For many people, the home office becomes a dumping ground for every paper in the house. Work papers get mixed in with personal finance documents, junk mail and even family photos. Home office storage solutions can keep everything together (and separate) just as it should be.
Decorative Milk Crates for Home Office Storage
Milk crates are a very low budget storage solution for home offices. They're stackable and hanging file folders fit perfectly in them. The only problem is, that they're ugly. The cheapest solution for that is a 20 cent glue stick and 1/2 a yard of fabric. I have covered mine with upholstery fabric and when they're up on the shelf, they look like decorator storage bins instead of nasty old milk crates.
Reduce the Paper Clutter
Whether you're using a shredder, or recycling, it's important to have an active solution for reducing paper trash. I once cleaned off my cluttered desktop to discover 3-4 important documents and an entire garbage can filled with things that should have been thrown away.
My biggest crime was writing phone numbers on "scratch" paper (garbage) only to discover a desk filled with garbage, each piece of garbage having a different phone number scratched on it. Keep a notepad for writing down phone numbers, websites, and notes to yourself. Use the garbage to line your birdcage or amend your compost, make recycled paper or whatever else. Just keep it off of your desk.
Get a Bulletin Board
This has been one of the best solutions for me, too. I'm guilty of forgetting important things because I've filed them away. Out of sight, out of mind, right. hand a cork board behind your chair, so the clutter isn't distracting when you face the computer. Hang things you need handy and train yourself to look toward the board for reference.
A super-cheap corkboard is to simply BUY a roll of cork from the home improvement store and then have moulding cut to frame it. This way, you get the size you want without paying a fortune.
Other storage solutions that keep your office clean are a cup for holding pens and pencils. Alternatively, you can use a silverware divider bin in your top desk, to keep the pens and pencils together, so they're not rolling back and forth each time you open and close the drawer.
Decorative book-ends can also help reduce the clutter in your office. To begin, get rid of the books you don't need. For my purposes, as a writer, I found that everything I need to access for reference, is online. The only books I have in my office now are books I've written. And that's just decor, I don't even open them. As a book lover, I wish I could say the same about the rest of my house :)
