Having a personal work space at home is an absolute must for me. But if it’s an unappealing one (like mine was!), it’s pointless. I did a home desk makeover, and now I finally have a desk that I want to use it all the time! Here are a few tips I learned along the way. (And be sure to check out our favorite work from home essentials — the items that make your home workspace useful and pleasurable.)
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
1. Get inspiration.
- Google your actual desk to see how professionals have styled it or write in descriptive words like “white campaign desk.” It’s something I hadn’t thought of doing and it helped me determine what colors I wanted and that I really liked a clean look. My goal was to get everything off the top of my desk.
2. Create more storage.
- I added some floating shelves and put some decorative items but mostly just functional storage space. For example, I had a Tiffany’s box and put in external hard drives. It was actually the perfect size.
3. Assess the clutter.
- I just have a ton of papers so we went through them and threw out papers we didn’t need. For the ones to keep we mounted this acrylic tiered organizer and labeled really pretty folders with action items that I will go through on a weekly basis…for at least a month!
4. Group like items together.
- Everything in my desk drawers was necessary but just kind of floating around so I got these interlocking bins and it just looks so much nicer. I had a holder that had probably lots of stolen pens that just looked horrible so I got all new pens in a new pretty container. Although it might not be necessary for $10 I love looking at it now.
5. Find a home for everything else.
- I noticed my headphones are always left on the desk so now I’m hanging them up in a very convenient location. I have to keep my printer close by and there’s really nowhere else to put it so I got a little creative and used one of my kid’s old step stools. Finally, Alex brought over what is called a “backpack” for a Mac. You clip it on the back and put your external hard drives on top of it.
