How To Organize Your Desk

Here’s what my desk looked like before a very much needed intervention:

Do you see those cords under there? AHHHHHHHHHH! Scary.

Okay, now. Time to organize.

1) Clear It Off – I took everything off of my desk (except the monitor, mouse, speakers and phone). I just put it all in a big pile on the floor. It was not a pretty sight. Then I wiped off the desk and everything that was still on it. There we go, nice and clean.

2) Make Piles – I had 4 piles when organizing all of the stuff from my desk: garbage, recycling, belongs somewhere else, put back on desk. That’s it. Easy peasy. It took me about 20 minutes to go through everything and put it in it’s proper pile.

3) New System – Instead of just putting everything back where it originally was, I thought about a new system that would work well for me. I thought about the items that absolutely needed to be on my desk and the only thing I could think of was pens and scrap paper and the answer was surprising – nothing. I didn’t need ANYTHING put on my desk (I did keep my pens though).

So where was I going to put my pens, scrap paper, envelopes, bills to pay and other odds an ends? Good question. I took a walk around the house to look for inspiration when I noticed a big plastic storage unit housing a few toys in Elliott’s room. It was perfect, so I stole it. Elliott didn’t mind, I promise.

This storage unit has 5 drawers. Plenty of storage for my office supplies. Here’s what I put into the storage unit:

Drawer 1 – Desk Supplies (scrap paper and some odds and ends for me like hand lotion and lip gloss).
Drawer 2 – Desk Supplies (highlighters, stapler, tape, paperclips & thumbtacks, and some small notebooks).
Drawer 3 – Coupons To File
Drawer 4 – Envelopes & Stamps (I go through lots of these for mail in rebates and coupon trading, so I needed a drawer just for them!)
Drawer 5 – Printer Paper
On Top – Home Management Binder, Small Bin With Receipts ( to be added to the monthly budget once a week).

Take a look at my sexy new storage unit:

4) Organize The Cords I have 3 nemesises. Paper, coupons and cords… ugly, ugly cords! My desk was the worst. I hated looking under my desk to see a jumbled mess of cords, so I decided to organize those as well. I sat there staring at them for a good 10 minutes before I came up with a solution – hooks!

There are many organizing solutions for this issue, but many of them included drilling into the wall or my desk, and I didn’t feel like doing that. I also didn’t feel like buying anything, so I thought about what I could do using items I already had at home.

I had 2 small white hooks (the kind that stick to the wall) that were collecting dust in the basement, so I stuck those to the wall under my desk and simply hung the wires on those – and it worked. Hoorah!

I hung the hooks on the far right under my desk, so that they would be right behind my computer. The harder the cords are to see, the better.

In an attempt to keep my cords organized, even if they fell off the hook, I also made little labels to wrap around each cord, writing what the cord was for. Now, if I ever need to unplug something specific, I just have to look for the correct label.

Finally, I tucked any loose cords behind the computer and then stood back and admired my work. Sure, it could have been better if I had some money to spend, but it was good enough for me – and it was free!

Here’s what my organized desk looks like now: