Trying to keep the home office simple now. Although the cat isn’t simple.

This is a quick snapshot of what my home office work area looks like now. It was previously quite a colluded mess of semi-organized stuff. I still have some of that stuff. Some of that stuff was donated so others could get some value from it.

Throughout my young personal and professional life, I’ve witnesses my fair share of cluttered offices. A few of the people are definite masters of their clutter. They can function well in what may be perceived as organized chaos to others. Others definitely come across as people who might be struggling with something. The kind of chaos in an office work space can be reflective of a person’s personal space. When I end up in chaotic offices, my natural train of thought tends to drift into how I could make the space work better for the person using it.

Those who are embracing minimalism at home, will start to bring it through the doors of their workplace. If you work at an office job and are commencing your purge to facilitate a minimalism merge, here are some considerations as you create this change.

1. Personalizing – Consider having only a small number of items that connect you to your personal life at your desk. It can be one or two family photos, or a particular gift you like to have on display.
2. Out of sight, kept in mind – Some colleagues I know will keep the writing instruments they use completely out of sight but within easy reach. Keep those commonly used items in a frequently used drawer for easy deployment.
3. Recycle, and do it daily – Many offices will have paper shredders and places to pile recycled paper. Keep on top of it. You may be one of the guilty parties who let’s everything pile up until a tower of paper ends up in multiple places.

You may be reading this and saying to yourself that you don’t care what your work space looks like. It’s where you make a living. It is where you might dream about doing something other than the work. That kind of frustration is understandable. Having a clear space physically often result in a clearer space mentally. It might make your work slightly more tolerable. Even for a slight bit of time.

@WriterDann