How Usable is Your Home Office?

It’s Mov­ing Day — again.

No, not for the blog, for CaZ. For a small town girl who never lived more than five miles away from her birth­place, the nomadic lifestyle I’ve adopted in recent years has yielded more mov­ing days than most would con­sider rea­son­able. So mov­ing day is nearly a non-​​event for me, except that it involves my office, too. A home office is of course a huge part of the home busi­ness idea, so when I change homes, I move the office, too.

How flex­i­ble is your home office?

One les­son all these abode changes has taught me is how impor­tant it is to keep acqui­si­tion of ‘extra stuff’ out of my home office. I truly believe that there is an Extras Fairy who comes out at night when we are sleep­ing and leaves us gifts.

Surely I did not cre­ate all of those piles of papers stacked ever so not-​​neatly on the table.

And where exactly did all of those mugs come from? I know when I drove to North Car­olina I car­ried only my favorite tea mug with me.

Clearly, I could not have pur­chased five boxes of paper clips for just me.

And surely some­one else must have brought all of those pens into the office. (Well, maybe not, I do have a bit of a pen fetish.)

And why would I have four pairs of scis­sors and not a sin­gle rub­ber band? That Extras Fairy obvi­ously hordes rub­ber bands.

OK. So my clut­ter is not really all that exten­sive; likely because I have spent most of the past year work­ing on a lap­top from a couch. Even so, it’s an impres­sive col­lec­tion made notable by car­ry­ing it down three flights of steps and back up three flights of steps.

I’m will­ing to bet that for most of you, the clut­ter col­lect­ing in your home office is strik­ing and down­right daunt­ing. It’s also more likely the result of entropy than an Extra Fairy’s leavings.

Clear­ing clut­ter, main­tain­ing order, and keep­ing an orga­nized home office is impor­tant. My ex-​​partner Yolanda, who is fas­ci­nated by the sci­ence behind how the brain works, could prob­a­bly quote the experts to prove this. For me, I sim­ply know from expe­ri­ence that the brain works bet­ter when the envi­ron­ment is clutter-​​free, orga­nized, and aes­thet­i­cally pleasing.

Declare a clut­ter free day

Mov­ing day. Spring Clean­ing. Clutter-​​Free day. Pick a name that fits your per­son­al­ity. Declare a mora­to­rium on extra stuff in your home office.

Start with your imme­di­ate work area — your desk. Declut­ter it. Go trinket-​​free for a week and see how you like it.

I like cats. I am not a col­lec­tor, how­ever a friend who is a bor­der­line hoarder started a col­lec­tion of cat fig­urines for me. Lovely idea. Except that the minus­cule cats took over — almost.

To pre­serve my san­ity and love of all things kit­ten­ish, I bought a curio shelf and hung it on the wall. All non-​​living cats are rel­e­gated to that shelf. I enjoy look­ing at them and every time the Extras Fairy or a friend adds yet another cat to the col­lec­tion, that shelf hang­ing on the wall keeps my desk free of kitty clutter.

Find a way to enjoy your trin­kets, but keep them out of your work space.

Every­thing in its Place

Have a book­case in your office? Every office should have a book­case, even if there are no books on it. Posi­tion the book­case con­ve­niently for easy access and put the tools you use reg­u­larly on its shelves. In addi­tion to books, add a cou­ple of square wicker bas­kets (or some­thing more mod­ern if that’s your taste) to con­tain the stuff clut­ter­ing your desk­top and work area. Put the pic­tures of your fam­ily, the dogs, the last vaca­tion on the top shelf of your book­case instead of on your desk.

Have a paper shred­der? That’s another declut­ter­ing tool you should have. Keep busi­ness tools you use reg­u­larly handy and put the rest away. Here’s a rule to fol­low: If it has sat long enough to col­lect dust — that is not a tool you use reg­u­larly. Find a place for it other than your imme­di­ate work area and put it there.

Aspire to have a dust-​​free work zone. And don’t just dust the tops of things. Move the items on your desks, shelves, table tops, bins…whatever sur­face you are using in your home office. When you have to move stuff to dust, it takes very lit­tle time for even the most un-​​orderly brain to catch on to the fact that putting stuff away in the first place makes the dreaded task of dust-​​busting go faster.

Adapt the 10 minute rule

Every day, spend 10 min­utes clear­ing your work space. Do this any­time of the day. It is a great way to clear your mind as well as clear­ing your space.

The 10 minute rule is easy to exe­cute. It involves putting away the tools that you won’t be using the rest of that day or the next. Shred or bin any papers that you don’t intend to keep, includ­ing the junk mail you have stacked unopened on the extra chair. Replace the books lit­ter­ing the floor on the book­shelf. Take the used cof­fee mugs to the kitchen. Return any items that you aren’t using to their place. Then go back to work with a clearer mind and a less-​​cluttered home office.

Mov­ing day can be any day. Pick a day — do it soon — and move the clut­ter out of your home business.

Do you han­dle your clut­ter or ignore it? How has that expe­ri­ence impacted your home busi­ness? Have home busi­ness ideas that save your san­ity? Share your opin­ion and expe­ri­ence in the com­ments below!