PURGE
Sort items into the following categories as you set out to declutter your home office.
• Trash -- Trash can refer to actual garbage or to stuff you no longer need, want, use or like. The unwanted items are candidates for donation or recycling. Be careful when disposing of documents containing sensitive information. If at all possible, shred them.
• Tools -- Home offices are full of items such as furniture, office supplies and electronic equipment which can be classified as tools. These items are all necessary to the room’s function. Not only do they get to stay, they also get top priority in terms of claiming real estate.
• Transients -- Transients are items that have value but do not belong in the space. Home offices often become catchall spaces for stashing stuff that doesn’t have a place elsewhere. If you truly want to declutter your home office, these items will need to be removed from the room. Reclaim the space for its intended purpose and find a new home for those items that don’t serve that purpose.

CONSIDER WORK FLOW
Do you tend to stay in one place, such as at the desk? Or do you move around a lot from desk to filing cabinet to a mounted white board, etc.? Do you need an uncluttered surface on which to lay out projects in addition to your desk area?

Thinking about the way you use the space will help you determine the best arrangement for the room. Try to arrange things in such a way that they will compliment your natural work flow patterns rather than impeding them.

STORE THINGS WHERE USED
The more you have to move around to retrieve the things you need, the more things are going to pile up on your work surface. We often feel compelled to keep things close at hand for easy access, thinking to ourselves I’m going to need that again soon, so I might as well leave it out. I know this because I am guilty of this.

Take a moment to think through the items you use most often when working at your desk. Find a place for them in the desk or on the desk top. If there is room to spare, fill it with items that would be nice to have close by but which are not essential.

A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING
One of the biggest causes of clutter in any room is homelessness. Items that don’t have a designated home end up as squatters. If, in your efforts to declutter your home office, you find yourself with a pile of potential squatters, ***go back to the purging stage. ***

Utilize Vertical Storage

Utilize tall cabinets and bookcases in order to take advantage of every inch of available space. Consider solutions like tall furniture, wall shelves, cabinetry, wall-mounted storage, cork boards, magnetic boards, and peg boards.

CONTROL CABLES
For starters, you will want to think about furniture placement. Any item that will house electronics should obviously be placed as close as possible to an outlet. This will be safer and will also help to hide the cords.

All sorts of cable control devices are available from channels, to wraps, to clips, to boxes and more. Whether you decide to invest in cable control gear or create your own, it’s a good idea to label your cables.

CREATE A FILING SYSTEM
To truly declutter your home office you need to have a functional filing system that allows you to find or file any piece of paper in 30 seconds. Consider creating two different systems: long term and short term. Look out for an additional post dedicated solely to filing systems.

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DO YOU DARE TO DECLUTTER? Do you accept this challenge???