Functional, Pretty Office Organization

 

This post is sponsored by The Container Store.  All opinions are 100% my own.

 

A functional, pretty office that is organized and has great storage has me all excited.  Yeah, I get pretty easily excited.  I’m channelling my Marie Kondo today and for those old school like me, a little Martha Stewart as well.   Joining me today is a wonderfully talented group of bloggers, all sharing tips and tricks for becoming organized.  Be sure to checkout the links for each of these wonderful ladies at the end of this post.  If you’ve come to me for my talented friend Jenna who did such a wonderful job on organizing her fridge, welcome, I’m so happy to have you here.  I’m going to finally create an office I’ll want to work in.  I’ve struggled a lot over the years with my office space.  The need to make it functional often left it looking unorganized and, lets just say, not always pretty.  Even embarrassed to show you this picture!

My office is a hard working office.  I run my design company from home, and do my blogging and Instagram all from this room.  It is also a shared space with our gym as our home is old (129 years)  and not very big.  And well,  the gym is a necessity when it comes to getting rid of those daily frustrations!  Oh, and did I mention that I have a part time staff person who also has to use this space! That is why I was so excited to partner up with The Container Store.  With their great selection of office products and organizational products, I knew I was in good hands.

First things first, lets talk about how to begin when organizing an office.

Okay, so I had been working off of a dining room table, (yup, that was my reality).  The first thing I did was give the table to my daughter and clean out that room.  Starting with a clean slate made it a little easier to wrap my head around the scope of this project.  As I was on a limited budget, I took pieces from throughout my home and relocated them to my office.  I stripped and sanded and painted each piece so that they would coordinate with each other and the great storage items I was getting from The Container Store.

To learn about refinishing furniture you can go here:

Easy Chalk Painted Dresser Two Ways

or

Chalk Painting Furniture – The Easy Way

Next – time to purge!

Get rid of all of that extra paper that is hanging around!  We all do it, we let those papers pile up in cabinets, drawers and desks. I was just as guilty as anyone else.  Lets just say I had a least two extra bags of shredded recycling that week.

The easiest way to take control of all that paper is to create a mail station so that as soon as the mail comes in, you’ve got a place to file it.

I like to sort my mail by the month, it makes it so much easier when I do my books at the end of each month.  I also have a current bill folder so that I can just grab it and pay those bills then easily file them into their perspective months.  When I had kids at home, they each had their own coloured file as well.

When going through your paper use these 3 principles:

Shred – then you can confidently recycle

Toss/recycle – anything that is not confidential

File or take action 

I like to use a well-labelled system for my filing, I’m old school and still do things alphabetically.  But, I do like to colour code open and closed files.  To  meet my filing needs I chose the Alfa Letter-size mesh File Cart – I loved the idea of being able to wheel it to my work space when needed.  Now to get it all set up!

Next – What goes Where??

This room has windows to the east and to the north, so it is already a darker room.  The last thing I wanted was to be looking at a wall while I worked.

First I created a basic layout layout of the room to give me an idea of the space that I had to work with.

9 Tips for a Organized Office

1. You want your everyday supplies to be within reach of your work space.  (Example: Pens, Pencils, paint brushes etc).

   

2. You want an area that you will be able to spread your work out in – files and such – so a solid clear functional work surface is paramount.

   

3. You want a unit or area in which to store those less used office supplies.

   

4. You need somewhere for electronics.  So, setup a designated area for your printer computer and printer supplies.  Wireless printers are great as they don’t take up valuable real-estate on your desk or it can go on or even in another cabinet.

   

5. Store items in containers.  Put all of your office supplies in easily accessible containers, drawers, bins or baskets.  I chose the Feathergrain wooden bins,the Artisan glass canisters and both the Bristols magazine holder and the Feathergrain wooden magazine holder for current files.  I also ordered the Poppin Monitor stand to lift my computer up to eye level and to have a space to store my keyboard and mouse.  Hiding these items away will create a less cluttered feel to your office.  And if you’re like me, less cluttered space = less cluttered head…

   

   

   

6. Use labels and label away!  I chose the Wallies Chalkboard labels so that I could reuse them.  I love the fact that they can be erased and reused.  This way whenever anyone needs anything you will know exactly where it is.
7. Categorize.  You can do this simply by putting like items together by their function.  By doing this you will create a more functional office space.  For example, if you need paper it should be in your printing station, stamps should be in your mail area etc.  I went with the Kelsey Desk system to keep things I access every single day within my immediate working area.  The hanging wire wall grids and baskets were a perfect solution for this.

   

    

8. Deal with cords –  these things can become a hazard!  Tuck them behind the desk and set up a charging station to keep that area neat and tidy. 

   

   I used the Feathergrain desk top organizer in my charging station to hold all of my devices.  Sometimes seeing a piece outside of the box helps to.  I also like to twist tie my cords together to keep them in place.  The Belkin Surge plus swivel charger allowed me to plug everything into one device.  I ordered a 5 USB port charging station, as well. Talk about helping with that mess of wires!

9. Personalize the space.  We all need things in our lives that make us smile, and for me, that is family photos and plants.  I created a gallery wall of things that mean something to me –  things that make me happy and help to create a space that I want to be in.

   

In closing, remember to create a functional space that works for you.  Find items that will help you in achieving that goal.  Set up stations and keep the clutter away.

I really hope you found this helpful.  I know I’ve be enjoyed designing my office area and I am thankful everyday for my inviting yet efficient work space.

 

The next talented and super sweet gal on the tour is Kelly and she is doing her pantry!

Here are the other ladies participating, be sure to go on by and give them some love.

9 Spring Cleaning Tips & Organization Ideas

Grace In My Space | Mid County Journal | Crisp Collective
She Gave It A Go | Jenna Kate At Home | Designs By Karan
City Girl Meets Farm Boy | The Tattered Pew | Aratari At Home