Clean and Organized Environment for A Productive Year

Some feel that working in a “messy organized” space is how they get things done. Saying they know where everything is, well, it just irritates my clean freak tendencies. Having a clean and well-organized area is the best way to get things done and know where everything is at any given time. At least for me.

Why Clean and Organized

There is nothing better than walking into a space. You know you don’t have to do anything other than sit (or stand) and get to work. No moving things around, finding space for something you don’t know what to do with (because we all have those things), or just the defeated feeling of walking into a messy space.

Have you ever gone away for a while (whether it’s just going to work or a vacation), and returned to a house that’s a mess? That feeling of utter dread and disappointment that you feel. You now realize you need to clean up when you get home. That is the feeling we are trying to avoid in our spaces, hence staying organized and clean.

How to Keep Your Space Clean and Organized

It’s never easy to keep spaces clean and organized. Especially if you live with other people or pets. If you have kids like mine, the office is a place to put anything they don’t know what to do with (or things they just don’t want to put away.) As with any other space in your home, the dining room table could become a catch-all or the kitchen island.

There are always spaces that tend to catch all the things. Those things that you or someone else just isn’t quite sure what to do with yet. So, they get piled up until someone finally gets tired of looking at the space and cleans it up.

Now, don’t get me wrong, we were like that for many years. In fact, that was a daily occurrence in my house growing up. We never ate at our dining room table because it was always full of stuff. You tend to change your tendencies as you grow. You strive to have your home the way you want it, not that of others. We use our table daily and not for storage!

Step One: Analyzing the Space

This first step is important. You need to see the space for what it is and know exactly what you want your space to be used for. Of course, if your space is a kitchen or living room. It’s pretty obvious what it will be used for. The thing here is, what do you want to keep in these spaces.

If you continue allowing things that don’t belong in the space to settle there, you’ll continue the vicious cycle you’re trying to break. So think really hard about what you want within the space and what needs to leave.

Step 2: Organize the Space

Whether you need to remove everything from the room and put everything back in one piece at a time (this is great if you plan to rearrange anything, but that’s for another post) or you do it while everything is still in the space; the items in your space should have a spot where they will always be when not in use.

Step 3: Everything has a Home

This may seem like another obvious thing, yet you’ll find things that honestly don’t have a specified home where you put them after each use. Take a look around and see if there is anything that needs a home and find one. Make sure you let others know where its home now is (at least you know you’ve told them) and it can go back there after each use.

No matter what room you’re in, you know where basic things go and they return there when their use is complete for the day. All things should have a home to go back to once their use for the day is complete.

Step 4: Create a Destination Basket

This can be anything you would like, a basket, a bucket, a laundry basket, or a box. Something you can set in a corner or next to the door for things that migrate into your office, that then need to migrate back out.

There really is no way for you to keep things from ending up on your desk or in your office space when someone insists they don’t know where it goes or they “thought” it goes in there. This way you have a way to keep your space organized and things that don’t belong will also have a temporary home that doesn’t interfere with your work.

Your Travel Space

Even while being away from home, whether at a cafe, hotel, park, etc. there are things you can do to stay organized. If you’ve seen any of our atmosphere posts, you know we talk about your office away from home in each one.

Organizing your bag, backpack, etc that you use to move your items from one place to another as you travel will make your life easier and more efficient when you’re not searching around for a specific item.

So here are some tips:

• Use the pockets your bag has to your advantage.
• Use organizer inserts to add more pockets if necessary.
• Keep your items in the same order/spot within your bag.
• Use removable organizers, such as bead organizers to keep cords and small items together and organized.

Your Space

This is your space or temporary space in the case of travel, so you can make it as organized as you want. Your preferences count in the space you’re in. Even if you’re in the area temporarily, you can keep your things and the surface organized and clean for you to get things done that you are there to work on.

We have a few guides you can take a look at for your use when working with your space. Take a look; we hope they help you achieve a clean, organized, and personalized area. Click the images below to receive your guide.

Final thoughts

In the end, the space you have whether temporary or permanent is yours to use and organize. How you organize and keep your things will depend on how and how often you use them, where you keep them, and what they are used for. How you organize and keep your space will affect how effective and productive you are as you move through your work or projects.

Keep that in mind as you organize your space; you’ll see that you’re more productive and even have more time since you’re not spending it looking all over for a specific item. Stay organized, work well, and be productive.