Five Tips to Declutter Your Desk for Success

No matter where you’re working, it’s important to have a workspace that encourages productivity and allows you to focus on your priorities, free of distraction. Piles of paper, unorganized office supplies, and leftover snacks or lunch can make it hard to be productive.

Here are five simple tips to declutter your desk and find what you need, when you need it.

1. Purge your desk. Keep only the essentials – computer, phone, pens, notebook, essential files – on top of your desk. The less you have cluttering your space, the more organized you will feel.

2. Keep personal and decorative items to a minimum. Less clutter means more available working areas and more productivity. Unless an item really inspires you or is used often throughout the day, don’t let it take up prime space on top of your desk. Instead, hang photos or mementos out of the way on the wall or bulletin board.

3. Keep a small notepad on hand, not Post-it notes. Nothing makes a desk feel or look more unorganized than dozens of Post-it notes scattered about listing passwords, reminders, and quick notes. Swap out your Post-it pad for a small notepad that you can keep next to your desktop to jot down important notes.

4. Label everything, including each item’s “home.” Designate specific places for items on your desk and around your workspace and you’ll never spend time searching for something again. For example, set up a printing station where you keep all relevant supplies including ink, toner, and Boise Paper reams. When it’s time to find or return items around your workspace, you’ll know exactly where they belong.

5. Implement a two-tray system for papers on your desk. Say goodbye to random stacks of paper with a two-tray system for handling incoming paper. Here’s how it works: tray 1 – new, unread, or unopened documents; tray 2 – things that you’ve opened but still need to deal with, scan, file, forward, or complete.

To best set yourself up for success, make it a habit to declutter and clean your desk at the end of each workweek. We hope these steps will help guide you to a clutter-free and more productive workday!