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One of the things I kind of freaked out about when I first started working from home was the lack of space. I think I took for granted exactly how much storage space I had in my old office and so organizing my desk, which had no draws, soon became the top of my priority list.
So what is the best way to organize a desk without drawers, after all a desk is likely going to be the main item of furniture us remote workers own, and are there any tricks you can do on a daily basis to help organize your stuff better? Keep reading to find out more!
(Just a heads up a lot of people reading my blog are in the process of designing their own home office. If you want to save some of the painstaking time I did in designing my office, you can find my recommended products here)
Invest in a standing desk
I know what you’re thinking, why invest in another desk? After All isn’t the whole point to have a desk without any storage space.
Well the truth of the matter is that standing desks can be an incredible way to not only stay healthy whilst you work, when in standing mode your desk will also have a lot more storage space to put underneath it.
So what are the best standing desks you can invest in? Luckily for you I’m no stranger to these having worked from home for a while and so you can see my recommended standing office desk here.
Not only is the Flexispot super customizable, the table top can be adjusted for your needs giving you the benefit of both more table room but the advantages of lower storage space as well.
Split your desks in thirds
One trick I love to do when I have limited desk space and no storage space, is splitting my desk in third.
The general rule I stick to is I use one third of my daily activities, usually for laptop space.
I then use one third of the desk space for items that I use quite frequently so things like pens, folders or any files I need and then finally use the end of the desk for longer items that might not be used frequently.
It’s worth noting that with these longer term items I keep them in a bed box that sits nicely at the end of my desk.
This tip is particularly good if you have a larger desktop that has enough room in each of it;s thirds to house your items.
Organize your desk by tasks
Similar to the rule of thirds I talked about earlier, organizing your desktop by task can be another great way to use your desk space if you are tight on storage.
So how does this work?
Make a list of all the tasks you do on a day to day basis from your home office.
Then make a list of all the equipment you need.
Once this is done you will find that there are only a set number of items you likely use 90% of the time and they should easily be able to fit on your desk.
Consider a laptop stand
Laptops can take up a lot of room.
Pair this up with the fact that most desktops only have one level and you might find yourself running out of space sooner rather than later.
Now whilst standing desks can be a good option they do sometimes tend to be on the pricier side.
Enter laptops standing desk converters.
These are fantastic as they allow you to save space and have additional storage whilst converting your desk into a standing desk and reducing any eye train you might get from a traditional desk.
So what are the best standing desk converters or laptop stands to invest in?
Luckily`I’ve come up with recommendations below for both:
Now if your interesting in learning a little more about what to look out for in both,I’ve written a few posts that you might like which you can also check out below:
- How much weight can a standing desk converter hold
- How Much Does A Standing Desk Converter Cost?
- How much weight can your office desk hold?
Consider self storage
So one thing a lot of people won’t tell you about if you don’t have a lot of room to maneuver in is to invest in self storage.
There is only so much adapting you can do to your office desk, especially if you have large items taking up a lot of room when you work remotely.
Using self storage providers is relatively cheap these days and can be a great way of cleaning out your home office to make more room for any essential items you might need to store.
Scan your papers into the cloud
Most organizations nowadays are moving towards paperless/green policies.
So why not bring the same mindset to your home office as well.
Look around your home office when you get the chance and you will likely find that there are a bunch of loose papers lying around that you don’t really use on a daily basis.
You can even add junk or sales letters to this that you are interested in but don’t want to keep an eye on.
Simply scan them into your laptop or even better, take a picture of the letter on your phone and create a folder of your papers and letters and you will find yourself saving a bunch of space.
Use your walls
So if you have no storage space on your desk… look to your walls.
With more and more of us moving into apartments people are looking for different and innovative ways to store their items and so wall furniture is becoming more and more popular.
They require very little floor space and can easily add to your room.
My personal favorite has to be ZGO Wall Storage which you can pick up on Amazon here.
Now one item of storage people don’t tend to look for extra storage would be bookshelves and bed boxes that you can put outside your home office.
Invest in dividers and trays
Finding room in a desk when you have no draws for storage can be tough… especially when you have a blank tabletop staring right in front of you.
One of the best things you can do is divide up your tabletop into more manageable spots.
This can be done by using things like dividers and trays. Ikea do some great trays that I like to use to split up my chargers, headphones and other small things which only take up a little bit of my desktop space.
Dividers and trays are both relatively cheap ways of organising your desk while finding additional storage space
Get a larger desktop
So you will have to excuse me for being a little bit of a captain obvious here, but one of the reasons why a lot of us don’t have any storage space in our office desks is because we just don’t have a large enough desk space.
Most desktops are around 120cm long however adding even 30cm to this can make a huge difference.
I went from a 80cm desktop to a 130cm desktop and so trust me when I say a desktop with more space can make a huge difference.
My recommendation for standard sitting office desks can be found here.
Clean out what you don’t need
So a massive problem I have when working from home is just not cleaning my home office out enough.
Anyone in the same boat as me knows how easy it is for your office to accumulate dirt ,grime as well as unnecessary junk.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to run through a purge every 6 months to clean out your office to leave more room on your desk.
A direct example I can think of is when I was living with my parents, my office desk soon accumulated old receipts, loose change as well as other things that I didn’t need. Having a big clean out every 6 months will definitely give you peace of mind and make sure you don;t become a hoarder.
Only use your desk for your daily duties
Another great tip I learned when working from home is to use your drawerless desk only for your daily duties.
Anything you might need your desk for in the future i.e next week or the week after, keep it off there.
Not only will it keep you focused to stick with the task at hand, it will also leave more room on your desktop to store items you actually need.
Anyone who has watched The Home Edit on Netflix knows all about touch access and this follows the same principle.
If you don’t use it on a daily basis, keep it away from your reach!
Look for the best location for your desk
So if your desk lacks draws and additional storage, where you store your desk is one of the most important things you can do.
Try to point your desk towards a corner to open up the space in your room.
Doing this will make it easier to put up wall shelves and add additional storage when your desk has none.
Consider moving your desk to a room with fewer items and you’ll be surprised how much piece of mind this will give you.
Clean your desk at the end of the day
So we talked about doing a purge every 6 months but you should also make a note to clean up your office desk every day.
Spend 5 minutes getting your desk setup for the next day.
Wiping your desk down and de-dusting will help massively in winning the battle for your storage space.
It nips any bad habits like leaving unwanted rubbish in the bud.
Make organizing your desk part of your routine
Cleaning your desk is all well and good but let’s face it, a lot of us who work remotely aren’t exactly the best when it comes to time management, with a lot of us overworking by more than 16.9 days then our counterparts.
As such cleaning as well as other household chores fall by the wayside.
Instead, try to schedule in your cleaning time so it becomes a part of your routine.
I mentioned this earlier but one of the best things to do would be to wipe your desk down and give it a quick clean out at the end of every day.
Doing so will keep you organized and clean the days ahead!
Keep a bin next to you
Another major thing anyone who lacks storage space is just to keep a bin near your desk.
Similar to the last few points this will keep your desk organized and tidy as you go allowing you to get rid of any items that usually live on your desk immediately.
Invest in a mirror
So this point is less about making more storage space and more about making your space seem bigger.
A solid mirror can definitely help make your home office seem double the size.
This will help give the illusion that you have more room to move around in, helping you stay focused as the day goes on.
Invest in a desk organizer
If you’re anything like me you have a bunch of loose pens, usb sticks and other small items lying around on your desk getting in the way and playing on your mind.
The single best thing you can do to help solve this would be to invest in a desk organizer.
Doing so will help you group up these small items together, which you can theln allocate to a small part of your desk.
My recommendation would have to be Simple Housewares desk organizer, which you can use to store pens, pencils, calculators and even has a section for folders. You can grab it from Amazon here.
Look into side rails
So we talked about using the walls in front of your desk for storage but if you have any space to your sides consider looking into side organizers.
These are great for storing thighs like folders and you can even maximize your space even further by using them on the back of doors.
My recommendation for this would have to be Simple Housewares door storage which you can get on Amazon here.
What I love about this is that you can store up your items on the back of your door meaning ther eis no way this will eat into your work space.
Alternative space saving solutions like side rails and office shelves can be two of the best ways to maximise your space when you don’t have storage in your desk.
Write notes on a pad not a sticky note
So if you decide that you still have newspapers in your office and don’t want to go paperless, look into investing in anote pad.
This will allow you to keep all your notes in one document instead of using things like sticky notes scraps of paper which can easily take over your work space.
Look at keyboard stands
This tip is great for anyone who has an old school desktop computer.
A keyboard stand can add a tiny bit of layering to your desktop and the underside can be a great way of storing things like pens, usb sticks and other small items underneath it.
My personal recommendation would have to be the Nat-Hom keyboard stand which is super lightweight and goes with any room, you can grab it on Amazon here.
Better yet, make even more room with one of the standing desk converters I talked about earlier on for even more bottom space if your desk is big enough, you can read up more about them here.
Remove your personal items from your desk
As tempting as it is to keep your wallet, phone and keys on your desk when you’re not using them, try to avoid doing so if you’re tight on space.
Instead, keep them in a different room or a jacket pocket which is great if your more of an extrovert then I am.
Now one of the other things you should always do is remove any other dirty items from your desk when you’re done, I think cups of water, old cans of food bowls that you have used when you’re working.
Get rid of them, or better yet, eat in a different room.
How to organize a desk without drawers
So hopefully now you know a few of the tricks and tips I use to help you organize a desk without drawers.
Organization is one of those things not enough of us pay attention to when we first start working from home but following even a handful of the above steps, will have a huge impact on your room.
On top of this, having great organization in every aspect of your life can lead you to being more productive and happier when you work
Finally a lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.
The content on this on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decades worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.