This summer I had the privilege of working with my very own mama to restructure, organize & refresh her home office. My parents are self employed empty nesters who still live in our beloved childhood home. It’s a 5 bedroom beauty that my mom has faithfully updated over the 32 years that they have lived there. But with all of the kids out of the house, this summer they decided to improve the overall function of their home. My dad decided it was time to move his office to the main floor nanny suite and my mom was ready to take over one of the bigger bedrooms upstairs for both her office and a personal space to retreat.

You may have a home office already or would really love one. A home office doesn’t require it’s own room but could be created within the kitchen, a flex room or against a wall in a bonus room. 

Whether you are looking to create your very own home office space or even a work space for your kids to do crafts and complete their homework, these 6 tips will help you to create an organized, functional and refreshed workspace just for you or for the whole family: 

1.RELOCATE ITEMS THAT DON’T BELONG

Mom’s office had become a bit of a “dumping ground” over the years. Her previous office housed a desk, clothing racks for a side business, a treadmill, storage for kitchen appliances and a craft/toy area for the grandkids. It felt cluttered and was serving a few too many purposes.

Original Office Space BEFORE: 

  • We started by re-locating items that simply did not belong in this space: the treadmill went down to the basement with the rest of the exercise equipment, seldom used kitchen appliances were placed in the basement storage room and the clothing was moved to an upstairs bedroom closet.

Upstairs Bedroom BEFORE: 

2. SORT & SIMPLIFY

We completely emptied mom’s desk and storage cabinets and sorted like items in piles. We soon discovered that she had a pretty impressive pen collection going on and had also acquired 3 staple removers, 4 hole punchers and about 20 small half used notebooks over the years.

  • When you sort like items, you can easily choose only the best, favourite or necessary items to keep in each category. The other items can be placed in one of 3 piles: garbage, donate or sell. This simplifying process puts clutter in its place and makes putting your office back together a joyful and exciting experience rather than a frustrating and overwhelming one.

Progress: 

3. CONTAIN LIKE ITEMS BY USING BINS, FOLDERS & DRAWER ORGANIZERS

If small supplies are left loose in a drawer, it will only take a hot minute for them to become a cluttered mess.

  • Measure your desk or cabinet drawers twice and then purchase a simple drawer organizer to keep pens, erasers, paper clips and other small items in their place. Use the top drawer of your desk for these go to tools that you will be using on a regular basis.
  • Envelopes, stamps, cards and stamps can also be contained within adjustable drawer organizers.
  • Keep printer paper in a magazine folder 

4. CREATE FUNCTIONAL SYSTEMS

Here are a few ways to solve common problems that arise in a workspace:

  • If you love writing in a notebook, consider purchasing one with a pretty cover and have it sit in view on your desk. All notes, ideas, brain dumps and whatever else your heart desires can go into this notebook. Use it start to finish and then replace it with a new one. This little trick will save you from having small papers everywhere with random notes on them and will keep everything you are recording in this season in one place.
  • All new contacts should be inputed directly into your phone to avoid the “where did that paper go?” dilemma
  • incorporate an inbox for “do now” items
  • set up a filing system to house expense records, important receipts and tax information. Having all of these items collected in one place over the year will make doing taxes a breeze.
  • My mom also decided to replace a few older storage cabinets with one beautiful customized Pax wardrobe from IKEA. If budget allows, I highly recommend this system to implement beautiful and useful closed storage in your work space.

5. LESS IS MORE

Having a clear and clean space to work allows creativity to flow and reduces stress levels. Only keep the necessities such as your daily planner, a pretty magazine file with ongoing work and your laptop on your desk surface. I also recommend purchasing a nice desk organizer to house your iPad, cell phone, seasonal notebook and any other items that you love and use daily.

6. COMBINE OLD AND NEW

When we first sat down to discuss the vision for my mom’s new office space, she expressed her deep desire to incorporate some of her most treasured heirlooms. This room was not only to serve as a workplace but as a private retreat for her to escape to, to read her favourite books, journal and reflect. We strategically decided to mix old with new.

We used my Oma’s beautiful anitique armchair as a starting point for the overall design and to anchor a small reading nook.

We incorporated both my Baba’s clock and my Opa’s office chair as well as some of my mom’s childhood treasures, like her very first English dictionary.

We also brought some fresh new pieces into the space like the new GALT office chair and beautiful ZAK end table from Structube for her printer to sit on.

We added in a new area rug to warm up the space and installed gorgeous custom shelving to display favourite items.

I hope you have found this office organization & refresh post both inspiring and useful!

Taking some time to declutter and create a functional and personalized work place will improve your overall well being and keep you on top of your work demands! It will offer the perfect platform for creativity and productivity to flow. 

Snap a picture and add hashtag #OWKoffice on your facebook or instagram to encourage other families in our OWK community!

What is a must have item that helps you to keep your office both organized and a place that brings you joy? Share in the comment section below!