How to organise your home office

As a business owner, you’ll likely have a bunch of tasks and projects to keep track of at the same time. If you spend a lot of time working at home, it’s important to have a space where you can focus. Organising your workspace can help you organise your thoughts and, by extension, your business.

This guide will show you how to organise your home office by:

• Decluttering your desk
• Clearing out unnecessary items
• Investing in drawer organisers
• Putting up floating shelves
• Creating an ergonomic setup
• …and more.

1. Declutter your desk

The best place to start your home office organisation is to create a clean slate by decluttering your desk. If you’re like most home-based business owners, you’ll have a million tasks you need to take care of at once. As a result, your desk might be buried under stacks of papers, multi-coloured post-it notes, and piles of office supplies.

Start by taking everything off your desk except the bare necessities, like your computer, printer, and phone. 

2. Clear out unnecessary items

Clutter can be a massive productivity disruptor, so try to get rid of anything you don’t need. Look through your books, notebooks, pens, markers, papers, and other items. Maybe you have markers that have dried or notebooks that are almost finished? Or, perhaps you have old magazines lying around that you don’t need anymore? 

We know it can be stressful to clear out items, so start small. Pick three items to throw out and continue if it feels alright.

3. Invest in drawer organisers

It may be tempting to simply throw items into a drawer when you’re done using them, but that only creates a mess and makes it more difficult to find the items you need.

Invest in drawer organisers instead to give each category an allocated part of the drawer. For example, coloured pens could go in one part, markers in another, and notepads in another. The more organised your items, the less time it will take to find what you need so you don’t interrupt your flow.

4. Put up floating shelves

You can also use open shelves to organise and style your home office. This is especially useful if you don’t have a lot of space since you can get books, files, and so on out of the way without taking up more floor space. 

You could also mount your desk to the wall to free up more floor space and make your office look roomier. Just remember to attach any shelves or wall desks properly so you can store heavy objects on them without the shelves tumbling down.

5. Organise items in baskets

Do you have inventory that’s difficult to store? Or, do you need a way to organise items so you can easily see where they are? 

Organising things in matching storage baskets gives a look of orderliness to a home office. You can store the baskets on your floating shelves or buy a separate shelving unit for them. Label the boxes to make it easy to find the items you need. The boxes don’t all have to look the same, but you can mix and match designs, colours, and sizes to fit your style and needs. 

6. Think about ergonomics

The first thing you do when you get into a new car is to adjust the driver’s seat and mirrors to fit you. Apply the same thinking to your home office by ensuring your desk, office chair, and the rest of your setup are adjusted to your height and physical needs. Remember, you might need to sit at your desk for hours, so you need a comfortable setup.

Here are a few things you can do:

• Invest in an ergonomic office chair that’s comfortable to sit in for extended periods.
• If you’re mounting your desk to the wall, measure where it should go first, so it’s at a comfortable height.
• Buy an adjustable desk so you can raise or lower it according to when you need to.
• If you’re using a laptop, consider getting a laptop stand, so the screen is at eye level, and buy a separate keyboard and mouse to keep on the desk.
• When sitting at the desk, place a cushion behind your back for extra lumbar support.

7. Hide your cables

Having lots of cables under and around your desk is not only a tripping hazard but also makes your office look cluttered. Reduce the number of cables in your way by storing the cables you hardly ever use in one of your storage boxes. Only leave out the ones you use every day.

Use cable ties, clamps, velcro wraps, or clips to bind the cables together and keep them in one place. An easy way to hide the cables from view is to screw a cable basket to the underside of your desk or buying a cable tidy box to store them in. 

8. Choose an organisational system

Once your office is tidy, you want to create a system you can use to stay organised every day. Do you want to use paper notepads and calendars to write down deadlines and shipping dates? Or do you prefer to use digital systems like Trello boards and Google Workspace to organise your projects?

Whatever system you choose, make sure it’s something you feel comfortable with, and that helps you work efficiently. If you’re not comfortable with digital calendars and boards, you can buy a desk calendar to keep track of important dates. Choose something that works for you!

9. Use modern accounting software like Countingup

Financial management can be stressful and time-consuming when you’re self-employed, so you need a system that makes it easy to keep track of everything. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. The system comes with handy features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights. This means you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 
Find out more here.