Storage and Cleaning Tips for a More Organized Work Space

Creating a comfortable work environment for yourself is one of the best things you can do to increase your productivity. While a cluttered desk is not necessarily a sign of a cluttered mind, too much distraction can make it difficult for you to focus on the task at hand.

A clean and well-organized workspace is a pleasant place to be, which means you’ll enjoy your time at work more. Your workspace should also be functional, arranged and organized in a way that makes your workflow logical.

This article walks you through the essential steps to cleaning and organizing your workspace and keeping it harmonious to encourage your best possible workflow.

Visualize Your Ideal Work Environment

It can be tempting to browse Pinterest for office organization ideas hoping that someone’s beautiful office will inspire you to keep yours tidy. Unfortunately, even the most curated idea board isn’t going to motivate you to keep your space tidy if it doesn’t work for you.

The things that make those offices beautiful may not be functional in your space or practical for the kind of work that you do. That’s why you must take a moment to reflect on what you want your office to do for you. Creating a personalized vision will help you to set up a functional office that makes your work easier and more enjoyable.

Categorize Work Tasks Into Zones 

Consider the primary tasks you do for your work from one day to the next. Then, arrange your office in zones that allow you to complete those tasks efficiently. Consider the supplies you need to do those tasks and plan to have them in their respective zones.

For example, if your work involves a lot of time spent at the computer, designate a portion of your desk for computer use. If you print or mail a lot of documents, establish a printing station with your printer, paper, inks, envelopes, and stamps. 

Some jobs require a lot of reading and research out of physical books. A reading station with bookshelves, a comfortable place to sit, a reading lamp, and a pen and paper for note-taking will make reading much more enjoyable.

Aside from making your work more efficient, dividing your work tasks into zones will help you get into the right mindset for a particular task. When you sit down at your computer station, for example, your brain will begin to prepare for computer work, helping you stay present within the task at hand.

Clean and Organize

Once you have a concrete idea of what tasks you do regularly and the supplies required to do them, it’s time to organize those spaces. You first have to get rid of everything that doesn’t belong in your ideal office. Then you’ll find a home for everything that does belong.

Declutter Your WorkSpace

Gather up everything in your office - yes, everything! Pull all the random items out of your desk drawers. Take everything off your shelves, including your books. 

Chances are, you’ve accumulated a lot of unnecessary supplies. Maybe they were helpful to you at one point, but they don’t fit your workflow anymore. You won’t know what those things are until you’ve brought them out into the open and examined them.

Throw away or relocate anything you don’t use at all, as well as trash. Sort what’s left by zone, putting the necessary supplies for a particular task in that task’s zone. Note that you’re not putting any of the supplies away yet. Right now, just focus on getting them to the correct zone.

Some things are notorious for cluttering up offices. In particular, you’ll want to tackle:

• Paper. Organize all your paper into piles. Pull out any to-do lists so that you can compile them into one master list later. Put receipts in an envelope and store them in a file folder. Throw away anything you have a copy of on your computer, unless you’ll need to print it again later.

• Pens. Pens. You probably have more pens on, around, and on top of your desk than you could ever use. A lot of them may be out of ink anyway. Gather them all and scribble with them on a scrap piece of paper. Throw out any pens that don’t work and any that you don’t enjoy using.

• Personal items. In an office, people tend to accumulate clothing and other personal items from home. When your office is in your home, however, this clutter can start to take over. Gather any clothes (dirty or clean) and take them out of the office. Take home (or remove from your office) anything that doesn’t have to do with your work.

Deep Clean Your Workspace

Wipe down your desk with a disinfecting solution or cloth, then dust your shelves and any other visibly dirty surfaces. You’ll want to pay close attention to your keyboard, which accumulates dust, skin cells, food, and germs over time. Shake it upside down, then use a compressed air canister, special putty, or a folded sticky note to get any leftover dirt between the keys.

Consider your work surface and how you can keep it clean once you’ve wiped it down. If you spend a lot of time at your desk, a desk blotter or other pad can keep your fingerprints off the surface. Blotters are especially helpful for keeping clear acrylic or glass desktops clean, which can be particularly frustrating.

Sweep or vacuum your floor, taking care to get into the corners where your furniture meets the floor. The decluttering process tends to leave a lot of debris on the floor. No matter how well you organize your workspace, it won’t feel truly clean until you’ve swept up all the mess. While you’ve got the vacuum, use the hose to suck out any dirt from inside your desk drawers.

Give Everything a Place

Once you’ve decluttered, cleaned, and disinfected your workspace, you can get started organizing what’s left. Keeping your office organized is going to require you to put things away regularly. Choose a home for every single item that you keep as you put things back. 

For some items, this is a simple task. Your computer’s home is on your desk, and if you’ve divided your office into zones, your printer’s home is in your printing zone. Books go on the bookshelf, and if you really want to keep your office tidy, that means all of the books. As cute as a pile of books may look sitting on the corner of your desk, it’s still clutter.

Other items might not be quite so simple to give homes to. For example, your top drawer might be home to your pens, paper clips, sticky notes, and a calculator. To avoid a mess, put smaller containers inside the drawer to keep things separate. You can buy a dedicated organizer if you’d like, but an old cell phone box (both the top and bottom) works just as well.

Make sure to find homes for items that tend to move around your office a lot, too. Things like staplers, sticky notes, and tape dispensers tend to start at one corner of your desk and end up scattered in completely different places over time. If you give them a home in a drawer or on a shelf instead, your desk will look tidier and you’ll be more likely to keep them there.

Plan to Stay Organized

Having a clean and organized office will make you more efficient and your workday more enjoyable, but only as long as you keep it that way. For some people, this is harder than getting it organized in the first place. Here are a few tips to make it easier. 

Don’t Eat At Your Desk

It can be tempting to sit down at your desk on your lunch break to get a little extra work done. This temptation is even greater when your office is in your home and the line between home and workspace is so blurry. But eating food at your desk will make it that much harder to keep your office clean.

For one thing, your keyboard and mouse are covered in germs, and eating while you’re working means you’re putting those germs in your mouth. Plus, you’re getting crumbs, sauces, and all sorts of other ickiness all over your computer, and managing that can make work unpleasant.

You also have to be sure to pick up and throw away your various takeout containers or take your dishes back to the kitchen. Save yourself the headache and take your lunch break in another room, at least. You should take a mental break from work while eating anyway.

Clean Every Day

This may sound like overkill, but daily cleaning is the best thing you can do if you want to keep your office clean and tidy. Set aside ten minutes at the end of your workday to give your whole space a reset. Put all of your items back in their homes, and if your desk is visibly dirty, wipe it down.

If it doesn’t take you ten minutes to get it done, great! You just bought yourself a few more minutes at the end of your day. Either way, you’ll have a tidy office to get started on the next day, and the day after that.

Decluttering tasks you must do if you want to sell your home

Decluttering your home is something you should do every so often. That is the best way to ensure you live in a healthy and comfortable environment. However, when you decide to put your home on the market and organize several open-house events, your home must look amazing. After all, that is the way to sell it quickly and for the best possible price. But, where does one start when it comes to selling a house or an apartment? Well, the first step is always decluttering. Once you declutter, cleaning and staging your home for sale will be much easier. Thus, today, we will teach you about all the decluttering tasks you must do if you want to sell your home. 

The Hallway

When it comes to selling homes, the first impression is all that counts (well, almost all). So, if you want to leave the best possible first impression, make sure your hallway is clean and organized. The hallway is the first place all the potential buyers will see, and if it's cluttered, messy, and dirty, they will not like it. Thus, start decluttering it as soon as possible.

First, sort through everything - coats, jackets, accessories, shoes, paperwork, kid's and pet's stuff, etc. Leave only the items you wear every day and get rid of everything else. Of course, 'getting rid of' does not mean 'throwing away' - it means 'putting someplace else' or even 'donating' or 'selling.' Moreover, if possible, try to maximize the storage space in the hallway. Install good quality coat and shoe storage, under-the-stairs storage, hangers, etc. This will be a big plus when selling a home - all buyers appreciate a well-organized storage space!

The Living Room

The living room must always look welcoming and as comfortable as possible. Potential buyers must be able to envision themselves living there. So, the first and the most obvious way to declutter your living room is to get rid of excess furniture. If you have already found your new Connecticut home and are ready to move out yourself, let local professionals deal with this. Having fewer furniture pieces will instantly make your living room more organized, and of course, more spacious.

Then, try to depersonalize the living room! Many people think that this is an unnecessary step, but trust us, real estate agents swear by this. By depersonalizing the home's main rooms, such as the living room, you tell buyers that this home is ready for them; you encourage them to envision themselves living there. So, to do this, consider repainting the wall in a  neutral color, have the carpets professionally cleaned, remove all your personal items such as family photos, memorabilia, travel souvenirs, etc. 

The Kitchen and Dining Room 

The kitchen and dining room must also look their best when selling a home. After all, these two areas (and the bathroom) are the ones that will either make or break your sale. No buyer wants to invest a ton of time, energy, and money in upgrading these rooms. However, if you invest just a bit of your time, energy, and cash on decluttering the kitchen and dining room, you will not only be able to sell your home quickly and easily but also increase its value by up to 10%. 

When it comes to decluttering the dining room, we advise you to remove everything but the table and chairs. Make this room as spacious and as breathable as possible. Then, move onto the kitchen. It would be a good idea to have a couple of moving boxes by your side when decluttering this room. Put all the crockery, pots, pans, mugs, appliances, etc., that you plan on relocating anyway into these boxes. Be sure the work surfaces are entirely clutter-free and clean (including the horizontal and vertical ones, too - remove the magnets, the drawings, the paperwork, etc.). And, if possible, try to tidy up the drawers and cabinets as much as you can - yes, the buyers will peak. 

The Bedrooms - Master and Kid's Rooms

As previously mentioned, if you have already found your new Connecticut home, you should go ahead and move out as many pieces of furniture and other personal household knick-knacks as you can. Your tiktokmoving.com movers can help you do this! But, if you still cannot move out, at least try to make these two rooms as presentable as possible. Of course, you cannot take out your personal items from there, but you can make them all organized and well-presented.

Keep all the clothing items nicely stacked and hung in the closet and wardrobe. And keep the accessories and other things inside some of those organizational boxes and bins. Of course, you already know that you should keep your beds made and other surfaces like nightstands, makeup tables, shelves, etc., clean. When it comes to your children's room, unfortunately, there is nothing you can do. Your kids will always play with the toys and books, and their rooms will always be chaotic. But, that is okay! A messy room equals happy kids.

The Bathroom – a Home to many Decluttering Tasks You Must Do if You Want to Sell Your Home

Ideally, you should present your bathroom as adequately taken care of over the years and as a place of relaxation. So, yes, this toom too must be decluttered. First, remove any unnecessary items you have in there - empty (or expired) toiletries, old rags, towels, and bathrobes you do not use anymore, old bathing sponges and loofahs, etc. Try to organize the shelves and drawers as much as you can too. All the potential buyers will open them to check how much space they offer. 

And, once you have finished decluttering the bathroom, we strongly advise you to stage it properly. If you do not know how to do that, do some browsing and find out DIY organization hacks for your bathroom. A couple of nicely folded towels, a scented candle, and a few new bathroom decorations can completely change the look of your bathroom and thus increase its value! 

The Bottom Line

As you can see, there are many decluttering tasks you must do if you want to sell your home. What you need to remember is that decluttering will not only help you sell faster but it will also ensure you move out more easily. In addition, having fewer items to transfer to your new home will make your relocation costs lower. So there are many benefits of decluttering and you should never neglect doing it.

7 DIY Organization Hacks for Your Home

Organizing your home can be tricky, but it can make your life 10 times easier. Clearing up the clutter alleviates stress. It will put you and your housemates at ease. Read on for some tips on how to hack home organization and storage.

1. Hang clipboards—hanging clipboards is a great way to keep track of important information. You can either buy different types of clipboards and get creative to make your own. 

2. Fridge magnets—if you don’t have fridge magnets, make some! Get creative, and try making your own out of bottle caps. You can also get a cute set from the store. Then, set up an organizational system for your magnets. It’s a great way to let everyone know what’s going on in the house, because everyone has to visit the kitchen at some point!

3. Repurpose tin cans—if you put some cute paper over a tin can, it can make for a great pencil or pen holder. It can also hold less obvious things, like flowers, scissors, or whatever fits best.

4. Food labels—you can make your own, or you can try out food label templates. There are different styles to choose from, ranging from vintage to minimalist. If you use a lot of bins or jars, you (and your guests) will be satisfied with this organizational system. 

5. Bread tags for cord organization—okay, hear this one out: write on old bread tags, and wrap them around cords. You’ll know exactly which cord goes where, and you won’t waste any more time unplugging and replugging each one to see what lamp it corresponds with.

6. Repurpose an old drawer for underbed storage—if you have a piece of furniture you don’t use anymore and you’re lacking bins, try taking it out and using it under a bed. Chances are, it’ll look nicer than a storage bin. If you need it to move more easily, try adding padding or wheels to the bottom.

7. A wine rack as a towel holder—if you roll up the towels correctly, they’ll fit perfectly on an old wine rack. It's a great way to get some extra storage, especially if your bathroom is a small space. 

Hopefully, you can use at least one of these to make your life a little easier. Now start storing!

Downsizing Your Home for Retirement: 6 Tips for Older Adults

For a comfortable retirement, you need a large amount of money saved. One of the most common ways older adults increase their savings is by downsizing their homes. Selling your home will most likely result in cash windfall, and a smaller home means lower monthly expenses. In addition, you’ll spend less on utility bills, renovations, and maintenance. If you haven’t paid off your current mortgage, a new home with a lower mortgage will free up space from your budget. All of these savings will add a large chunk to your retirement fund. 

If you’re nearing retirement and have concluded that downsizing is a great move for you, you want to do it right. You want to avoid many mistakes, such as accepting a low-ball offer for your home, keeping a piece of furniture that is too big, or not considering if you can age in place.

For people who already have a small house and can’t consider moving to a smaller one, doing essential updates for your old home and renting it out might be more advisable. Otherwise, we’ve listed our recommended practices for downsizing your home.

Take note of all the expenses

The point of downsizing is to save you money, but it doesn’t mean you won’t spend anything. There are a lot of fees you have to keep in mind if you want your downsizing to be smooth-sailing. 

• Moving to a new neighborhood means owing monthly home association fees. The more services and amenities the community offers, the higher the cost will be. 

• Preparing your house for the market means expenses, too. Repainting walls, installing new flooring, and other improvements mean you have to dish out some money.

• Keep in mind that home insurance won’t necessarily decrease if you move to a smaller home. The proximity of your new home to hazards can even make insurance premiums larger than before.

• Yes, you can sell your house without a realtor, but why would you? Hiring a real estate agent will take a lot of work off your hands and will speed up the process. Of course, real estate agents take commissions, and it’s an expense you have to take note of.

There are other expenses associated with downsizing. How much you will spend will vary from case to case. What’s important to remember is that keeping track of your expenses is the first step to spending money wisely. 

Decide on the retirement lifestyle you want

A lot about downsizing will depend on what kind of retirement you want to have. The financial goal you have to set for yourself should be in accordance with the costs of your retirement lifestyle. Having these well thought out before making any moves will allow you to understand better how you can achieve the retirement you want. 

Be realistic

Selling the home you’ve lived in for most of your life, along with all the other possessions, is not easy but might be necessary for your retirement goal. You might feel like putting a hefty price tag on your house because of the sentimental value you’ve given it, but that would only make it hard for you to sell it. This is where real estate agents come in. They will provide you with honest answers regarding your house’s value.

Donate or sell unnecessary items

You probably have plenty of items in your current house that you just left gathering dust in your basement. While you might not want to let go of them due to sentimental value, selling them off or donating them will free up space and make moving a lot easier. If you have stuff that are still in good condition, you can open a garage sale or list them in Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist to get rid of them and turn a profit. You can also just donate them to charities which will make sure someone will benefit from them.

Manage your emotions

Downsizing isn’t just a financial challenge — it can also stir up negative emotions such as sadness, anxiety, and grief. The thought of letting go of your home where you made a lot of special memories and going through all the objects that will remind you of them are likely to put you in a hurricane of emotions.

If you find yourself going through emotional turmoil while downsizing, it’s advisable to talk to your friends or relatives that you trust. They can help you go through these emotions and put you in a better state. If, by any chance, you don’t have anyone to speak to, consider getting professional help. You don’t need to be mentally ill to seek therapy.  

Plan for a new routine

Moving to a smaller home might mean having an entirely new routine, especially if you’re moving far from your previous neighborhood. Before moving, plan a new routine by researching cafes you can go to, clubs you can join, or other activities you can get involved in within your soon-to-be neighborhood. Having a new routine planned will save you time trying to adapt to your new community. 

Downsizing is a big retirement move that many people would have to consider when the time comes. It isn’t an easy task, and it requires a lot of planning. If you’re downsizing, give time to think about it thoroughly so you can spot anything that might become a problem. Consider all the expenses, decide on a retirement lifestyle, be realistic, sell unwanted items, manage your emotions, and prepare for a new routine. These aren’t the end-all and be-all of downsizing tips, but they will go a long way in making the move successful.