New year, new decade. The holidays have come and gone, extra items have entered the home, minimal time has been spent keeping things in order, and there is a huge desire to get your home in order. Does this sound like how you’re feeling right about now? We completely get it! As Professional Organizers, January is one of our biggest months assisting clients in getting their homes organized. And as the phenomena of organizing grows yearly, January is known as “Get Organized” Month. And we have partnered with Brother and P-touch Essentials in their campaign, “New Year, New You, New Office'“ to assist you in getting your home office organized. We will be sharing tips and tricks for getting (and staying!) organized in your home office, along with helpful Brother products that will assist you along the way.

Our first step in setting up an organized home office is probably one that gets overlooked most often; location. We tend to assume that an office needs to be in a room, tucked away from the hustle and bustle of everyday. But for most, the more isolated the space, the more it becomes undesirable, hence making the area useless. Instead, find an area within your home that is accessible, a space you enjoy spending time in. For myself, I added a desk, rolling cart, calendar, and all office supplies to a closet in the foyer of my small home. The reasoning behind this space was that I unsuccessfully set up a home office in the 2nd story of my home to never use it. Something about being secluded all by myself wasn’t leading to productivity. Lesson learned. Whether you create a mobile office or utilize a common space, choose the space you’ll feel most at home.

Once the location of your home office has been established, we suggest taking everything out of the space. This may seem like a waste of time, but DON’T SKIP THIS STEP. Beginning with a blank slate allows surveying everything that has been living in the area, and helps to establish a layout of where everything will find its “forever home”. From this step, we move into our next step, designating zones.

A little thought goes a long way when establishing placement of office items. Take for instance, a printer like our Brother INKvestment Tank Printer, which has up to a years worth of ink* right out of the box! Yes, you’ve read that correctly. Up to one year. And while running out of ink is at the top of my pet peeves list, as it never happens when it is convenient, I also don’t have to create space to store back up ink, as space is limited for my small home office. And while the Brother INKvestment Tank Printer has a smaller footprint, my even smaller desk area isn’t where the printer should be set up. Thankfully for Wi-Fi, our Brother printer and all of the printer accessories live in our foyer coat closet, just feet from my desk. Still in a convenient location, not taking up precious space. And with a small space like mine, that is a huge relief.

After establishing where key elements of your home office (i.e., desk, printer, office supplies, etc.) will live, it’s time to begin the grouping and editing process. This process will not only assist you in determining where items will live, it’s also a great time to remove additional clutter from the space. Keeping a handful of pens, markers, paperclips, etc on your desktop is appropriate, but too much is overkill. If you’re set on keeping the lot, keep this in mind when establishing your layout plan to include the backstock of desktop items as well.

Not only is this the most important part of the process (many times it is skipped altogether), this step determines what organization items will be necessary in order to maintain the longevity of the space. Skipping grouping and editing can lead to overspending, purchasing incorrect items, multiple trips to the store, wasting time, and failure in properly setting up the space ultimately. So do yourself a favor, and don’t skip this step, as it’s key in getting and staying organized around the home and office in the new year.

Now it’s your turn. Take your measurements, lists of items and quantities, and get to shopping! Remember to select items that are visually appealing AND functional. Then meet me back here on Monday, January 27th for the second part of the series in getting your home office organized with Organized Simplicity and Brother.

Printer and label maker were provided by Brother in exchange for our opinions. All opinions are that of our own.

*Disclaimer: https://bit.ly/36M2M36