Mama, are you tired of drowning in the chaos of clutter? Whether you are a virtual assistant or other online business owner, you want to cut that chaos. Listen to today’s episode for my tips to simplify your desk, digitize paperwork, and personalize your space.
Let’s connect on Instagram! I’m @melyssamunday and @mamasmakingmore.
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As a work-from-home mama, have you ever found yourself in the middle of a mountain of papers, buried beneath office supplies, or desperately hunting for that one important document in the middle of chaos? Whether you are a virtual assistant or other online business owner, you want to cut that chaos. Keep reading for ways to get organized to increase your productivity and creativity.
Step one, take a deep breath and visualize your ideal workspace. Is it a sleek minimalist desk or a cozy creative corner? Imagine your desk as a blank canvas. Think about where you want supplies to go like pens, sticky notes, and paper clips, resources and important documents. Decide what storage you already have, and what types of storage you need to go buy from somewhere like the dollar store. Once you have all you need, start putting things where they belong, grouping items together.
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Now, envision your workspace as zones. Designate zones for specific activities: a pristine desk for focused work, a space for your computer, a shelf for your professional library, and drawers for concealed storage. Keep frequently used items within arm’s reach and assign a home for every single item. An organized desk is a happy desk. To conquer the overwhelming clutter, follow the “less is more” philosophy. Keep only the essentials on the surface – your laptop, a notebook, a plant or decoration to make you happy. for a touch of nature’s magic.
Tackle all the papers stacked on your desk. First determine what you just don’t need and recycle or shred them. If you have papers you can’t get rid of, can you digitize them? Scan and save in your google drive. Lastly, for papers you have to keep, be intentional about how you store them. I highly recommend that you avoid stacking papers on your desk or putting them in a horizontal file folder. Instead use a vertical staggered file folding system, that way you can see ALL of your file at a glance.
Don’t go for a sterile desk, let’s add some personality. Frame your favorite inspirational quotes or create a vision board that shows what you dare to dream. Infuse nature into your workspace with a potted plant (I have potted and orchids). If you like the woo, add a crystal or two.
Lastly, this is not a set it and forget it situation. Maintenance is key. Set aside regular “declutter dates” – be it weekly or monthly – in your calendar to keep things in check. Devote even 10-15 minutes each day to tidy up before you call it a day. A simple nightly ritual of clearing your desk signals to your brain that work is done and relaxation is on the horizon.
This is your ticket to an organized workspace where creativity flows, productivity soars, and stress can take a hike. Your transformed workspace is more than just a clutter-free zone; it’s your area for success.
Are we Insta friends?! I LOVE connecting there, voice DMs are super fun! I’m @melyssamunday and @mamasmakingmore.
Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Melyssa: Hi there. Mama, how the heck are you doing today? I am actually really good. We recently, as a family celebrated by youngest kiddos birthday. He turned 12. So it’s kind of a big year in our house because this is the last year where we have a kid kid. In about a year, we’re going to have only teenagers in the house, which sounds absolutely crazy, but it’s coming. Whether we like it or not.
[00:00:24] Melyssa: Today in our episode, I’m gonna wrap up the little mini series that I’m doing on your office workspace. And in episode 15, when I started, I talked all about how to get creative and to find your workspace because we don’t all have the luxury of having our own closed in, actual home office. I went over ways to creatively find those spaces, some examples. And then in episode 16, I went into how I upgraded my little workspace by creating a [00:01:00] wall that looks like a built-in without the budget of a built-in. I accomplished that by purchasing some cabinets from Ikea. And, um, I explained how we were able to get that specific look. So you can go back and check those two episodes out if you haven’t.
[00:01:15] Melyssa: For today’s little episode, I wanted to talk about bringing it all together and how to kind of make your workspace super functional and how to declutter it. And then to continue with that decluttering as you continue to work. I don’t know if you’re anything like me. Clutter is something that causes me a tremendous amount of anxiety. And for me, it comes out as like almost this paralysis of if I have too much clutter around me, I just shut down and I cannot get anything done and I don’t accomplish anything. I know for me, I am the most productive if I clear that clutter up and I try and work from a space that’s a little bit more streamlined and doesn’t cause me that anxiety.
[00:01:57] Melyssa: All right. So the first thing I want you to do is to look around your workspace [00:02:00] and take account of what you have out there. What is it that’s laying out on your desk that shouldn’t be what bins and organizational things do you already have and what is it that you need? What could you purchase from the dollar store or Target Walmart, any of those kind of stores? What could you get to help benefit your work space. To be able to have things go in a place. The goal is to have things that belong in a specific area and not just willy nilly out on your desk.
[00:02:33] Melyssa: Once you kind of evaluated that, then go out to the store and get the things that you need. Amazon’s also a good place to look. And this also includes things like your trays for paper, or if you need hanging folders. If you need additional, hanging storage, maybe on your wall, you need someplace where you can put hanging folders, those sorts of things. So just really evaluate that need of what it is that you’re [00:03:00] looking for with the goal of getting that desk as cleaned off as possible.
[00:03:05] Melyssa: Next, what I want you to do is I want you to take a look around now that you have everything and see where everything should go so that it flows best for you so that it’s within reach it’s within eyesight. And the things that you use the most are closest to you and things that you don’t need as the often are tucked away a little bit further.
[00:03:25] Melyssa: If you have a lot of papers on your desk, I want you to stop. And I want you to go through those papers. I want you to get rid of anything that you don’t need, anything that’s just not necessary. Get rid of. We all have those papers sitting on a desk that we don’t know why they’re there. They don’t need to be there. So get rid of them. If there’s anything that you can scan in or digitize, go ahead and do that because that’s going to get rid of that paperwork as well.
[00:03:49] Melyssa: You do not want to have just stacks and stacks of paper, because that just becomes a vicious cycle of adding more papers to it. And when they’re stacked up, you can’t really see what’s [00:04:00] there. Even if you have them in their own individual folders, you still don’t really know what’s there. So what I recommend I have hanging folder storage so that it’s vertical. All of my folders are all staggered. When I look at that vertical hanging storage folder. I don’t know why I’m having trouble saying that. I can see at a glance, every single folder that’s in there. Now, if I had had those stacked on my desk, I would not be able to tell you, but all is there. So I highly, highly recommend that you go ahead and do that as well.
[00:04:30] Melyssa: One recommendation you want to consider is whether you need different zones on your workspace, and that can consist of having your computer or your laptop in one space and then a cleared off space in a different zone where you’re going to be doing your writing, where you’re going to be doing your reading and things separate from whatever you need to be doing on your laptop.
[00:04:53] Melyssa: You also need to do what works best for you. If you’re someone who likes to label things and have [00:05:00] things very neat, then I highly encourage you to make it a little bit more fun for yourself. I got one of those label makers. Did I need one? No. Is it super duper fun? Yes. I love labeling things. My kids love labeling things. And for me, it just, it makes me feel like I’m more productive when my folders have professional looking labels on it.
[00:05:22] Melyssa: Now you can also add a little bit of your own personal flare. I’m not trying to say that you should have this sterile desk that’s completely organized and not fun at all. If you have little trinkets that you like, I think that it’s important to have things on your desk that you look at, that you like that bring you joy. I don’t have a ton of those things, because again, that makes me feel that cluttery filling. But I do have some things. I have little decorations on there that just make me happy. Don’t, feel like you need to have this total workspace that’s not fun and funky . Make the space your own and make it someplace that you really want to go and sit down and work out because that’s really the goal. You don’t want to dread sitting [00:06:00] down at your workspace. You want to be happy. You want it to bring you joy. You want it to be fun and you want it to be functional at the same time.
[00:06:06] Melyssa: Now, my last piece of advice for this is to go ahead with all that hard work. You don’t want that hard work to go down the wayside when you get busy and things get built up again and that clutter starts creeping back in. What I want you to do is actually schedule some time in your calendar. Whatever works for you, whether it’s a weekly thing a monthly thing, maybe it’s a daily thing. Maybe at the end of the day, you like to straighten up your desk, but keep that maintenance of that space. Cleared up, make sure that you are maintaining the space that you want to maintain.
[00:06:42] Melyssa: If you’re not doing that maintenance, it’s actually going to take you longer to get back to that space where you’re happy with your area. And so I just recommend having that little maintenance. We all know that maintenance is better than starting over from scratch. So just kind of keep it up, keep some pride in your workspace. I am going to [00:07:00] put a couple pictures of my workspace in the blog that’s connected to this podcast episode. So check that out if you’d like, and I would love to see your workspace. If you want to send me a picture, you can email it to me. You can send me a DM on Instagram. I am @melyssamunday or @mamasmakingmore. I am a huge fan of getting messages from you guys, especially voice messages.
[00:07:26] Melyssa: That’s all I’ve got for you today, and I will catch you in the next episode.