How To Organize A Small Business Home Office

There aren’t many things worse than being stressed about the amount of work you have to do and then walking into a messy, disorganized office. 

It’s stressful and you just want to run away.

Time for you to be proactive in the organization of your office and your productivity will burst into action.

Make your work much more impressive and efficient with a clean office and especially a tidy cherry wood desk, although, there are a few species of wood that work great for home office desks.

If you make sure you organize your office a little bit everyday then it won’t feel like a massive task and it’s actually a better way to use your time over the long run.

How To Arrange An Office

Here are a few things you can do to keep any office in the optimum condition.

The size and orientation of the office don’t make any difference.

Work Zones

Work zones function especially well if you have large desks with lots of filing but, ultimately, anyone can do this.

It’s more simple than it sounds, however, you’re likely to apply different zones if you have a writing desk vs a computer desk, for example.

Create areas of your office that house and look after specific types of documents, stationary or other equipment like laptops or cables.

If you already know where they need to be kept, it reduces the amount of time your brain needs to think about it.

You get lazy when you have to make a decision, so, remove the need to make one.

Store The Important Things Close By

This ties in with the above point, make the storage location of anything that you use regularly as close to your desk as you can so you can quickly discard them when you’re finished.

Too far away and you make things harder for yourself.

It’s time to streamline.

How To Organize A Small Business Office

Those with small offices need to take extra care with their organization or it’s going to get on top of you quickly.

Here are some tips that you can use to excel.

Furniture Placement For Small Offices

You need to make getting to your desk as easy as possible.

Remove any furniture that’s getting in your way or acts as an obstacle, these could be armchairs that are supposed to be used for consulting clients but actually just there for you to show off with.

There are ways you can position your desk according to feng shui, this is especially important for large and unusually shaped desks.

Place your L-shape desk the correct way after reading about L-shape desk feng shui…

If you’re not using some of the drawers or cupboards in your office, is there anything that you can replace them with that would help the overall layout?

If you create a lot of waste, another bin may help.

Shelving For Your Small Office

When the space horizontally is limited, it’s time to go up.

Install some shelving in your small office to increase the storage surface area but match for the shelves match the rest of the office.

For example:

• Oak wood desks will go well with walnut shelves
• Walnut wood desks will go well with maple shelves

Shelving is relatively cheap. 

What can you put on your shelves?

You can store as many files as your heart desires and there’s always the possibility of in-trays for the work you need to start or have completed.

How To Organize Your Desk At Home

Onto the desk itself, the area that you’re going to be spending most of your time when in the office.

What can you do to ensure its cleanliness, arrangement and workspace organization?

• Make sure you have the option to file all of you papers so they don’t just lay across the work surface
• Limit the available stationary to only the items that you use everyday or are currently using
• Always have an area the size of a piece of paper that’s free of clutter so you can always write on or sign documents
• If you have a phone, keep it on the side that you find dominant for answering it
• Keep the computer monitor or laptop at arms length from you to avoid straining

How To Organize Office Supplies Without A Desk

Not everyone has the space or the spare cash to buy a desk and, instead, use their lap on the sofa or the dining room table.

Is that you?

Don’t worry, there are still some tricks you can use to make the most of what’s available to you.

• Similarly to small offices in general, get rid of all clutter. You simply don’t have the workspace to accommodate it
• If you can buy filing cabinets then add all papers to them
• Keep you stationary in repurposed jam jars
• There are portable work caddies that can house what you need
• Be strict with keeping the area tidy, not only for you but also your loved ones
• We all have a shelf or cupboard throughout the house that’s barely got anything in it… time for the invoices to go in there!
• Portable shelving that hangs on doors is also an option
• Invest in a scanner and turn as much paperwork into a digital copy as you can. You’ll save some trees too, so, it’s a win-win

To Conclude

Keeping your office tidy is going to allow your work to excel as your productivity increases.

Arranging your office into work zones will keep related equipment and files together so that you don’t have to make decisions on where they should go at the end of the day.

The same goes for keeping the most important and frequently used stuff closest to where you do your handiwork. 

Thoughtful furniture placement is essential in a small office.

Create an efficient route to your desk and remove any furniture that’s there for show, be honest with yourself here!

Don’t forget, you can go up too.

Shelves are underutilized in offices but they’ll increase the surface area needed to store everything in a tidy manner.

There are items like jam jars you can use to store stationary if you don’t have a dedicated workspace or remember that we all have drawers and cupboards that barely have anything in them.