We have another request post this week. And given the situation we all are in right now, I thought it was a very appropriate topic. ‘Work from home’ is the current mantra across a large part of the world, and we don’t know how long that will last. So today we have simple steps to help you achieve an organised home office. If you are working from home, I’m sure this post will help.

Organised Home Office

If I was writing this post at any other time, I would probably have written it differently. It would have been entirely about how to design and plan a new home office space.

Considering the current situation, where many of us have been forced to temporarily set up home offices for an indefinite period of time, my approach to this post has been different. I have kept in mind that you might only be setting up a temporary home office, and not a permanent one. And so I have made sure that these steps will help you in either case.

So, let’s begin with the first step..

Where Should You Place Your Home Office?

The answer to that is ‘anywhere’ at all.

The important part is not really where you place your table, but that you do have a designated area in which to place it.

The difficult part of working from home is to put your relax and unwind mode ‘off’, sit down and get to work. It helps to have a separate office area so when you get on to your desk you automatically get into work mode.

You could set up your desk against any empty wall space in your home.

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Or in a empty corner of your bedroom or living room.

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You could plan it to fit into your wardrobe or other storage set up.

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Or beside your bed so that it works as a study-cum-bedside table.

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Remember how we used a desk for a side table in our pretty pastel bedroom?

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You could also use the little space below your staircase to make a pretty, organised home office niche in Harry Potter style!

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Windows Are Great

My fave spot for an office table though, will always be near a window.

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There’s nothing like fresh air, natural light and a good view to keep you going for hours on end.

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If you can’t place your desk directly in front of a window, then right next to it is just as good. This view of my home office is a great example.

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Balconies Are The Best!

But my absolute favourite place to set up my home office table would be in a balcony.

Source (I could only trace this pic to Pinterest. Any help to credit the rightful owner will be welcome)

The advantage of this, especially in a small apartment, is that you use space that would otherwise have been wasted. And you get to use your balcony for hours on end, instead of for just a cup of tea in the morning or evening.

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Now, just because it’s a balcony doesn’t mean your home office has to be small or cramped. Depending on the size, add a large table with shelves or cabinets above to maximise space utility.

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If you need more space still, wrap your desk around the length of the balcony too. With a view like this could you ever stop working?

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Start With The Basics

So what all would you need to make an organised home office?

A study table and chair, I think, would be the first place to start. Depending on the space you have, this could be as little as a folding desk on a sliver of a wall.

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Or, space permitting, you could use a full sized desk. This vintage desk and chair fit perfectly into this large niche to make my husband’s home office.

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Add Some Shelves

Next, add some shelves for space to keep all your work belongings. This could be as simple as buying a ready book shelf and placing it next to your desk.

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Or you could use glass or wooden shelves placed on metal brackets screwed into the wall. (I also love how this home office area has been demarcated by simply painting that patch of wall in a different colour)

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It’s easy to put in shelves end to end to fit into a niche.

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While on a larger wall you can vary the length of the shelves depending on your requirement. Here the lower shelf has been cut short to fit in a cork board-cum-wire grid frame.

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Or you could simply buy a desk which comes with shelves.

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Make Sure It’s Well Lit

The most important thing after a place to work, is making sure there is enough light to work in. Even if your desk is placed near a window, that can only help during the day.

It’s easy enough to get yourself an LED strip or spot light below your shelf, similar to this in our teen room study. This will light up your desk from directly above it and you’ll always have enough light to work.

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If that isn’t possible, you can always plug in a table lamp to give you enough light.

Source (I could only trace this pic to Pinterest. Any help to credit the rightful owner will be welcome)

Don’t Waste The Wall Space

The wall space above your desk is great to help you get an organised home office. It’s right in front of your face, and whatever you put up here you are least likely to miss. You can’t, however, start writing on the walls!

So here is what you can do to get your important reminders in front of you.

Soft boards are the easiest way to do that. We used custom fabric on mine to go with the black and white theme of my home office.

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And I’m sure you remember this pretty soft board we gave this little girl’s room.

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You could also get a ready pin board online like this one here.

A cork board can be used to similar effect.

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If you don’t have space in front of your desk, because of a window for example, create your soft board on the wall beside your desk.

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A wire grid panel is another great idea. You can hang accessories like little shelves and stands for additional organisation from the wires as and when you need them, while little clips help to display your reminder notes. . Click here for a simple wire grid frame to start with.

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If you like to write your reminders by hand, a chalk board wall is a great idea. This can be an easy DIY using chalk paint of almost any colour that you can find online. You can make yourself a monthly or weekly calendar, or just paint a plain surface to use as you please.

Source (I could only trace this pic to Pinterest. Any help to credit the rightful owner will be welcome)

An acrylic or glass board.. or even a regular white board is a another easy way to write to do lists and reminders for yourself. We have used this white board in one of our projects recently.

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Organise!

Finally, it’s about organising everything you need around you. The easiest way to do that is using drawers, and if you see my home office you’ll notice I have SO many of them.

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Recently I have also labelled each drawer using these chalk board labels and chalk pens so that everyone at home knows exactly where to find what.

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This is, of course, easier to do if you are designing your home office from scratch and getting built ins made.

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Whether it’s light shelves like the study we designed above, or full length storage like the one we designed below, it can all be done with a good team of carpenters.

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But what if you don’t have the built in drawers and cabinets? There are loads of ways to get organised anyways.

Use shelves, stands and holders of various shapes and sizes that you need according to what you are trying to organise. Get them off your desk and on to your wall to keep your work surface clutter free.

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Use files to organise papers. The chalkboard labels above will help you label each file and its contents clearly. Baskets (like these folding ones) help to organise larger items.

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Trays such as these to organise your files and papers, and stands like these to organise your stationery will help keep things in place.

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Very importantly, remember to keep all these stocked. If you have to get up from your table every time you’re looking for a stapler or a sharpener it’s distracting and stems the flow of work. Make sure you are well supplied with all your basics so that you can work uninterrupted.

Your Organised Home Office Is Ready!

And that’s it. Once you have your table, enough storage and all your things are organised and well stocked, you’re set to work.

From my personal experience of always having worked from home, let me tell you this. That if you can be disciplined enough to set your work times and actually get yourself to work from home, there is really nothing better you can ask for. You save your commute time to and fro every day and it takes you only a minute to get to work. Though you do stick to your work times on most days, it easily allows you flexi hours on days when you have an emergency or some personal work to be done.

And if a whole lot of us started working from home, for even a day or two every week, it would reduce traffic on the roads, bring down the pollution levels and generally be a more pleasant experience for most of us.

For now though, this is a temporary arrangement for most of us. But while we are working from home, let’s organise our home offices and enjoy this time to the fullest!

Stay home, stay safe.

Until next time,

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Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links.