk that transforms into a dinner table every night? When your desk serves multiple purpose, you need to be able to go from one configuration to the other quickly and efficiently. I used to do it, so below is what I remember.

I used to have a pouch for all those small accessories that I needed (pens, eraser…). I also had one of those zipper binders in which I would put all my documents and other small items I needed for my work. Once done, I would put everything back in the zipper binder, take my pouch and my laptop and put them away. Done. Business closed for the night.

So, desk organization is important to work more efficiently and the way I organize my desk is such that everything has a place, I put back stuff at their place and the place in question is determined by how frequently I need the item in question and it size.

Organize your IT equipment

For many of you, your Home Office has some IT equipment such as a laptop, printer, PC and monitors, tablets, chargers… The first thing I would suggest it to take a laptop if you can. They have been as powerful as PCs for quite some time, so why go for the encumbering PC if you can avoid it? Some laptops are very sleek and will make your desk look good.

Monitors: I do have a dual monitor. I know I said you should have a laptop and I do and I actually hooked up my laptop to my dual monitor. That’s so much more comfortable when you work at home but that’s beside the point: if you have a monitor (which I suggest you do and get a dual one), you should use a monitor riser / organizer. Just like a small bookshelf that goes under your monitor to raise it but it would also come handy to organize small items. The one I have (very simple box really) I use to store my laptop in it when I’m done. Other such organizers can double up as a phone charger for ex.

The printer should be an all-in-one. Many of those are now inexpensive and can do Fax, Copier and printer in one package. You should setup a spot, preferably not on your desk but not far either that would become your “printing station”. You would have your paper stocked alongside with any other supplies related to printing: ink, labels and even envelopes…

It goes without saying but your networking gear should be out of sight. That is usually not a problem in most cases as people have their router and wifi router properly hidden. If they are not, go get your internet provider to set them up somewhere well thought out so they are accessible when needed but not available for anyone to break your internet access inadvertently.

Tablets: often people have a PC or a laptop and also have a tablet that they use on the go to access email among others. If that’s you, then you know the challenge: where to put it when you are working at your desk? You need to designate a spot for your tablet(s). Ideally close to an source of electrical power so you can get a charger close by for your tablet.

Electric wires: you have a laptop or a PC or monitors or tablets, that means you have an electric wires running across your desk and probably up the side of your desk too. Best is to have the electric wires all regrouped on one side of the desk, so they are not all over the place.

I would also suggest attaching them together. Some desks will have a spot under to hide away your power surge. If you don’t have that, you can do what I did: I velcro’ed my power surge protector to the leg of my table. Now the power surge protector has its place, no longer on the floor and the wires are all regrouped together neatly.

Chargers and their cables: the most annoying of all cables because they are constantly plugged / unplugged to the phone and end up everywhere on the table, on the floor, removed and missing, anywhere and everywhere…  First thing: if you can, go for wireless charger. Not always available for everything you own, I get that.

Next: try one of those charging stations. They can charge multiple devices including smart watches. Some look a lot nicer than other and some work well, others, not that well but when you have what works and fits your needs, your charging cables are hidden and your devices are organized while they are charging.

Organize your books and larger items

First thing to check with books are: do you really need them or want them? Sometimes, we keep books just because… So, let’s make sure we are going to keep around in your Home Office only books that have some utility for your business. Other books should go somewhere else (in the living room, spare room, donated…)

Books go naturally on a bookshelf, so best is to get one or two bookshelves. The number and size depend on the space you have but I would suggest to buy more than you think you need as it is my experience that the space ends up being filled anyway. Also, now you have just created additional space for useful items that don’t really have a place on your desk.

The other thing I would suggest is to put the books you use more often at eye level. Use that one shelf at eye level to keep all the books you use on a regular basis. The other shelves would host all the other books. I would also suggest that all the other books be arranged by “genre”: all accounting books on one end of a shelf, all books about real estate on another end, etc.

Larger items that you need in your Home Office can be a bag pack you use occasionally, a hole puncher, paper cutter, extra large stapler, a globe and other large supplies such as large binders or large notebooks… Those larger items, just like with books, I like to put them on a bookshelf. And, as luck had it, you just bought more bookshelf than you thought you needed!

For some of the items mentioned above, the best is to put them in a container first and then have the container set in the bookshelf. Putting your larger items in a container first allows for a better organization as they are regrouped thematically (all supplies in a container for ex.).

Also, where an item would take up space on a shelf, in a container, you can store multiple items for the same volume. So, the container actually saves space on the bookshelf. Finally, you can and should labels the containers so you can find at a glance the container that has what you need.

Here, I will tie back to our first paragraph as some of the “larger items” could be your filing boxes if you have any. Just like a filing cabinet, a filing box contains suspended folders and is used to file paper and other types of documents. You may have some filing boxes in lieu of a filing cabinet or in addition to a filing cabinet. In any case, filing boxes would fit well in a bookshelf as well.

The last category of large items are whiteboards and other boards that you put on your wall. Somewhat simpler here: as long as they are on the wall and their accessories attached to them, you are in a good shape. The one thing I pay attention to is whether I really need the boards. At a time I had 3 whiteboards and I actually really only need one, so I removed the extra boards, forcing me to be more organized even with what I write on the board.

Smartboard: I don’t have one but I dream of one for my Home Office. What’s a smartboard? Think of a huge flat screen that is also a touch screen. You want to draw something or write something on the board? Just use a digital pen, choose your color and there you go: you have a nice, colored diagram. You want to share that diagram? Just send it from the smartboard to any number of recipients… It really is as easy as it sounds. Oh, by the way, you want to conduct a video conference call? And share your diagram while you speak with your team? Yes, it can do that too. So, if you can afford a smart board, you could advantageously replace your traditional whiteboards in your home office.

Maintain the organization

So you spent the time cleaning and throwing away what you don’t need and organizing your Home Office. Every thing has its place and all looks good. You now will need to maintain this organization and for that, I suggest three simple techniques:

First, every day, when I’m done, I do put back whatever I used at its place. Pens? go back to drawer. File? Go back to the working pile. Laptop? Folded and back to its place. No, I don’t watch movies on it and end up spilling soda on it. That’s my work laptop (and I do have a backup, but that’s a different story) and it goes back under the monitor, in the riser / organizer I discussed about earlier.

The above takes no more than a few seconds but it is a discipline I have and I encourage you to take that habit up. The next thing I do, also on a daily basis, is to store somewhere all the new items that come up on my desk and that do not have a place yet. I designated a shelf on one of my bookshelves where I would put such items. For example: I receive a product sample. I don’t really have a place for it. I actually may not even keep it. Goes to the bookshelf…

Lastly, on a weekly basis, I do a more in depth “clean up”. All those files that are in the working pile but that I’m done with: should I file them? Or should I throw them away? Or maybe I’m still working on them… Those new items that are sitting on the bookshelf? Same thing: do they stay or do they go? If I want to keep them, now it’s the time to find them a proper home. It does not take long and frankly, I do skip a weekly clean up from time to time, but I do manage to maintain the organization of my Home Office the routines above.

Related question

What is basic home office equipment?

There are three broad categories of basic home office equipment. Category 1 is furniture with desk and chair and filing cabinet and other storage. Category 2 is IT equipment including laptop or PC, software, Internet connection and smartphone. Category 3 is stationary and related items such as all-in-one printer, shredder, pens, paper and notebooks.

How can I decorate my Home Office?

Suggestions to decorate your Home Office: 1. Work on the walls with new paint, artwork and boards that fit together. You can also turn to your curtains and blinds and make sure the ensemble suits your taste. 2. Your desk and furniture: ensure they are of the appropriate color and even shape. Also, use small decorative items and / or plants. Finally, 3. Lighting, rugs and other large items: work on lighting and possibly an area rug to get the right mood. Large items such as statue, globe or large plant can also be used for decoration.