How to Declutter Your Home Office

The COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a shift towards remote work. Upwork estimates that 22% of the American workforce will be remote by 2025. Correspondingly, many employees have turned spare rooms in their homes into personal offices. 

Now, over a year and a half after the shift to remote work began, WFH employees are finding that they need to declutter their home offices. 

A cluttered office can be intimidating; it can be challenging to know where to start. Although, if your office is on the messier side, don’t worry, this article will provide five tips that can help you declutter efficiently. 

Start Small 

When it comes to decluttering, the most important thing is getting started. To avoid wasting time picking where to start, start small. 

This could be a filing cabinet, bookcase or the corner of your desk. It doesn’t matter, you just need to build momentum. From there, move on to whatever area of your office is beside it and continue to work your way outwards. 

It’ll be a lot easier to take on the task in small chunks. Looking at the entire office at once is overwhelming; focusing on individual sections is much more manageable. 

Digitalize Where Possible

We mentioned starting with the filing cabinet, although if it’s possible to eliminate the need for a filing cabinet, that may be even easier. Signing up for a cloud service can provide you with all of the digital storage you’ll ever need.

By committing to going completely paperless, you’ll never have to worry about organizing your documents again. When deciding what to do with old paper books and documents, consider keeping them in a storage unit. Storing office materials in a self-storage unit is an affordable, practical way to help reduce clutter in your workspace.

Relocate Items That Do Not Belong in The Office

Keeping with the theme of clearing space, look for items that do not belong in the office. Having a home office is the most beneficial when the space feels like a real office. Your home office shouldn’t look like a normal room in the house that happens to include a desk and a chair. 

You’ll want to set up your office so it feels like a traditional workspace.

It’s easy to let the home office gradually turn into an extra storage space for miscellaneous items. You can avoid this by putting non-essential office items in a storage unit. 

It’ll pay off. Psychological studies have shown that keeping your office down to the essentials increases productivity and reduces anxiety. 

Put Extra Items In Self-Storage

Some items simply take up too much space in the office and also don’t belong in other rooms in your home. Consider putting these items in self-storage. It’s common for people working from home to use self-storage units to securely keep their extra items. 

Schedule Time In The Future to Keep Your Office Organized

Now that your office is organized, you have a new challenge — keeping it that way. Naturally over time, items are going to build back up. 

By asking yourself how much time has passed between the last time you cleaned your office and now, you can gain an idea of when to schedule your next decluttering. 

Pro-tip: schedule it slightly in advance so that you can avoid reaching your threshold. That way, you’ll always be content with your workspace. 

Let Lock and Leave Storage Help You Declutter Your Home Office

Lock and Leave has storage units of all sizes to fit your needs. To get started at your nearest Lock and Leave location, click here to speak to a storage specialist.