Get Tough And Stop Using Your Home Office As A Dumping Ground

Clutter can come in many forms, but physical clutter is the worst for productivity and focus. If your home office is full of clutter, you might find yourself getting distracted by it or worrying about it instead of focusing on your work.

Physical clutter is any item that stops you from living or working when and where you want, and there are different types of physical clutter:

• Things that are simply trash. These are any out of date items, broken items and any items that you no longer use.
• Items that are not in their right place and lying around somewhere.
• Items that are not useful to you like unwanted gifts or items that you regret buying.
• Items belonging to someone else.

You collect things because you think that you need to use them later, or it has sentimental value, or perhaps you spent good money on it, thus you feel that you need to keep those items even if you haven’t touched or used them for years.

If you have a home office, being productive is your number priority, but you cannot be productive if your home office is like a dumpster. So the only thing you need to do is declutter. Below are some tips to help you get the job done.

1. Check Your Setup

Purge the things you don’t need or want. If you need to rearrange, do it, if it will free your home office of clutter. All things that you use every day, keep on or near your desk. All other things that don’t belong on your desk should be placed somewhere else – drawers, shelves or baskets. The right storage can do wonders because you know you will be able to find the things you need in their right place. You save time and energy and it saves a lot of frustration.

2. Sort And Dump

Start from scratch. Remove everything from the drawers and cabinets and sort them in a more organized way. Make piles of things to keep, throw away or donate. Once you have sorted everything, put everything back in their proper places. The ones you don’t need you can donate or give to a recycling plant.

3. File Your Items Correctly

When you have a good filing system, everything will be easily found and streamlined. Everything that is important should be filed upfront and don’t let your large desk become a paper dumping ground. Develop a habit of filing instantly. If you procrastinate, it will just build up and becomes desk clutter.

4. Paper Clutter

As mentioned earlier, paper is the no.1 cause of home office clutter in the form of bills, receipts, envelops, printer paper, sticky notes and others. To reduce paper clutter, opt in for paperless statements from your bank and other organizations and start scanning important documents and save them to your computer or the cloud. Any old catalogues or coupons should be thrown out!

5. Organize Your Cables

All the cables under your desk should be organized. De-knot them and organize them with a cable management product. Once you’ve re-arranged and re-routed all the cables, use zip ties to hold them in place and prevent them from tangling.

6. Sell

You can make money by selling some old but working electronics. Desktops, laptops, printers, phones, fax machines, TVs and others. Or you can donate to someone who really needs it. Not only have you helped someone in need, you’ll also feel good knowing that you decluttered your home office.

So you see, you can get tough and bypass the pain points of having to part with some of your things that serve as clutter in your home office. Make it a habit and you’ll be more productive in the future!